The TWE Racing Team
Learn about just some of the people in our team.
Who is TWE Racing and what are we about?
TWE Racing is made up of a family that lives, works and just loves the sport of racing in all forms. Quarter midget racing has been a part of the McKnight family since Tom and Kristin started racing at Silver City in Meriden CT in the 1990's.
Mom was an amazing driver and won a lot of big races thanks to Grandpa and his efforts on the car. She graduated to 3/4 midgets and for a long time was the only female to ever win a 3/4 midget race in the northeast. She moved to modifieds where, while racing at Waterford, she met my dad and their story began.
My dad has been a lover of asphault modified race cars his whole life thanks to his dad and uncles. He started working on modifieds as soon as he could get in the pits at his home track of Riverhead, NY. While working on the famous 8x for his uncle Eddie Brunnhoelzl he met Mike Wheeler and was given a chance to work on the Eddie Partridge TS Haulers team. He was with TS when he met Mom at Waterford. Wheels got him an interview with Joe Gibbs Racing and he has been honored to work at JGR since 2004. He was a race engineer and is currently managing the production of all the race cars.
Thomas Engstrom
Driver
My name is Thomas, my Grandpa calls me Ziggy. I started racing for the first time in 2023 at NCQMA in the red rookie class. I got to do an arrive and drive which was a great way to see if I liked racing without costing too much. Well I loved it and my Grandfather immediately bough us our first car. It is a Nervo 1900. In the winter of 2023 we redid the colors and I got to pick a green chassis. We matched that with and orange body and now we have our race car. We call it the "pumpkin". For 2026 we added a second chassis and Xwing from the amazing Ultimate QM chassis company. We have named that chassis the Corgi. It too has our signature orange and green theme.
One reason we call it the pumpkin is because outside of racing my true love is Halloween. I love all things Halloween, especially Spirit Halloween. I love their animatronics and someday I hope to design one to sell there.
My favorite band is My Chemical Romance. Their songs are the best and I will get to see them live this summer. I love to play with dogs, we have a Corgi who's name is Floppy. But anywhere I go if I see a dog I love to pet them (always asking first). I also enjoy school and playing video games.
Tom McKnight
Grandpa
Michael Engstrom
Dad
Kristin Engstrom
Mom
Lois McKnight
Grandma
Ella Engstrom
Sister and lead cheering section