Tuesday
NASCAR dreams within reach for Cherry Hill man (Tom Hessert)
Caught in the Catchfence™
Near the track, stock car driver Tom Hessert’s crew shuffles cars and equipment into trailers and prepares to travel to the next race, in Springfield, Ill.
Decidedly out of place among the men in coveralls and caps emblazoned with auto-parts logos are Hessert’s friends, a group of prosperous-looking young men, one a law student, another in real estate in Philadelphia, who look on as the driver signs a program for a young girl.
“It’s pretty amazing someone our age, someone we went to high school with, has little kids coming up to him and asking him for autographs,” says Jack Keyes, 24.
It’s especially amazing considering Hessert’s hometown is Cherry Hill, hardly a hotbed of stock car racing.
His father raced, but most of the guys he grew up with wouldn’t know what it means to “lose the front end” when driving through a turn. Sports talk in his town runs more toward the Phillies and high school soccer.
A member of an affluent family, he was far likelier to have pursued a white-collar career. But now he may be on the verge of making the big time.
Ranked second in the ARCA racing series, one of the minor leagues of stock car racing, Hessert is drawing closer to his dream of earning a spot on the NASCAR circuit.
Article Tags: Jack Keyes, New Jersey Motorsports Park, NJMP, Tom Hessert
