Ryan Doucette Hopes To Find Tri Track Success In 2021
SEEKONK, Mass. — Rising Modified star Ryan Doucette is hoping to make a splash with the Tri Track Open Modified Series presented by All Phases Renovations in 2021. Doucette, the son of longtime Modified racer Joe Doucette, has been racing on the asphalt since he was 10-years-old, but has been around the sport his whole life. Entering another year of action, he hopes to find consistency during the six-race Tri Track schedule, starting with the opener at Monadnock Speedway on May 1.
“After our 2020 success in making every race with Tri Track, I expect to follow that up with qualifying for every race in 2021 as well,” Doucette said. “I want to raise my expectations a little bit for 2021 — I’d be satisfied to finish at least top 15 every race. The competition level for the series seems to have risen even more for 2021 with a good chunk of the Whelen Modified Tour teams committing to Tri Track.”
Doucette’s career includes competition at Stafford Motor Speedway in the Tiger Sprints, a healthy amount of Legends Cars racing — where he won at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in 2017 — and Tour-Type Modified action. Doucette made his first Modified start in 2017, and earned what still stands as his best career finish at Lee USA Speedway, an eighth-place effort. He took a few years off due to a lack of funding (2018-2019), but came back in 2020 and competed with Tri Track, qualifying for all events against stout competition during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Outside of real-life, Doucette is also making laps in the sim racing world, where he has been running since seven-years-old. Currently, Doucette competes in the highest level of sim-racing on iRacing — where he races in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, driving the No. 79 Dekalb Ford Mustang for Clint Bowyer Racing, owned by former NASCAR Cup Series regular Clint Bowyer.
In real-life racing, Doucette knows the learning curve of jumping to the Modified division may never end — especially with the stiff competition Tri Track offers. But he’s ready to take his team to the next-level of running closer to the front with his experience level on the rise.
“I was really happy with my Tri-Track qualifying efforts in 2020, qualifying into every race, I was especially surprised to make it into the feature for the final race of the year at Stafford in such a high caliber field,” Doucette said. “Considering that I only had roughly a dozen modified starts coming into 2020 and the small budget of our team, I would have been happy with qualifying into even half of the races, so making all of them came as a huge surprise. But the only race I was really satisfied with my results was the first Monadnock race, finishing 13th in my first Tri Track Start. Every race after that we had some sort of mechanical failure that led to either a DNF or a poor finish.”
Speaking of competition, as a young rising star, some of the drivers Doucette races with on the track are those who he has been looking up to for years.
“It’s pretty intimidating racing against competition that has so much more experience and resources than myself and our team,” Doucette said. “But as I continue to get more laps under my belt, I get more comfortable racing with big names that I’ve grown up watching and learning from.”
He’s looking forward to returning to Monadnock Speedway, Star Speedway and Seekonk Speedway — but specifically Monadnock and also Seekonk — where he has the most laps due to his Legends Cars experience at the Massachusetts third-mile.
“Out of the three tracks, I like Monadnock the most, I really enjoy the high-banking and how different every corner drives. I am also the most comfortable at that track because I have the most modified starts there,” Doucette said. “I am excited to see how we will perform at Seekonk, because that’s the one track I might have close to as many laps on as some of the competition. I am a big fan of the schedule for this year, I really like the quarter-mile bullring style of racing.”
Doucette wishes to thank his family and crew members, along with GFAArmsTec.com, Spot-On and Roofers Edge & Siding. He is planning to compete on the full Tri Track circuit along with select Modified Racing Series events in 2021, and the team is always looking for additional funding.
For more information on the Tri Track Open Modified Series, visit TriTrackModifieds.com and follow the series on social media.
Sources: Souza Media/Kyle Souza
Tom Morris Racing Photography (Ryan Doucette, car 55)