Rookie Racer Tom Hessert: “We had a really strong car for the Greased Lightning 250”
Mansfield, Ohio
Jun 11, 2007
“We had a really strong car for the Greased Lightning 250, ” said rookie racer Tom Hessert. “David Ifft gave me a great car. We qualified well. We just got caught up in on-track incidents that just kept us from finishing. ”
That is the way the Cherry Hill, NJ college student described his night of racing at the Mansfield, Ohio Motorsports Park this past Saturday. Hessert was making a rare appearance in a USAR Hooters Pro Cup Northern Division race. He is a regular in Southern Division competition.
The veteran racer who comes from the United States Auto Club Sprint and Midget racing ranks qualified well with a 16.926 second effort on the half-mile banked asphalt oval.
“ We got our Maaco Americas Body Shop Chevy Monte Carlo up to a point where we were just flirting with the top ten, “ said Hessert. “Then we just got involved in some on-track incidents, not of our making, that had us in the pit’s a few times.
“When we were on the track the car was absolutely great on old tires. We were matching the speeds of the top four or five racers. ”
Though the car performed well the accidents just caused the team to lose too much time in the pits and knocked them out of contention and finally they parked the car after the final incident. The David Ifft owned Maaco Americas Body Shop entry was credited with finishing 198 of the 250 laps.
Next on the USAR Hooters Pro Cup schedule for Hessert is the June 23rd Greased Lightning 200 presented by Blacks Tire & Auto Service at Myrtle Beach, S.C. Speedway. That is a. 538-mile semi-banked asphalt oval.
Coming up next for young Hessert is the Saturday, June 16th doubleheader United States Auto Club sanctioned Sprint and Midget show at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis. The Sprints and Midgets will each run 30-lap features and Hessert will be trying to qualify for both events with his Maaco Americas Body Shop entries. This event is being run the night before the United States Grand Prix Formula One race at nearby Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
On June 29th Tom will run in the Lucas Oil USAC National Sprint Series event at Richmond, VA International Raceway. That will be a 60-lap event on the ¾-mile, semi-banked D shaped asphalt track.
