Tyler Thomas to make debut at Plymouth Speedway, USAC National Midgets

[rebelracewriter]

Tyler Thomas to make debut at Plymouth Speedway in Honda USAC National Midgets Friday, Saturday

PLYMOUTH, Ind. (May 26 , 2015)Tyler Thomas of Collinsville, Okla., will race at three-eighths mile Plymouth Speedway for the first time in his career Friday and Saturday, driving the American Racing Custom Wheels Spike-Esslinger in the Honda USAC National Midget Championship.

Plymouths two events are the second and third of the USAC National Midget season. Thomas finished eighth in the opener at Kokomo Speedway on April 11. The 19-year-old has back-to-back second places in his last two features in the midget, at Valley Speedway in Grain Valley, Mo., on May 1 and Lucas Oil Speedway on May 2, in the POWRi National Series.

Thomas will be making his fifth and sixth starts in the Spike after switching chassis manufacturers in the off-season.

Im really excited to get back into the midget and excited to get back to the USAC series, Thomas said. Weve made a lot of gains with our package in the four races weve had in it and we think we can really fine tune the car. I think its a very good possibility we can win with this car in the near future. Qualifying is everything and weve gotten better at it this year. If we qualify well, the rest will fall our way.

Thomas was 17th fastest in a 30-car field at Kokomo in his debut in the Spike, which has father Brian Thomas as crew chief. The Thomases have made steady progress in the Spikes setup in each of the three POWRi events since Kokomo.

Thomas drove at famed Knoxville (Iowa) Speedway last Saturday in owner/crew chief Jeff Smiths Maxim 360 winged sprint car and finished 11th in the 15-lap feature. It was Thomas second event with Smith. They had hoped to race in the ASCS Sprint Car Warrior Series at Double X Speedway in California, Mo., on Sunday night, but it was rained out.

We decided to go to Knoxville and it was a really good run, Thomas said. Id never run a half-mile and I thought it went well. Jeff had the car working where I could drive it anywhere on the track. We work well together and I felt like I got better as a driver in the 360 sprint car. Were going to Knoxville for the 360 Nationals in August (6-8) and it was good experience for it.

Thomas qualified 22nd in the 33-car field, finished second in the seven-lap heat, started 20th in the feature and drove up to 11th in the 15-lap race.

I was pretty happy with that, he said.

Tyler Thomas will race the American Racing Custom Wheels Spike-Esslinger at Plymouth (Ind.) Speedway in the Honda USAC National Midget Championship on Friday and Saturday.

About Tyler Thomas

Tyler Thomas is a 19-year-old versatile race car driver from Collinsville, Okla. Since the start of the 2014 season, he has two victories in 14 starts in Pro Late Model stock cars at New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway, back-to-back victories in 305 winged sprint cars at Southern New Mexico Speedway in Las Cruces and one win in the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series. Thomas was the midget champion of POWRis Illinois Speed Week in 2014. Thomas became the youngest winner at age 15 in POWRi Lucas Oil National Midgets history with his triumph in his inaugural start in the series at West Plains (Mo.) Motor Speedway in June 10, 2011. He has four POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget victories. He was sixth in the POWRi points and 10th in Honda USAC Midgets running a partial season in both in 2014. For more information on Tyler Thomas, go to www.TylerThomasMotorsports.com.