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In the Hunt Young racecar driver fulfills lifelong ambition with win in New Egypt BY RICH FISHER
An image of the Carina Nebula taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. (Image courtesy of NASA.)
James Webb Space Telescope a family legacy for local artist BY JOE EMANSKI A proud NASA stunned stargazers the world over on July 12, when it shared some of the first, best images to be taken by the powerful new James Webb Space Telescope. The images are said to offer astronomers and astrophysicists the best look yet at our universe
and everything in it. Among the crowd at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland were many NASA scientists, engineers, technicians and project managers, as well as their counterparts from the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and representatives from Northrop Grumman, the primary contractor responsible for
construction of the telescope. Also on hand was Hopewell’s Jim Webb — son of James E. Webb, after whom the telescope is named. James Webb was the administrator of NASA from 1961 through 1968, the period during which the space agency embarked on many of the most ambitious programs in its history, including See WEBB, Page 6
When DJ Hunt was 2 and a half years old, his parents Dave and Michele took him to the Motor Sports trade show in Oaks, Pennsylvania, and placed him in a scaled down version of a race car. “Ever since then, I never stopped asking them to race,” said the 2021 Hopewell Valley Central High graduate. “When I was younger, everything was a race. I wanted to be done first in everything.” DJ’s desire helped fulfill the hopes of Dave and Michele, who would attend races at the nowdefunct Flemington and East Windsor tracks. Dave would constantly work on cars in his youth and wanted to get into racing, but lack of funding made it tough. “When my parents decided to have a kid, they agreed, probably before I was even born, that if he wants to race, let’s do it,” Hunt said. He wanted it all right, and has been doing it every year since age 4-½. Hunt is in his fourth season of DIRTcar racing on Saturday nights at the New Egypt Speed-
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way. He’s in his second year racing Modifieds, which is the track’s top level. As of July 17, DJ was 13th out of 55 racers in the point standings, and was one of just five Modified drivers to win a race this season. That came on June 5, when Hunt notched his first career Modified win in a somewhat different manner. Ryan Conrad had apparently won the race, with Hunt taking second. But Conrad was disqualified after a post-race review led race officials to conclude that his car did not adhere to equipment rules. That gave DJ the victory and, although he missed out on the thrill of coming across the line first, he wasn’t complaining. “That was a big one for us,” Hunt said. “It was still exciting but it could have been a lot more exciting, to cross the line first and have all the fans still there, and to be able to go out right after you win and be in Victory Lane,” he says. “Luckily we still got to go out in Victory Lane before the night was over. We still got to experience a lot of really good things. It wasn’t instant gratification, it was a little delayed, but we’ll take it any way we can get it. That was the golden moment of the career so far. That was the one we always wanted to win. Before I even raced, when I was two and three, I was going to See HUNT, Page 8
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