Apr 22

Written by: ngreditor
4/22/2008 9:16 PM 

Racing Hero visits Lindsay

By John Mason

Elementary kids surround Chad Jensen and his car.

Chad Jensen has wanted to go fast. There’s a rumor that those were his first words as a young lad, “I wanna go fast.” Chad Jensen, a local racer, came to visit the elementary kids as reward for doing an accelerated reader program in which the kids had to read books to move their racecars down the wall to get to the finish line.

Encouraged by the thought of meeting an actual racer, the kids went through grueling hours of reading every book under the sun. The vigorous work paid off in more ways than one for the kids though. They may have only thought that they were going to see a racer but little did they know that they were also expanding their vocabulary and becoming smarter by the book.

The kids will one day learn just how much this exciting AR event has paid off. Mitchell Wiese, a sophomore at Lindsay says, “I always thought I was a pretty smart kid, but after seeing these kids after they were done reading I was like, wow, I wouldn’t stand a chance in a spelling bee against these kids.”

Chad showing off his car.

Chad Jensen has been racing for about 12 years now. He has raced in Albion, Norfolk, Onawa, Columbus, among other tracks in the area. He drives a late model with a GRT chassis. Racing is a hobby that Chad enjoys doing on the weekends after working grueling hours as manger of the Matteo Sand and Gravel Pit. Racing fuel for Chad’s car costs about five dollars a gallon and he goes through about 5-7 gallons in a night.

Chad is the brother of Ms. Jensen, the business teacher, and uncle of Kaylee Jensen, a sixth grader at Holy Family.