Andy Seuss traveled to the Thompson International Speedway on Thursday night, August 27th, with his family owned #70 modified. It wasn’t a typical race day, though, as the Seuss family was celebrating Andy’s father Steve’s 50th birthday.
At the end of the 75-lap event, Andy gave his father the best gift that he could ask for on that day, a feature win. The Hampstead, Hew Hampshire, driver topped 31 other True Value Modified Series competitors to pick up his first series victory of the 2009 campaign.
“That was pretty neat. I never had the chance to win on either of my parent’s birthdays. It was cool to give him that,” remarked Seuss of winning on his father’s birthday.
“It was funny. The race was originally supposed to be on my car owner Kevin Stewart’s birthday and it got rained out, so it was a present for both of them and they were both really excited. Now my mom says I’ve got to go back to Florida and win one near her birthday.”
The present was not easily acquired, though, for Seuss, with a spirited battle between many competitors on the high-banked, five-eighths mile speedway.
“We started sixth and picked them off one at a time. We had a pretty good race going with Rowin Pennink and he got penalized, but he came back up and battled again. Between myself, Stephen Masse and Rowan Pennink, we had a pretty good 3-way battle, kept swapping the lead a few times. I was pretty excited to come out on top.”
The victory comes at a prime time of the season, with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour going to Thompson this coming Thursday night, September 3rd…a racetrack that Andy Seuss loves to compete at.
“Thompson’s famous for big races. It’s probably the biggest race for the True Value Tour. It will also help us get our cars ready for the Whelen tour race this week, and hopefully we can use what we learned and be up front then.”
Saturday night, Seuss traveled to Caraway Speedway in Asheboro, North Carolina, and battled tough conditions throughout the afternoon during the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour event. The #47 Advance Auto Parts team worked hard on the car during practice.
“It was a trying day. We tried a lot of different stuff. We were the fastest car in practice, but then we noticed something was wrong with the car when we went through tech.”
Due to the NASCAR Southern Whelen Modified Tour rulebook, teams are not allowed to make any adjustments on the car after crossing the scales in tech without incurring a two-lap penalty. Because of this rule, Seuss qualified mid-pack for the 150-lap race. The team diagnosed that a shock had been misadjusted during the afternoon practice session, which caused the problems.
“We rode around until we could come and make the adjustments we needed to under the first caution. We were coming back through into the top eight and got dumped and came back up to finish third. If we didn’t have to use up our tires so much, I think we would’ve had a chance to win.”
Next up for the #70 family owned car is a return to the Thompson International Speedway, looking for a win in the New England Dodge Dealers 150 presented by Budweiser.
