It did not take long for Tom Hessert to shake off the rust after being away from the sport a few weeks because of so many weather related cancellations. Hessert, driving the MAACO America’s Body Shop sprint car for the first time this season, was able to gain a strong ninth place finish in the 30-lap Rich Vogler Classic Lucas Oil USAC National Sprint Car Series race at Winchester, Indiana Speedway on Sunday afternoon. Marc Jessup, who set fast time, won the race. “We went from 12th to 9th in the feature. It is a super fast track, ” said Hessert. “We needed to be tighter with out setup. It was difficult to pass with everyone running so well. Overall we had a good day but it could have been better. ”
The 20-year-old college student qualified well getting a 12th quick time out of 28 racers on hand. Hessert traveled the high-banked half-mile asphalt oval in 14.983 seconds. Hessert was a close second to Cameron Dodson in the fourth qualifying heat race. Two nights before (Friday) Hessert got a shot of adrenalin by making a surprise visit with his MAACO America’s Body Shop midget at Jacksonville Raceway on the Morgan CountyFairgrounds in Jacksonville, Illinois. After having some problems in his qualifying heat Tom was able to grab a second place finish in the semi feature and that moved to feature starting position far back in the field. Hessert earned himself a 10th place finish in a 25-lap O’Reilly POWRI sanctioned midget race.
The Cherry Hill, NJ racer plans to add some events to his schedule as time allows during the season. Hessert gets back to stock car racing on Saturday April 28th when he races in the USAR Hooter’s ProCup Naturally Fresh 250 presented by Greased Lightning at Concord, NC Motorsports Park, a one-half-mile, banked asphalt tri-oval. This will be Hessert’s third outing of the season in a Chevy owned by David Ifft Engineering. Ifft, a former NASCAR Cup crew chief will be Hessert‘s crew chief. Again the Chevy will carry sponsorship from MAACO America’s Body Shop.
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