Media Contact: Megan Dupuy – woodhullracewaypr@gmail.com
For Immediate Release – June 1st, 2017 - Joe Kaminski photo
(Woodhull, NY) – Woodhull Raceway is a home track to many different racers in the Southern Tier. Some find Woodhull as a home track due to the atmosphere and competition from other drivers.
Ryan Tracy, 21, pilots the No. 06 Insinger Performance 370 Modified around Woodhull Raceway. However, Tracy first found himself in a go-kart when he was 7. At the age of 14, he moved up into a crate sportsman. At the time, Tracy was the youngest driver in the division. Now it’s commonplace to see a number of younger drivers around that age in the NAPA Crate Sportsman division.
For Tracy, the go-karting experience was not a huge help with driving the crate sportsman. It was a completely different ball game for him.
“We ran lots of laps after the races before I was able to run full-time, because the go-karts were completely different,” Tracy said about his racing experience.
Tracy just moved up into the 370 Modifieds a couple of years ago and just recently started running full-time. His focus is running Woodhull Raceway on a weekly basis.
Outside of the driver’s seat Tracy works as a mechanical engineer.
“Basically we produce wire harnesses for transit vehicles for like subway cars and stuff like that,” Tracy noted.
What is your favorite part about racing? What was it that got you hooked at 7 years old?
“I guess it’s just the thrill and the total awareness that you have to have out on the track. It kind of makes everything else go away for a little bit. You are only focused on one thing.”
Unlike a lot of the drivers we have profiled at Woodhull Raceway- Tracy isn’t a third or second-generation driver. He is the start of it. His friend got him into racing when he was younger and Tracy has been hooked ever since.
“Believe it or not I had a friend that had a go-kart when I was 6 or 7. I raced it one night at Rathbone Raceway and that next week I had to have one. It’s all I talked about for a week so to shut me up my parents decided to get me one,” Tracy said.
One thing about Tracy that only the long time Woodhull Raceway fans may know is that he was the youngest driver to win a crate sportsman feature event. However we’ve gained quite a few younger drivers in that division so it might not be the case anymore, but it sure was in 2010.
“It was a big deal back then. There weren’t many 14 or 15 year old kids running that division,” Tracy explained.
Tracy’s win in 2010 was his best moment thus far in his racing career. It was a win he would never forget though.
Give us a play-by-play of the night you won.
“It was an extremely long night. I think there were two red flags, and it ended up taking well over an hour and 20 minutes to run one feature. I started on the pole and lead every lap. There was a caution with one lap to go which ended with a one-lap shootout with me and Donnie Lawson. My nerves were tight and I really couldn’t believe it when it happened.”
On the other side of the spectrum, Tracy has had his bad moments of racing including one night being upside down on the roof of his car. For Tracy the worst part of racing is the wrecks.
“I prefer not to wreck equipment so wrecks would be the worst,” Tracy said.
For now, we will continue to see Tracy in the Insinger Performance 370 modified division.
“I want to hone my skills here in the modifieds.”
A driver that continues to improve, but isn’t always heard from, Ryan Tracy will continue plugging away here at “New York’s Toughest Bullring.”