JesseHockett.com

Rocket Hockett – Another Week, Another Win!

(Bill W) June 30, 2009 – Jesse “The Rocket” Hockett went into last weekend hoping for a win at the Daniel McMillin Memorial. The result was a strong seventh place run. He did, however, win again at the Double X Speedway in California, Missouri on Sunday, while mixing in a road trip to Richmond, Virginia and back again!

There was some added competition on Sunday night at Double X. Jesse started third in both his heat and the feature, and won both. “There was a solid field there this week,” he says. “Seth Bergman (from Washington) was there, and so were Derrik Ortega (from New Mexico) and Darren Long (from Ohio).”

The win was Jesse’s fifth of the season at Double X, and the eighteenth of his career. “We ended up lapping all but three cars,” he says of his run. “We were running as well there as we have all year.”

Friday, it was off to Richmond for another pavement race with USAC. After registering 16th quick, Jesse finished 14th in the feature. “We actually weren’t too bad, we were just a little off, and when you’re a little off on a track as big as Richmond (7/8 mile), it shows,” he says. “We were about three tenths off. We were off a half-second to a second in practice, and with the help of Robert Hubbard and Chris Santucci, we at least got in the ballgame. They definitely helped me a lot.”

It was a long drive back overnight (just shy of 1000 miles) to the Lake Ozark Speedway near Eldon, Missouri and the Daniel McMillin Memorial. “We got back in plenty of time,” assures Jesse. “The track was a lot different in the heat than it normally is. We tried our regular setup and it didn’t work for us (finished third). We made some adjustments for the B, and we were actually really good in that.”

Jesse won the B, and lined up inside row nine for the main event. Immediately, he began to pick off cars. “We left the car with the same setup for the A, and we were really good,” he says. “We were able to get all the way up to sixth, and I got to racing really hard with Paul McMahan. We were racing in the slick part of the track so much; it took its toll on my tires.”

In the end, he would finish seventh. “We were able to win that battle to get into sixth,” says Jesse. “On the last lap, Jack Dover got so hard into the cushion that I thought he was going to flip. I pitched it sideways to avoid him, and Gary Wright got by me, so we finished second.”

Jesse was happy with the way the event honoring his late cousin and crew chief turned out. “It was a pretty good run, and the race turned out to be a good one,” he says. “It was a good crowd, a good car count, and good racing overall. I was happy about that part of it.”

So far, Jesse has been able to juggle the USAC National Sprint Car Series with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Series. For the first time, the schedules will clash this weekend, forcing a decision. “We’re going to change our direction a little bit, and go with our original plan of running with ASCS, and just run the big USAC races whenever we can,” he says.

Thursday night, Jesse will run with the USCS series at the Camden Speedway in Tennessee. Friday and Saturday, he’ll compete at the Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, Arkansas with ASCS. The Rock ‘N Roll 50-lap feature will be contested on Saturday night at “The Ditch”.

2009 Stats

Races: 44

Wins: 13

Top 5's: 25

Top 10's: 31

Jesse featured in Oct. '08 Flat Out Magazine. Read it now!

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Check Jesse out in the June '09 issue of Sprint and Midget magazine!