By BILL FOLEY
If you were a regular big-block Modified fan and sat in the Volusia Speedway Park grandstands this year, there might have been a car that you weren’t familiar with.
However, he had been here before and received plenty of recognition.
Western Pennsylvania’s Will Thomas doesn’t follow the Super DIRTcar Series Tour and he doesn’t race with the Short Track Super Series.
He is a throwback.
A guy who can run dirt tracks as well as asphalt.
Thomas, talking with Dirt Track Digest on Friday night of the DIRTcar Nationals, said, “I am probably one of the more confused guys in racing. We race all kinds of stuff.”
He was at Volusia four years ago as his wife was home awaiting the birth of their son Willy.
His first visit to Florida was noteworthy and he put on an eye-opening performance.
The question was “Who is Will Thomas?”
He said, “We use to race big-block Modifieds and Dirt Track Digest did an article on us because everybody kept asking who’s Will Thomas? We set quick time three nights here and won three of our heat races. We had the exact opposite performance so far this week, but we think we will turn it around tonight.”
It was sort of a last-minute decision to come to the Sunshine State, as he explained, “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Garrett Krummert. Garrett is a Modified racer in the Northeast. We actually work together at Colonial Metal Products. He’s the plant manager. We decided about three weeks ago and said, ‘Hell let’s take a big-block Modified to Volusia.”
This venture to Florida wasn’t as noteworthy as the previous trip and he said, “We’ve had a tough go of it in the beginning, but a lot of it is me. I really haven’t run one of these cars in four years.”
Racing isn’t exactly the priority it might have been four years ago for Will.
Explaining his current frame of mind he said, “I slowed down racing a little bit when my sone was born. My little boy was diagnosed with autism about two years ago, so he’ll be four on April 4 of this year. That is one of the cool things about this car, I don’t know if you saw the number it’s all pictures of my son in the number.”
Continuing he said, “Our number one focus in life is my son. He’s making enormous progress. I usually talk to Jessica Friesen a decent bit and Willy is on the path that Parker was. He goes to a great center. My wife quit her job to make sure he gets there every day. The main thing I’m gonna do is work on being a dad. “
Thomas will be doing some racing as he explained, “My home track would be Sharon Speedway. I have pavement raced for a long, long time and I started dirt racing when my dad got sick, probably around 2011. My dad passed away in 2014. We’ll probably run at Sharon as much as we can. I’d like to get out and run the big-block with Garrett and his guys as much as I can. If it wasn’t for Garrett, Brian, Jordan, Mike and Uncle Denny, who helps me all the time, I couldn’t do this. We house everything at Garrett’s shop. All the big-block stuff is there. We, as a group, build them, he takes care of them, sets them up, crew chiefs them and he yells at me when I’m not driving good enough.”
S
o, Will Thomas might have struggled at this year’s Volusia events, but he is a versatile and capable driver.
For him it appears racing is secondary as right now his four-year-old son Willy is the center of his life and being a good dad is the most important thing for him.
