Some people, such as Russ Morseman, seem to find ways to squeeze more time out of a day than most people. Among the many hats he wears includes roles as an engineer, town supervisor, car builder, engine builder, toter home builder, racer, husband, and a father of two. Many wonder how he does all that within the same 24 hours we all get to work with.
“I’m up at 5:30 a.m., and I head to work at 6,” said Morseman, 38, of Addison, New York. “I get home about 4:30 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, I go to the town hall. Sometimes, I’ll go there from 4:30 to 5:30 until 10. Then, I come home, do a little work, and spend some time with family. I [go to bed] at 1 a.m. If it’s racing season, it’s 2 or 3 a.m.”
For his day job, Morseman works for Hunt EAS as a structural engineer on mostly industrial projects and for schools. Then, he heads to town hall of Rathbone, which has a population just north of 1,000. Morseman has held the position of town supervisor since 2015.
“You’ve got to have thick skin — racing helps with that,” Morseman said of the political arena. “If you run local tracks, people have their favorites and [those that aren’t] their favorites. You can get hassled a bit.”
Morseman’s family consists of his wife, Katelin, whom he’s been married to since 2008, and two children, 12-year-old daughter, Izzabella, and 10-year-old son, Russell IV.
“My son is going to be racing soon,” said Morseman. “So, we’re going to get a stacker trailer. We wanted to build a toter home, so we bought a 2000 shuttle bus. We gutted everything and put a travel trailer on top.”
With a knack for building things, Morseman’s been hard at work on the toter home. You can view its progress on their YouTube channel, “Chasin Da Checkerz”. He once constructed his own modified chassis, but now uses one from Bicknell Racing Products. Nevertheless, Morseman still builds his own engines and cars for others.
“I have two cars to build before April,” Morseman said. “We got a street stock and a mini stock we’re building.”
Ultimately, Russ Morseman can’t sit still. His respite comes in the form of racing. Morseman typically races at a trio of New York dirt ovals — Land of Legends Raceway in Canandaigua, Outlaw Speedway in Dundee, and Woodhull Raceway.
However, this week, Morseman and his family headed south. He’ll race at Volusia Speedway Park in De Leon Springs, Florida, in the Super DIRTcar Series portion of the DIRTcar Nationals.
“A vacation is nice, but I like to keep busy,” said Morseman. “I don’t know how some people go home and watch TV every night.”
The Outside Groove Executive Editor has covered motorsports since 2000. His many awards include the 2019 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Jim Hunter Writer of the Year and the 2013 Russ Catlin Award for Excellence in Motorsports Journalism.
