Trent Jackson is not what some people would call an athlete, but the sport he participates in once landed him in the hospital with four broken vertebrae and a concussion.

But just like getting back on a horse, Jackson said, he was ready to climb back into his go-kart and, eventually, his racecar, once his wounds healed.

The junior in mechanical engineering grew up in Corning, home of the Adams County Speedway.

“My dad has always owned a racecar,” Jackson said. “I’ve grown up at the racetrack and at his shop, helping work on racecars. It was natural to want to drive one myself.”

Jackson has been racing since he was 12. He started in go-karts that he built himself before graduating at age 16 to the modified racecar division of the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series at Adams County Speedway.

Four different divisions race at the speedway every Saturday night during the summer-point season. Hobby stocks and street stocks, Jackson said, are built from scratch and are cheaper to maintain than late models and modifieds, which are built with parts purchased from a manufacturer and assembled by the owner.

“Everybody’s racecars are not the same at all,” Jackson said. “Everybody’s trying something new, something different to try and beat the other guy.”

These individual variations among racecars are what give some drivers an edge over others, he said.

“Without good equipment, the best driver in the world couldn’t win,” Jackson said.

But this equipment comes with a cost — a cost that can get steep when things break and need to be replaced. And they often do, Jackson said.

On average, someone will total a car at Adams County every three weeks or so, Jackson said, and there’s no insurance for racecars.

“If you wreck it, it’s just gone,” he said, along with all the time and money the driver put into the car.

Even in the absence of major wrecks, maintaining a racecar is no cheap trick.

“You’re almost guaranteed at least a minor crash every week, and most of the time you can fix it,” he said.

Despite wear and tear on the cars, serious injuries fortunately aren’t very common among racecar drivers, Jackson said. The wreck that sent him to the hospital for two days was in a go-kart, which has no seat belt or roll cage for the driver’s protection.

“It actually makes me feel a lot safer to drive a racecar now,” Jackson said. “In a racecar, you’re strapped down in a cage.”

The roll cage in modified racecars is a security blanket that has not escaped the notice of Jackson’s mother, Cheryl Jackson.

She said she never really worried about her son’s racing until his go-kart wreck and resulting hospitalization. When he began driving racecars, Cheryl said, the memory of the go-kart wreck made her nervous — until her son’s first racecar wreck.

Cheryl said she asked her son if he was all right the first time he rolled a racecar.

“Oh heck, Mom, I’ve been in worse roller coaster rides,” she recalled him saying.

Trent’s father, Dwight — an ex-racer himself — wouldn’t put Trent in anything unsafe, Cheryl said.

“That’s why his dad never did like the go-karts,” she said.

There’s a fine line between aggressive, competitive driving and reckless driving, and Trent said he found that line pretty well this year. His record shows it.

Trent finished the season fourth in points out of 40 competitors, some of whom have been driving since before Trent was born.

“Though it’s not rare to see young kids driving modifieds, Trent really stands out,” said Chris Williams, track announcer at Adams County Speedway and Daily staff writer. “The fact that he competes at such a high level at this age speaks volumes for how [successful] his future will be.”

During the next few years, Trent said he just wants to keep racing as much as he can. Though the Adams County season spans only the summer months, the United States Modified Touring Series holds races January through November.

The national series is the premier modified touring series in the country. It goes from track to track nightly and consists mainly of the top modified drivers in the country.

The next step up from the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series at local dirt tracks is Automobile Racing Club of America. Experience on small-level asphalt tracks like Automobile Racing Club of America is crucial to get anywhere in NASCAR, Trent said.

From the racing club, drivers can advance to the Craftsman Truck Series, followed by the NASCAR Busch Series and eventually the Nextel Cup, where Trent dreams of driving one day.

“My ultimate goal would be, with my degree, to go down to South Carolina and work on a [Nextel] Cup car and eventually get the chance to drive one,” Trent said.

But to move through the ranks, he said, “You either have to have an extreme amount of talent or an extreme amount of dollars backing you.”

Despite the challenges and risks, Trent’s enthusiasm for the sport never wavers, which may be what makes him so good.

“If you’re scared behind the wheel of a racecar, you’re not going to be fast,” he said.