Andy Seuss Tries a North Carolina/New Hampshire Doubleheader

In the old days of Modified racing, it was nothing for teams to race in multiple places on one weekend – towing through the night to make the next show even if it was several states away. Modified heroes like Richie Evans and Jerry Cook won championships by doing just that. Ed Flemke even headed up a group known as the “Eastern Bandits,” who toured throughout the land chasing checkered flags.

These days, things like that aren’t nearly as common as racecars and teams become more specialized and the costs of traveling have gone through the roof. But occasionally, you’ll still see some of that old sprit shine through and that is exactly what the #70 Rockingham Boat/Manchester Urology team of Andy Seuss set out to do this weekend.

On Friday morning, Seuss’ team of family and friends realized that their racecar was ready to go for a race or two, so they decided on a whim to head to Saturday night’s NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour event at Caraway Speedway (NC). By Friday evening, they were loaded up and headed south from their New Hampshire shop.

“We did not plan on going down to Caraway until 11:00am on Friday,” said Seuss. “To convert the car to NASCAR rules, we had to change the body, change the headers, change the lead [weights] and a whole bunch of other stuff before we left. We also had real work to do. I did not get out of work [as a boat technician] until after 3:00 PM. A lot of the guys were not over there until 5:00 PM or so. We worked real hard and got the car ready.”

When they first got the Caraway, things looked bleak. Practice didn’t go so well.

“We got down there and we had some older tires that we had run down at Caraway in the spring,” said Seuss. “We were going to run them in practice. The tires were probably too old to be practicing on, so we did not get a really good feel for the car. We were really slow, especially compared to some of the laps of the other guys like Junior Miller and Tim Brown were putting down. We were kind of frustrated. My dad and the crew did an awesome job and made some good calls setting the car up for qualifying.”

Those calls really did pay off. In qualifying Seuss had the second-fastest time, but the team’s hope for a good finish came to an end when the car overheated on lap 56.

“The car was just a rocket ship. It turned right up on the bottom. It came up just a little short of the pole, but I never thought that I was going down to shoot for a NASCAR Whelen Modified South pole. We redrew third. I started there and was running third until Tim Brown and Burt Myers were getting into it a little bit. I tried to get around both of them and they came down on the track on me and I went back to fifth. That was fine with me, because I was really saving the car. This was one of the best cars that I have ever driven. That car was unbelievable. It is too bad that it overheated. We had to come in. The guys worked real hard.

“The overheating is now the second in a week with the new motor. We changed it. Joey Caraccia builds great engines and power plants and he has been working with us. We are thinking that there is something wrong with the cooling system in the car itself not the motor. We are going to through it this week and see what we can find. Then hopefully we will have it all set. “

Seuss finished 19th at Caraway.

“It was a shame that we did not get the finish we wanted. We were pleased with the way that the car handled and the impression that we left down South.”

But the weekend was only half over. The team was now focused on making it back to New Hampshire and running Sunday’s True Value Modified Racing Series event at Lee USA Speedway (NH).

The team drove overnight and the #70 hauler pulled into the pits at Lee Speedway just ahead of the planned heat races. The crew rolled the car out of the hauler and went to work getting the car ready for racing. Seuss had little time to rest since he was scheduled for the third heat race.

But before that race came around, the rain clouds did. The Lee event was rained out and rescheduled for Lee’s Oktoberfest weekend on October 21st-22nd.

To just be in the pits before the rains came was quite an accomplishment for the #70 team.

“I have a great group of dedicated guys,” said Seuss. “Only a few of us can drive the hauler. We had another chase vehicle with the other crew guys. They let me sleep the whole way down. They knew that I had to be focused for the race. I thank them for that. Coming home we were tired from the night before so there were more frequent shift changes. At one point we thought about stopping and sleeping, but we just couldn’t do that. I feel bad, but I pushed the guys and told them we really needed to keep going, and they agreed. Unfortunately, it was all for naught. We are really disappointed that we are not racing today.”

After such a busy weekend, what is in store next for the #70 team?

“We do not know when our next race is. We really enjoy running those Whelen South races. There is Hickory, North Carolina next weekend and we are planning on going to the Motor Mile because we ran there in the beginning of the year as well. And of course finish out the True Value points deal [The True Value Modifieds return to action on October 8th at Seekonk Speedway]. So we’ll find a place to race.“

For more information on Andy Seuss please contact Mike Twist at 207-590-1786 or (207) 499-2565 and be sure to check out Andy’s website at www.andyseuss.net