Published: Aug. 11, 2015
Weiss picks up career feature victory No. 1
Dustin Weiss is in his third year of racing — all in the
grand national division at Beaver Dam Raceway. In that time, he’s learned who
to look up to: Kenny Richards and Tommy Moore.
On July 25, Weiss, 21, of Iron Ridge, wasn’t looking up at
Richards and Moore. He was looking back at them.
Weiss held off Richards, Moore and Aaron Streblow to win his
first career feature.
“It meant a lot,” Weiss said. “In the first half of the
year, we were struggling and had a lot of bad luck. It was nice we had things
go our way for once.”
Weiss also won a heat race that night to pick up the sweep.
This season, Weiss has had almost everything imaginable
happen to him and his team. They were beginning to wonder what else could go
wrong.
But thanks to the hard work of his crew and dedication by
his sponsors, Weiss finally had something go right.
After the heat race, Weiss believed his luck was changing.
“I knew we had a good car for that night and it was my kind
of track. It was starting to dry for the feature,” Weiss said.
Then he saw he drew the pole position.
With nine laps to go, a caution came out with Weiss leading
the field.
“I looked up at the scoreboard and saw Kenny Richards and
Tommy Moore were behind me,” Weiss said. “I knew they were going to try to get
around me. I just had to concentrate.”
Richards started the season winning seven straight features.
He’s also the 2011 and 2013 track champion.
Moore is the defending track champion.
At Beaver Dam for the restart, the leader is in a row by
himself or herself and the rest of the field is side-by-side. So that meant
Richards and Moore were side-by-side behind him and he could only protect one
line.
“I knew I had to get a good start,” Weiss said. “I was very
nervous, but I knew I needed to stay focused.”
On the restart, Weiss got the restart he wanted and stayed
in the lead.
On the last lap, Richards tried to make the pass, but
couldn’t complete it and Weiss reached the finish line for the victory.
“It’s really hard for younger drivers (to win a feature),
but my dad keeps pounding it in my mind: Keep your composure,” Weiss said.
Between Richards, Moore and Streblow, they’ve combined to win 35 features since
2010.
“It’s very difficult (to win) when you have guys like that,”
Weiss said. “They’ve been doing it a lot more years than I’ve been doing it.
It’s nice to be able to get out there and be competitive.” Weiss’ father,
Scott, is a former super late model driver at Slinger, doing so in the 1980s.
Dustin Weiss had no experience racing, outside of going to watch the races at
Slinger on Sunday nights.
To help him along, it was Richards and Moore that helped
teach the younger Weiss how to set up the car, how to race, etc.
“I’ve learned a lot from those guys the last couple of
years,” Dustin Weiss said. “It meant a lot to keep them behind me. Those are
the guys you look up to in our division.”
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