Oxford 250 Weekend Modified Victory Has Special Meaning to Andy Seuss
Driver Dedicates Victory to a Fallen Friend on the Day of His Memorial Services
Hampstead, NH — “If you are in the Northeast, the Oxford 250 is the place with all of the history,” said Andy Seuss of the short track racing classic that has been held every year since 1974 in Western Maine.
And while Seuss did not race in the 250 this season, the young New Hampshire driver was able to put his name in the history books on 250 weekend by winning its undercard race – Saturday night’s Modified Racing Series event at OPS. Although Seuss has gotten used to winning on the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour and in MRS competition, this wasn’t your typical victory.
“I really enjoy winning anywhere that there is a lot of history involved,” said Seuss. “I was real happy to win at South Boston and Myrtle Beach. The 250 weekend is so big. It meant a lot to me a few years ago to even just get the chance to run here. So to be able to win here is very special.”
The 250 weekend took on an even more important meaning to Seuss recently. He was working with close friend Jay Hull to build a car for the 2011 running of the prestigious Late Model race. It was Hull’s dream to field a 250 entry some day and he chose Seuss to be the driver for that fete. Sadly, Hull passed away recently and his memorial services were scheduled in New Hampshire for Saturday. Seuss wanted to attend those services, but decided winning in Hull’s memory would be an even bigger tribute to his fallen friend.
“One week ago, we lost a good friend in Jay Hull,” said Seuss. “This race was really important to him and it is just a perfect story to come here and win for him. I dedicated the race to him in victory lane and nothing that surreal has ever happened to me before. I thought about it a lot this week, but I didn’t want to get ahead of myself because winning is hard enough. Given the circumstances, it was even harder. I tried not to even think about it in the car until there were a few laps to go. It was really neat to be able to give him that victory. I wanted to pay my respects to Jay and in the end that’s what I was able to do by winning at Oxford.”
Finishing second behind Seuss was a car that he was very familiar with. Louie Mechalides took down the runner-up spot in a car that Seuss has previously raced, and even won with last summer in a MRS show at Thompson International Speedway (CT), for car owner Kevin Stuart.
“In reality, we also put our heart and soul into building that car,” Seuss said of Mechalides’ #85 Modified. “It was neat to see two cars that we put together finish one-two. Obviously, we wanted to come out ahead but I’m very glad to see them have a good run too. Kevin was real good to me in my career and I’m happy for him and his entire team.”
Seuss took the lead for good with 15 laps left in the race.
“We were conserving and we got pinched by lapped traffic,” said Seuss. “That’s when Louie got by me. It’s hard here because you don’t know who is saving and who isn’t. Before that last caution, we got back to Louie’s bumper. I couldn’t find a way to get around him and that restart gave me an opportunity to go on the outside. I couldn’t pick a better way to have my car handling through the race and it was just so good in the last 10 laps that nobody would beat us.”
For more information on Andy Seuss, please contact Mike Twist at (207) 499-2047 and be sure to check out Andy’s website at www.andyseuss.net.
Sources: Mike Twist/Andy Seuss PR