Story By: JUSTIN SNYDER – A2DPR / SCOTT HESS RACING – ABBOTTSTOWN, PA – With a frustration-filled month of May behind them, Tony Jackson and Scott Hess Racing scored a career-best weekend at a pair of Central Pennsylvania tracks over the weekend.
Jackson scored finishes of 13th at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pa on Friday and 11th at Lincoln Speedway on Saturday. The top 15 finishes served as Jackson’s third and fourth of his rookie season in the 410 Sprint Car ranks and shows his progress made as he approaches the middle mark of 2024.
“Overall, it was a really good weekend and we’re starting to learn how to pass cars,” said Jackson. “We need to clean up a few things with qualifying and heat races, but we’ve made a lot of progress, and it was a good weekend.”
With a field of 22 Lawrence Chevrolet 410 Sprint Cars in attendance, Jackson kicked off the two-race weekend at Williams Grove on Friday. He finished sixth in a heat race to earn the 17th starting position in the A-main. He steadily moved forward throughout the feature and brought home a 13th-place finish at the checkered flag.
The duo then headed to Lincoln Speedway on Saturday to close out the weekend and amongst 22 competitors in attendance, timed in 18th quickest in time trials with a quickest lap of 14. 263 seconds. A seventh-place finish in a heat race locked Jackson into the night’s A-main event with the 21st starting position.
With $7,000 on the line for the Elijah Hawkins Memorial, Jackson showed incredible effort and determination as he moved forward ten positions to score an 11th-place finish. The result serves as Jackson’s career-best finish in the division.
“I was really happy with the run at the Grove, but to pass that many cars at Lincoln shows how good we really have been lately,” said Jackson. “We made some changes with the car to go back to making me comfortable and it seems to be working. It’s positive runs like that that will keep you coming back for more and hopefully, it’s a sign of things to come.”
The team will again tackle Williams Grove on Friday and Lincoln Speedway on Saturday for two races this weekend in 410 Sprint Car competition. While the goal will be to continue to learn and gain valuable seat time, Jackson and Hess are hoping for more positive momentum and results as they’re anxiously gearing up for their first crack at the always exciting Pennsylvania Speedweek in a few weeks.
Tentative plans have the team competing in six of the ten scheduled Speedweek events, with stops at Williams Grove (2), Lincoln (2), BAPS Motor Speedway (1), and Hagerstown (1) on the horizon.
“We want to stick to the plan of getting top 15 finishes and the plan directly ahead of us is to keep doing that,” said Jackson. “We’re knocking on the door of that first top ten. This can be a humbling sport, but it’s just hard to come from the back and if we can start better the results will speak for itself.”
“However, with Speedweek on the horizon and a bunch of races ahead of us, it’s important that I start breaking some of these habits and putting us in a better position in qualifying and heat races. We’re going to really focus on those things here the next few weeks and I’m looking forward to seeing where we stack up with the best our area has to offer come Speedweek,” he added.
UP NEXT
Friday, June 14th at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pa, and Saturday June 15th at Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown, Pa.