Ultimate Motorsports Park
Hise adjusts to speed, quick learning curve
By Todd Turner
DirtonDirt.com managing editor
Jackson Hise (mrmracing.net)
ELKIN, N.C. (May 3) — Everything happens faster in a Super Late Model. That’s a lesson that 16-year-old Jackson Hise of Ocala, Fla., learned quickly in transitioning from a Crate Late Model racer into the higher-profile Super division and Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series this season.
Entering the 2024 season with a single Super Late Model start in his career, it didn’t take too many laps for Hise to get a concrete reminder about the speed difference while time-trialing at Golden Isles Speedway in Brunswick, Ga. | RaceWire
“It was qualifying and I just didn't turn where I was supposed to and wasn't really ready for it,” Hise said. “I thought the car would — I was kind of driving it like the Crate was and that's what I thought it would be like — but it ended up for Supers just so much faster. So I carried too much speed and then hit the wall.”
Hise shook off the mistake and is in the midst of a steep Super Late Model learning curve, making progress with every start, said Jason Fitzgerald, whose Fitz Factory race shop in Middleburg, Fla., houses Hise’s Late Model along with the car of fellow Florida teen and Hunt the Front competitor Trey Mills of St. Augustine, Fla.
Hise, who ran go-karts before jumping into Crate Late Models as a 12-year-old, got his most extensive experience last season running on the Rogers-Dabbs Crate Racin’ USA circuit, finishing fourth in points with two top-five and nine top-10 finishes in 17 starts (he failed to qualify for four series features). Running for the Rookie of the Year title on the second-year Hunt the Front circuit is another big step up.
“He really come a long ways in that Crate. And I just think this year with all the competition, I feel like he's doing really well — like really well. They probably don't see that,” Fitzgerald said before Friday's Hunt the Front action at Ultimate Motorsports Park. "I think he's actually doing really, really well and I just give him, like I just talked to his dad (Jason Hise) this week again. I'm like, 'Look, I promise you in the next month and a half, he'll be a completely different driver, because every time he gets in that thing, it helps.' I can see things where he gets better and he progresses."
The 15-year-old Mills, Hise’s de facto teammate on the HTF tour, topped the tour’s rookie points in 2023, grabbing a series victory at Whynot Motorsports Park in Meridian, Miss., while logging four top-five and 11 top-10 finishes in 18 starts.
But this year’s Hunt the Front roster has drawn a significantly stronger list of drivers. Last year’s final top 10 didn’t have a single driver with a national touring victory, but this year’s top 10 after five series races shows five drivers — Brandon Overton of Evans, Ga., Chris Ferguson of Mount Holly, N.C., Ashton Winger of Hampton, Ga., Cory Hedgecock of Loudon, Tenn. and Zack Mitchell of Enoree, S.C. — who own national touring triumphs. Hall of Famer Scott Bloomquist of Mooresburg, Tenn., and Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series regular Carson Ferguson of Lincolnton, N.C., have also made multiple HTF appearances.
That means the fresh-faced Hise, a 16-year-old junior at Redeemer Christian School in Ocala, faces a stiffer challenge in his rookie season than Mills did, but he’s undaunted.
“We knew it was going to be a little bit more competitive, but I think it really kind of took off and there's been a lot of guys that have hopped on. I don't really think it's a bad thing though. I kind of enjoy it being more competitive every week,” said Hise, who has a handful of Crate Late Model victories in his career. “It's kind of crazy that even in some of the heat races and stuff that you line up beside some of those guys. … A couple of years ago, my first Super race (as a spectator) was Golden Isles and Speedweeks and I didn't have any idea that I would be racing against them now and it's only been a couple of years, so it's crazy.”
That Hise got his first real taste of Super Late Model racing during rugged Georgia-Florida Speedweeks competition was difficult, Fitzgerald said, but Hise came through it without getting discouraged.
“I try to talk to him and say, ‘Look, you know, you're doing probably a lot better than you think you are.’ Obviously he's a racer and a competitor and he wants to win. We all do. But at the same time, you're coming to these races and you're making them, you're putting (talented drivers) on the trailer that are having to go home,” Fitzgerald said. “So you're in the races, you're racing and you're getting experience. Yes, you're going to get your butt kicked for a little while, but keep your nose up. It’s OK to get frustrated because that's just what's in us. But at the end of the day, keep looking for the light at the end of the tunnel and I think they'll be fine.”
Hise’s best HTF finish has been 13th at All-Tech Raceway in Ellisville, Fla. The tour’s rookie points leader earned his way into three feature lineups but was forced to take a provisional in the last two events, including Friday’s at Ultimate Motorsports Park where he ended up 20th after retiring early.
Fitzgerald says Hise is “right around the corner” from major improvement. Hise believes better days are ahead.
"So as long as we keep (improving) and then inch closer to get into the top-five and try and start racing around there, then that would be good,” Hise said. “I mean, obviously it's not the easiest thing to just show up to win with all these guys. So we're happy to have a good night and finish, you know, top-10 and get close to the top-fives.”
Hise is still adjusting to things happening more quickly with an open-competition engine bolted into his Black Diamond Race Car.
“It’s really completely different, the Crates from the Supers,” said Hise, who plans to do online schooling for his senior year. “A lot of people probably don’t realize it because it’s a Late Model, but they drive completely different. It's just everything kind of happens faster in the Supers because they go faster. So you've just got to react faster and get in the corners like you turn quicker, you steer quicker.”
Fitzgerald, himself a former racer who had a long stint as crew chief for four-time Lucas Oil Series champion Earl Pearson Jr., is helping Hise make the adjustment.
“Coming from the Crate car, obviously, these Supers, I try to tell them that yes, you have to drive them hard, but you don't drive it as hard as a Crate car,” he said. “So I think that's a little transition for him. Like, in them Crates, everybody's got no motor and they're just hustling. But (the Super Late Model) has got a lot of power so you can actually take a deep breath and slow some things down and still go fast.”
Fitzgerald said that once Hise makes the feature lineup "he does excellent. It's just that nervousness probably of ‘Golly, I gotta make this show.’ They don't show that to you but I know they think about stuff like that,” he said. “But I feel like in another month or two he'll be even way better than he is now. I think he's doing excellent for the position he's in.”
Excellent considering the impressive Hunt the Front tour competition he’s faced so far this season.
“One time Jackson got down on himself” Fitzgerald said, “and I just pulled him to the side and I said, ‘Listen, buddy, you're young. You ain't even supposed to be here doing this. So who cares? Go out there and do the best you can do, learn every time you hit the track and, and it'll come’ ”
