Top Qualifying Honors for Ken Thomas at TXR

Text by Robert Loar ~ Photos Courtesy of Toyse Woody

March 20^th marked the much anticipated return of the Texas Outlaw Pro Mods to Texas Raceway in Kennedale, TX.  The first race of the 2009 TOPMA season brought a lot of heavy hitters to TXR, each of them vying for a win and a step towards the $30,000 grand prize waiting for the 2009 Texas Raceway Season Champion.  The Thomas Motorsports crew was in full force, ready to begin their TOPMA title defense. 

Thomas ran 4.00 at 180 in the first round of qualifying . This was an encouraging run for Ken and crew and it would land them in the second spot behind Frankie Taylor’s 3.95.  As the second session began, the elapsed times began to drop and the Bad Bird was ready to make a run for the #1 spot.  Ken fired the car and would make his attempt on a solo run.  After staging and seeing the tree fall, Ken un-clutched the Bird and BOOMED down the racing surface in a whopping 3.89 seconds at 186 MPH!  This career best run would vault the TMS team to the pole position and would mark the first 3.8 second qualifying effort in TOPMA history.

In the first round of eliminations Ken would take out Jackie Deaver with a 4.00 to Deaver’s 4.33.  Second round produced more tire shake for the Bad Bird but a good 4.15 was enough to squeak by Gene Hector and the Small Block Mafia.  The final would pit the #1 and #2 qualifiers against each other.  In the end, Frankie Taylor’s track record 3.88 was just too stout for the Bad Bird’s 4.02 final round effort.  Overall Ken and Crew were very pleased with the car and their efforts on what was a historic night at Texas Raceway.  Special thanks go to Cindi and her crew at TXR for returning the racing surface to it’s old glory.