Media Contact: Megan Dupuy – woodhullracewaypr@gmail.com
For Immediate Release – May 18th, 2017 – Joe Kaminski Jr. photo -
(Woodhull, NY) – This week, we visit with an Insinger Performance 370 Modified driver who has already gained diverse driving experience this season. He has even raced in the state of Florida, before any race track in the Northeast was open!
Russell Morseman is a third generation driver at Woodhull Raceway. Morseman started out in the street stock in 2006. In 2011, he moved up a division, where he found a championship in 2014 while he was still running in the NAPA Crate Sportsman division. Last year, Morseman moved up into the Insinger Performance 370 Modifieds.
For Morseman the power of the modified is his favorite.
“When you get things right, they’re a lot of fun,” said Morseman following the question of why he likes his modified over the other cars he’s driven.
“Then you’re running against guys who have a lot of respect and it’s fun,” Morseman said
Outside of the track, Morseman works as a structural engineer and is the town supervisor for the town of Rathbone. We asked him ‘What are your goals for this year?’
“A couple heat wins, a couple feature wins at least hopefully. Hopefully top five in points,” Morseman replied.
The modifieds have only seen Woodhull Raceway twice so far this season so for most drivers they are still trying to figure out their cars. This past week, he finished in the fourth spot.
Prior to the start of the regular season at Woodhull Raceway, Morseman made the haul to Volusia Speedway. Every February, Volusia Speedway hosts a huge kick off for the start of race season. Although most Northeastern tracks don’t see races until late March, it’s a great way to get everyone pumped for the upcoming race season.
“It was a brand new car. All I wanted was to go down and qualify but that didn’t quite work out,” Morseman said about his Florida experience.
“We had lifter problems on practice night and had to get them overnight shipped from California. Then had transmission problems the next night.”
Even though it didn’t turn out the way Morseman had hoped, he learned a lot and is excited to go back down next year. It’s known that Woodhull isn’t like many other tracks, however Morseman proved that wrong when he went down to Florida.
“I went down with a set up and it didn’t work, so I actually used a Woodhull set-up and it was close,” Morseman said.
Was running at Florida different than Woodhull Raceway?
“Well it’s more fast-paced. You have time trials and they only run two classes a night. You had to be on your toes which can happen some nights here,” Morseman replied.
Morseman has big plans for this year. Along with running his small block at Woodhull Raceway, he plans on racing his big block in the Super DIRTcar Series. Although he missed the first race due to it being opening night at Woodhull, he’s still looking to be competitive in the series. You’ll be able to see Morseman at Weedsport on Monday May 22 for their big modified race, plus he’ll follow the series around.
“We’re just gonna follow the tour and actually go out to Eldora in July,” Morseman said talking about the tracks he plans to race this year.
Look forward to seeing Morseman at different tracks this year and hopefully in victory lane soon at Woodhull Raceway. Hopefully Morseman has better luck when he returns to Volusia Speedway in February 2018!