Jessica was born into a racing family. Her father Ray Zemken is a 28 year veteran of DIRT Modified racing in the northeast. Attending her first race at just 2 weeks old, Jessica became a regular to the local dirt tracks. As an only child Jessica spent most of her childhood growing up in the race shop around her father’s modifieds.
At the age of eight Jessica began her own racing career at the local dirt go-kart tracks. Jessica still spent much of her time around her father’s stock cars as she was very interested in getting behind the wheel and learning the ins and outs of an open wheel stock car. After 6 seasons of kart wins and championships at two local tracks, Jessica got the chance to run her father’s back up car at Fonda Speedway, a near by half mile dirt track. At 14 she was competing at hit and miss events at the local tracks. She was able to win heat races and consolations in just her first few attempts.