Tom Haferkorn in the #24 IMCA Modified Stock Car
Sep 11, 2008
When it comes to Joe and Tom Haferkorn, the phrase “like father, like son” couldn’t be more applicable.
Tom was born in August of 1966 and was literally brought right into the racing world, as his father was in the middle of his second season of racing at the time. Being brought to the track virtually all your life, it’s hard to imagine life without racing for this Forest County Potawatomi Racing team member.
When asked what his favorite memory was, Tom said, “I have a lot of memories off the track, working in the shop here with my dad and spending time with him. On the track we had a feature years ago in Antigo, I won and he (Joe) finished second.”
That’s just the way these two gentlemen are. For them, it’s always family first. All you have to do is walk up to their trailers on the night of a race and you can see that first hand.
“We’re very competitive, both of us. That’s basically why I’m doing it, to race against him,” said the driver of the No. 24 car. “We’re a lot more careful when we’re together on the track. We’ve had our little moments together. I gave him a little tap in the back end and he’s done the same thing. It’s just a lot of fun racing with him.”
If you look at Tom’s website, there’s even a page entitled “Scoreboard: Joe vs. Tom.” This year, the 1992 rookie of the year has a slight edge, but it’s still a close battle.
Whether we like to admit it or not, we could use a little fatherly advice from time to time. When that advice is coming from a 40 year veteran of racing, it’s probably spot on.
When asked to what he attributes all his success Tom was quick to say, “My dad, my parents, my sponsors. I couldn’t do it without all those guys.”
All that advice and hard work as led to eight top-10, and four top-5 finishes on the track for the Vulcan,
That hard work was noticed by those in charge 1995, when Tom was honored with the Dedication Award.
In 2007, he was also noticed by Turn4 magazine when they wrote an article on him and Joe, and placed a photo of his car on the cover of their July issue.
As they say, the apple does not fall far from the tree. If any of Tom’s children decide to get into racing the same way he did, at the rate these Haferkorns keep improving, we could have the next Kyle Busch on our hands.
