NHRA: Career-best off-season has Thomas confident

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Rob Geiger at 281-913-3316.

Career-best off-season has Thomas confident

POMONA, Calif. (Feb. 4) – The last two months have been good ones for
11-year veteran Pro Stock driver Mike Thomas. The 49-year-old pro from
Knoxville, Tenn., has made great progress with his in-house engine
program that has translated to several career-best outings during test
sessions in Florida and Texas.

Officially, Thomas’ best elapsed time and top speed numbers, which by
rule must be carded during a sanctioned NHRA national event, show a
6.862 at 200.35 mph. This off-season, those same numbers would account
for some of his slowest passes. The key now is to take the 6.82-second,
202-mph passes he’s routinely made over the last several weeks and carry
them over to the POWERade Drag Racing Series, which opens Thursday at
Pomona Raceway with the 42nd annual K&N Filters Winternationals.

“We’ve accomplished just about everything we’ve wanted to accomplish
this off-season,” Thomas said Sunday after his last lap of the
preseason, a steady 6.828 at 201.19 mph in Houston. “Our Finish Line
Racing Engines are making some great power and the car is reacting to
the adjustments we make. I think we’ve got this thing figured out. We
did what we’re supposed to do in testing, right up until the last day
when he made a switch in the rear-end.”

Adding to the excitement of the new season is the fact that Thomas has a
teammate of sorts for the foreseeable future. Ten-time Pro Stock
champion Bob Glidden will campaign Steve Schmidt’s Pontiac Grand Am out
of Thomas’s transporter, an agreement that includes an open invitation
for Thomas to use Schmidt’s powerplants if he so desires. Glidden
wrecked Schmidt’s primary car Sunday but the group hopes to have a
back-up car in place by Pomona.

“Steve and I have been helping each other out a little bit,” Thomas
said. “I’ve been testing with his motors and mine so that we can both
get the feedback we need. Obviously, each of us want our own engines to
work so we’ll try to keep it that way but it’s nice to know it’s there
if you need it. Plus, it never hurts to have Bob Glidden around. Anybody
that has 85 national event wins and 10 championships is worth listening
to.”

Both ESPN and ESPN2 will carry portions of the Winternationals.
Qualifying highlights air from 4:30-6 p.m., Saturday, on ESPN, and
continue from 6-7 p.m., Saturday, on ESPN2. Primetime elimination
coverage runs from 5-7 p.m., Sunday, on ESPN. The eliminations will be
rebroadcast from 3-5 a.m., Monday, Feb. 11, on ESPN, and again from 4-6
a.m., Friday, Feb. 15, on ESPN2. Times are listed in Eastern Standard
Time.

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