Heywood drives the Moody Mile Motorsports Modified to Victory Lane | News, Sports, Jobs

After winning his heat race, Heywood started outside pole for the first of the night’s modified feature events. He quickly took the lead and held on for all 20 laps. He finished nine seconds ahead of the second-place car.

In Victory Lane on Saturday, Moody told the track’s announcer Mimi Lazarro that he had been trying for over 60 years to win a feature event at the Track of Champions in Fonda.

Moody has been involved in racing most of his life. He started racing stockcars at the Saranac Lake Speedway when he was 16 years old. He raced all over the East Coast on both dirt and asphalt tracks until 1982.

For years, Moody promoted several area race tracks and series events before getting back on the race track with his stepson Patrick Dupree. After a successful racing career together, Dupree retired but Moody was nowhere ready to retire.

At 80 years of age, Moody set his goals on a win at Fonda and with the help of his partnership with Heywood he was able to check that off his bucket list.

Before Saturday night’s feature win, Heywood scored two heat race wins at Fonda and one at Utica Rome Speedway along with several top ten finishes since the start of the season. Despite the setback of a blown motor, the team kept digging and persevered.

While Heywood is just in his rookie year in the Modified Division, he has had plenty of years of racing experience. Heywood first started out in the go-karts at 8 years old, then moving up to Street Stocks before moving up to Renegades and then Sportsman. He raced at Airborne Speedway and Mohawk International to claim over 150 wins and seven track championships.