Guttered. It's how we feel, the racing world has not only lost one of its best, we've also lost a great friend and one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet.

Jesse "The Rocket" Hockett. A "Gasman" without equal. Winged or non-wing, 360 or 410, Midgets as well. If he could race it he did, and thrilled fans on both sides of the Pacific while doing it. He didn't just win races, he won them in such a manner that people would talk about it long after the lights went out. The last ever Sprintcar race at the famed Manzanita Speedway. Jesse won that. The Ultimate Challenge at Oskaloosa. Jesse won that too by running down and beating Dave Darland to the line on the final lap of the race!

Three races last weekend in Missouri and Kansas, Jesse won all three. He won over one hundred and thirty races in his career, a career that was way too short and unfairly stopped in its prime. All this and he was only twenty-six years old. Forget the racing, he was just way too young to be taken from his wife of just three months Tina, his family and his friends. It's not meant to happen this way.

We got to know Jesse only recently, when he came to Australia to drive our USA1 Maxim as a last minute replacement for Cody Darrah. He came here by chance, he had heard Cody couldn't make the trip and fired off a "shot in the dark" email to John Kelly who runs our home track here in Brisbane. Stay at home in the cold and snow of a Missouri winter or head to Australia to race for the summer? Jesse couldn't get here quick enough.

As a team, we've been very fortunate over the years to have some great drivers in our cars. Brooke Tatnell, Randy Hannagan and Garry Brazier have all steered our Maxims. So have Michael Carber, Andrew Scheuerle, Todd Wanless and Trevor Green. Benny Wright has filled in and kept us in the points chase on occasions and now we're helping young Matt Jurczack get his start in Sprintcar racing.

But Jesse was something else. We knew of him, we had read the stories and had watched the videos on the Internet. A couple of us had seen him race over in the States. We were almost as excited to have him come drive for us as he was to get the opportunity to do so. You see, that was Jesse. He was racer alright, but he gave back more than he ever received.

From the time we picked him up from the airport on Christmas Day to when he left for home again a couple of weeks later, we enjoyed every minute of his company. Jesse, like all our drivers, are considered family. Vicki treats them like another son and Jesse was no exception. That's what makes this even harder, they're not meant to go before you do.

And can someone please explain to us how you go about telling our three year old Sprintcar-mad grandson Hunter that he'll never get to play with Jesse or see him race again?

Jesse won first night out in our car, he couldn't stop smiling and neither could we. The win was nice, very nice actually, but the way he won was special. He ran high, he ran low, he bounced that car off the wall, he even bounced it off the infield and nearly flipped the thing but got hard on the gas again in true Hockett style. WOW, that was something! He made a lot of fans that night and you know what, he had time to talk to anyone and everyone who walked up to say G'day and congratulate him. He wasn't just a racer, he was more than that.

By the time he left Australia, he was ready for home. He was looking forward to getting married and starting a new chapter in his life with Tina, looking forward to the year ahead and winning some races, looking forward to coming back down here and showing us some more of his unbelievable talent behind the wheel of a Sprintcar. He had it all in front of him and you just know that he was going to do it all his way and get it done.

We've lost a true talent and we've lost a good mate but the races upstairs just got a whole lot better. Patterson and Opperman will be going at it, Rice and Vogler will be there and "Gorgeous" George Tatnell will be running the show or at least making sure no-one gets in for free (GT knows all the tricks). Jesse will put it on the rim and have a blast running with 'em. Legends... all of them.

Goodbye Jesse, it's been a privilege to know you and thanks for being part of our life. Rest in peace mate, your work here is done. We'll never forget you.

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