With the help of his father-in-law, Gary Kratzer of Beavertown, 1995 found Todd beginning his quest to make it as a sprint car driver in Central Pennsylvania while behind the wheel of Kratzers blue and orange No. 33. Competing mainly at Selinsgrove Speedway during his three and a half year tenure with the team, a talented Todd Hestor earned himself Rookie of the Year honors at the track in 1995 along with Most Improved Driver in 1997 and the Keystone Race Chasers Sportsmanship Award in 1998.

Highlights of his rookie season included earning five top-ten runs, one of which was a top-five, at Selinsgrove as well as finishing out the year eighth in the point standings. Todd then came back to earn four top-fives and nine top-tens at Selinsgrove in 1996 as well as to finish ninth in points. During his last full year in the Kratzer car in 1997, Todd recorded a half-dozen top-five efforts while notching 11 top-tens. He closed out the year with a nice seventh place finish in the oval's points.

By mid-season in his fourth year as a sprint car driver, both Kratzer and Todd opted to part company after the efforts of both men had molded a formidable competitor. After some time off but only within a few months, opportunity came knocking at Todd's door in the form of fairly new car owner Dave Middleswarth of Middleswarth Potato Chips in Middleburg.

Having broken a new team into the weekly sprint wars, long time Central PA veteran Barry Camp was retiring from the Middleswarth ride. And by the end of September, Todd had come within mere yards of winning his first feature event before being forced to settle for second at Williams Grove Speedway while wheeling the Bar-B-Q Chip car. Cris Eash slipped by off the fourth turn to steal the win away, but Todd held on for second over Don Kreitz Jr., Dan Dietrich and James Chesson.

By the beginning of 1999, Todd found himself a teammate to another respected veteran of the sprint car wars, Keith Kauffman of Mifflintown. And with the best equipment of his career to date placed under him and with a full schedule lying ahead, Todd embraced the opportunity to compete at such a level while behind the wheel of the 7M.

He nearly came up a winner on several occasions in 1999 while competing throughout Central Pennsylvania only to have luck go against him, forcing him to again fall short of that elusive first win. However he ended the 1999 season with a pair of career best runner-up finishes coming at both Port Royal and Selinsgrove Speedways. He finished the season 11th in points at both tracks while ending up in 20th spot at Williams Grove.

At season's end, the Middleswarth 7M had accumulated 21 top-ten finishes while competing in 55 total events at six different tracks. Eleven of those top-tens were top-five finishes. Todd set one quick time during the year, over the All Stars at Selinsgrove in August.