MANCHESTER, Pa. — There's a desire to race when you walk in the pits, week in and week out. It's in their veins; getting off work and rushing to the track.
On occasion, that's Trey Hivner.
The 22-year-old Manchester native was instantly hooked to racing at a very young age.
Everyone has a unique story of how they got into racing and it always seems to start with a family connection. Hivner's started with a backyard track when he was just four, spending hours on the dirt.
“My grandpa, my uncle built the track," Hivner said. "They threw it together and I ended up loving it. I would ride it until my back was black and blue.“
For a decade, Hivner worked his way through go-karts, then cage karts, and eventually back to flat karts.
Hivner and his dad made the decision to jump from go-karts to sprint cars before he was even eligible for his permit. During that transitional period, the father-son duo took a year off to assemble a 358-sprint car.
In time, Hivner reached the 410 division.
"We skipped the mircos and anything else in between there," Hivner said. "It was straight from go-karts to sprint cars that’s simply because it took us a year to build the sprint car, just to practice with it."
The wheels hit the ground on another story around the same time he first started racing. Hinver has only 60 percent of his hearing.
"I didn’t find out until probably kindergarten or first grade and since then, I’ve been wearing hearing aids," Hivner said. "It doesn’t really affect much in the racing world."
During races, he wears one hearing aid so he can hear the officials in the chance he has to pull over. Otherwise, he says hearing aids don’t have to much of an effect on the 22-year-old.
During the season, Hivner relies greatly on his team to maintenance the car on Thursday nights. His job can be very demanding with long overnight shifts as a millwright and welder.
Hivner is set to begin his fifth season in a 410, this time with a different motor program. He has hopes of adding a few more area tracks to his resume.
“It’s just something we love doing," Hivner said "It’s not something very easy to stop at all."
Hivner will host his 16th annual fundraiser at the Manchester Fire Hall on February 18th.