The Scoop
MEET RYAN PAFFORD – THE ‘FLYIN FIRE CHIEF’
Posted on: Friday January 13, 2023
When he’s not racing, Ryan Pafford serves as the Fire Chief for Plymouth Fire & Rescue.
On race nights Ryan Pafford swaps out his fireman’s helmet for a racing helmet.
When he’s not piloting his northern sportmod around dirt ovals in northeastern Wisconsin, the 36-year-old from Kiel, Wisconsin serves as the fire chief for Plymouth Fire and Rescue.
Pafford’s racing career was launched serving as a pit crew member at a pair of racetracks at county fairgrounds which sadly no longer exist. He was introduced to the racing biz helping Jason Dyer and his family with their racing operation at the now defunct quarter-mile bullring at the Calumet County Fairgrounds in Chilton.
From there, his addiction to racing set in. “After I crewed for the Dyer family, they helped me build a four-cylinder racer that I competed with at Chilton, The Manitowoc County Expo (now also defunct) and also at Plymouth,” Pafford recalled.
Fire Chief Ryan Pafford
That race car they acquired was abandoned on a road ‘left for dead’ essentially. According to Pafford a friend’s mid-‘90’s Ford Escort broke down and stalled. Said friend exclaimed ‘whoever picks it up first can have it.’ Pafford and the Dyer’s jumped at the opportunity and picked the abandoned car up, installed a new fuel pump and began stripping it down. Hence, Pafford’s first race car was coming was built.
Pafford squared off in the four-cylinder division in 2005 and 2006. It was also in 2006 when the IMCA northern sportmod division was introduced to northeastern Wisconsin. “To help promote the division Scott Mullen and the Mullen family built a sportmod that was to be raffled off on Hall of Fame night at Shawano Speedway,” Pafford said. “Our family had some land in Shawano County, and I grew up as a spectator watching guys like Terry Anvelink, Pete Parker and Terry Casey race there in the ‘90s and into the 2000’s. It was some great late model racing back then. We loved it out there.”
Pafford purchased three, $20 raffle tickets while attending the races at Shawano one night – not giving any real thought that he had even a remote chance of winning the car. “I was actually helping pit for Brad Lubach one night at Plymouth when I got a phone call, and they told me that I had one both the car and a trailer as well,” Pafford recalled.
Initially Pafford thought the call from his buddy Matt Weber was a prank. “I hung up because I honestly thought he was joking,” Pafford said. “But then later that night somebody from the Shawano track called the track at Plymouth. Over the p.a. they announced that there was a message for me at the fair office.”
Pafford not only won the race car but also a brand-new open trailer courtesy of S and B Trailer Sales and Service. As fate would have it Pafford would only wind up racing his new prize-of-a-car twice that year. “We had run some hot laps at Chilton just so I could get some seat time to get used to running a front wheel drive car to a rear-wheel-drive car,” Pafford said. “We went for our first race at Oshkosh Speedzone and after a handful of laps we had a fire under the hood. We pulled off that night and went home.”
The final voyage for the prized racer was back at Shawano’s half-mile. “We found out after another couple of laps we dropped a gear and that ended our night,” Pafford explained. Pafford would later wind-up trading that sportmod to Jason Allen for a street stock Pafford admits he never was able to finish.
Pafford pulled the plug on his racing career and joined the Wisconsin Air National Guard.
After diving into basic training in 2007 Pafford was deployed to the Middle East in 2008 – continents away from his family and the racing scene. In addition to racing firefighting remained something Pafford had a passion for. New Holstein had an explorer’s program for firefighting that Pafford joined at 14. At 18 he was a full-time firefighter in Madison.
In 2020 Pafford continued to help pit for and even sponsored a pair of grand national drivers – Jeff and Jacob Muehlbauer. “It was actually my wife Jenny who made the comment one night that if we were going to be back at the track every weekend anyways, we may as well get our own race car,” Pafford said. “I was shocked she had said that as usually with some couples it goes the other way.”
With that blessing from his better half, a 2017 Madman chassis was purchased from Chad Vetting and Pafford’s racing career resumed in 2021. Last year Pafford raced weekly on Saturday nights at 141 Speedway in Francis Creek against perhaps the toughest weekly IMCA northern sportmod car counts in the nation. “141 is a real good track to test yourself at, no doubt,” Pafford pointed out. “It’s so hard to make an A main there every single week in most of the divisions there,” Pafford confessed.
After racing weekly at 141 Speedway in Francis Creek in 2022, Pafford plans a weekly campaign at Gravity Park USA in 2023. (danlewisphoto.net)
Last year Pafford also made a handful of appearances at Gravity Park USA in Chilton. “I love that place because in many ways it reminds me of the old fairgrounds racetrack,” Pafford said. “Although the shape of it is a little different you are almost in a full pitch going down the backstretch. We’re going to race at Gravity weekly on Friday nights and make some other appearances at 141, Plymouth Dirt Track and even a few Sundays up at Luxemburg in 2023.”
Pafford raced 24 nights two seasons ago and competed in 22 races in ’22. “We’d like to run between 20 to 30 nights total this season,” Pafford said. “I’d like to pick up a couple of heat race wins (he logged a heat win at Gravity Park his rookie season) and we’d like to qualify for the A main everywhere we go.”
Last season Pafford had to take a couple of weeks off after his car’s frame got bent after tangling with another car at Chilton. “These cars that the Mullen’s built are great and the Gracyalny family can straighten out a chassis for sure,” Pafford explained. “Scott Mullen built that first modified I had and this one I’m running now Brian (Mullen) put together.”
When he’s not racing Pafford serves as the Fire Chief for Plymouth Fire and Rescue. He’s the only full-time employee on the fire squad as the balance of his team of fire fighters all serve on a volunteer basis.
Pafford’s “Paff Daddy” racing team consists of family members including wife Jenny, sons Dade and Kaiden, daughter Kyla and other pit crew members Weston Pingel, Mason Becker, Kaiden Jochimsen and Dade Krings.
Pafford’s team of marketing partners includes The Gravel Pit Sports Bar, Altitude Roofing, Vetting’s Custom Rigs and Rides, Dinges Fire Company and Pieper Indoor Aire Care.