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Thomas Earns First Career Top Five With USAC at Kokomo Grand Prix

(Photo by TeeJay Crawford)

Inside Line Promotions – KOKOMO, Ind. (April 15, 2014) – Tyler Thomas put together another top-notch weekend during the Kokomo Grand Prix last Friday and Saturday.

Thomas rallied to a 14th-place result on Friday before capturing his first career top-five USAC result on Saturday during the Honda USAC National Dirt Midget Series and POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series co-sanctioned event at Kokomo Speedway,

“Overall it was a good weekend,” he said. “The track was awesome both days so there was some pretty good racing. The car was working good. I couldn’t really ask for much more. We had some racing luck go our way on Saturday and not so much on Friday.”

Thomas qualified 13th quickest to open the competition on Friday. That started him on the inside of the second row for his heat race, which locked the top four into the feature.

“The track was pretty much on the top in the heat race,” he said. “The only opportunity to make moves was on the start and I got hung up on the bottom. I couldn’t get to the top fast enough.”

Thomas placed sixth, which sent him to the B Main. He then earned a seventh-place result in the consolation race to transfer to the main event. After lining up ninth and battling for a top 10 in the feature, Thomas was caught up in a crash with seven laps remaining.

“I restarted 22nd or 23rd and found the bottom,” he said. “I drove all the way up to 14th in seven laps. Overall, it was a decent run. It’s not the finish we wanted. I just had tough racing luck.”

Thomas continued to move forward during Saturday’s competition.

He timed in 19th quickest in qualifying, which again started him on the inside of the second row for a heat race.

“I got into second and it was follow the leader on the top,” he said. “I was running second and we had a yellow. I decided to go to the bottom on the restart and lost three spots to finish one spot out of the transfer.”

That relegated him to the B Main, which Thomas finished fifth in to transfer to the 40-lap main event.

“We pretty much set up for the bottom,” said Thomas, who started 15th. “For the most part everyone was running the top. There were a few people on the bottom and middle. It was so hard to throw a slide job on someone as fast as the top was. We tried to set up where most of the field wasn’t running. We were pretty tight at the beginning. About Lap 15 to 20 we started making moves.”

Thomas worked into the top five with a handful of laps remaining and he ended with a fifth-place result.

His next event is scheduled for April 25 at Jacksonville Speedway in Jacksonville, Ill., and April 26 at Macon Speedway in Macon, Ill., with the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series.

QUICK RESULTS –

April 11 – Kokomo Speedway in Kokomo, Ind. – Qualifying: 13; Heat race: 6 (3); B Main: 8 (7); Feature: 14 (9).

April 12 – Kokomo Speedway in Kokomo, Ind. – Qualifying: 16; Heat race: 5 (3); B Main: 5 (7); Feature: 5 (15).

SEASON STATS –

6 races, 0 wins, 2 top fives, 3 top 10s, 5 top 15s, 5 top 20s

UP NEXT –

April 25 at Jacksonville Speedway in Jacksonville, Ill., and April 26 at Macon Speedway in Macon, Ill., with the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series

MEDIA LINKS –

Website: http://www.TylerThomasMotorsports.com

Twitter: https://Twitter.com/TylerThomas91

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tyler-Thomas-Motorsports/154971717863656

APPAREL –

Thomas has t-shirts for sale at his race trailer during every event this season. For his schedule, visit http://www.TylerThomasMotorsports.com.

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Thriller Photo

Thriller Photo specializes in photography and videography. For more information, visit http://www.ThrillerPhoto.com.

“Michael Jackson of Thriller Photo has always provided me with great pictures and a great website for my career in racing,” Thomas said.

Thomas would also like to thank BT Machine Inc., Quick Racing Products, Triple X Race Co., Haynes Equipment, Alpinestars, Factor 1 Racing, Bell Helmets and Esslinger Engineering for their continued support.

INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –

Inside Line Promotions specializes in affordable public relations and media management for motor sports drivers, teams, sponsors, tracks, series, events, organizations and manufacturers. ILP Founder Shawn Miller leverages professional journalism with new media technologies and social networking to improve your exposure and the return on investment for your sponsors.

To meet the media relations needs of your program and to join Team ILP, contact Shawn at 541-510-3663 or InsideLinePromotions@gmail.com. For more information on Inside Line Promotions, visit http://www.InsideLinePromotions.com.

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