Andy Seuss Breaks Through for First Modified Victory

All season long, Andy Seuss has been knocking on the door of his first win in a Modified. He has had several good runs in the True Value Modified Racing Series, won several heat races and shown his strength through the year. But bad luck and Kirk Alexander have taken their toll on the 18-year-old’s chances for victory. Luck had dropped him out of a few events while Alexander has won a dozen races and not spread the wealth around much.

Seuss got to start the race on the front row after winning his heat race on Saturday.

“Les Hinkley won on the pole and he played a little game on the start. He bobbled, I went and then he checked up. The whole outside lane went, so they called it a bad start,” explained Seuss.

“We tried it again and ran with him for three laps, but I couldn’t get it done so I tucked in behind him. I waited and got a nose under him right when a caution came out. I had to restart second, but got him on the outside then and got by him. We did that and then checked out. We had about a quarter of a track on them.”

TVMRS rules require the most recent winner to start at the rear of the field, and that is what Alexander did. So by the time that Seuss got comfortable in the lead, Alexander had made it to the front and was ready to take it away. He did just that once, but only for a single lap.

Kirk got up to us. He got a nose ahead and led a lap and for about five laps he was right on our tail. Then the crew told me that I could go and I pulled away. It was smooth sailing from there.”

Beating Alexander is more important to Seuss than just beating the best in the business. It’s also meaningful because Seuss considers him to be a friend who has helped him throughout the season.

“He’s helped me a lot. His crew chief Greg has also been very nice to us. This wasn’t a race where he crashed out and someone won, it was a race where we beat him. I really, really took it easy at the beginning of

But Seuss had been paying attention the whole time and learned enough to do a little bit of dominating of his own Sunday in the DAV Memorial at Seekonk Speedway (MA). This time, Seuss held off Alexander to take the victory.

“It was actually a pretty easy race,” said Seuss. “We had finished third there before, but the rear end of the car was sliding around at the end and this time, it was easy to drive. The car was so good that it never bobbled. I never had to correct it. I was just cruising. I joked with my crew that my left arm hurt because I was driving it one handed the whole time.”

the race. I knew that he was coming and that I would need my tires to be there for that. Once he got to my bumper, I knew that I needed to drive it harder.”

Although Seuss’ race went easy, it was anything but easy getting to the starting grid. On Saturday in practice, the team discovered a leaky oil pump. A friend brought another pump down to Seekonk from their shop in New Hampshire to scavenge parts from. The team worked until 2am on Saturday to fix the problem and was back under the hood at 6am on Sunday. Seuss helped the team for most of that time – until they kicked him out of the pit to rest up for his role as a driver.

“They made me go to bed at 12:30 and let me sleep until eight in the morning. They didn’t want their driver to be falling asleep at the wheel.”

Now that he has proven himself as a winner in TVMRS, people are wondering when the young driver will make his next career step. Seuss isn’t worried about that yet though. He just wants to enjoy his victory.

“Everyone has asked me when am I going to try driving on the {NASCAR Whelen Modified] Tour and when I would drive a Busch North car since [car owner] Jerry [Morello] owns a team there, but I’ve said that I need to win at what I’m doing before I think about moving ahead. If this is a sign of things to come, it shows that we can be competitive. Now if we can win week in and week out, we can think about going to the next level.”

More immediate in Seuss future is the season ending TVMRS event at Lee USA Speedway on October 23rd. As the most recent winner in the series, Seuss will have to start at the rear of the field for that race, but he won’t mind. It’s for a very good reason.

For more information on Andy Seuss and his racing career, please contact Mike Twist at (207) 590-1786 and be sure to check out the all new www.andyseuss.net.