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"I am here to race," says TJ. "I can keep up with them."
"You really don't want to think about the speed," says the 15-year-old stock car driver. "You just think about the car in front of you. Once you're in the lead, you just think how long the race is to go...just want to win."
Not only does TJ want to win, he does win. With two main event victories and two trophy dash wins, TJ makes racing look easy.
But for his parents watching, it's a terrifying ride.
"Oh yeah, we worry. We're up there on the fence, when there's 20 cars out there and he's in the middle of them, there's cars crashing. You think about it all the time, your heart rate races. But he holds his own, he does a good job out there," says TJ's father Troy.
"The hardest part for (me) was the other competitors," adds TJ's mother Yvette. "'Don't pick on my baby'. But we're doing better this year. He's proven to be a good driver."
"It's an adrenaline rush," says TJ. "week in and out, you learn something new everytime...every race, pretty much."
TJ has been racing competitively longer than he's owned a driver's license. Racing stock cars is a far cry fron the tiny go-cart he piloted starting from the age of five.
"I don't think any of us realized how good he would be in the street stocks," says Yvette "In go-carts he was good, but he just took to it...just like a natural thing for him." |
