Event Preview: Drivers gearing up for TOMS Doubleheader
ELM MOTT, Texas (April 18, 2024) — After a solid season opener two weeks ago in Ardmore, OK, that saw Triston Dycus notch a win, teams in the Touring Outlaw Modified Series (TOMS) are gearing up for an exciting doubleheader weekend at Heart O’ Texas (Friday) and Kennedale (Saturday).
They’ll compete for $1,500-to-win at HOT both nights, and some of the best Modified pilots in the region are preparing their machines for battle. Selby Holder’s action-packed high-banked 1/4-mile oval is a favorite among drivers, with pride and bragging rights on the line along with trophies and championship points.
“Waco is my home track; I probably have around two million laps around that place,” Modified veteran Eric Tomlinson said while working in his shop Wednesday evening. “So it’s really cool to be coming home. We’re putting the car back together right now, in fact, and we’ll be ready to go on Friday night.
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“We made some changes; we’ve been on the phone with Bobby Beals and Tyler Davis. They’ve been a big help to us. We’re working with the guys at Blackout Motorsports, they’ve helped us get going in the right direction. We ran the opener up in Ardmore a couple weeks ago, and stumbled onto a few things.”
Jason Ingalls is well-known and respected in the industry for two reasons; the success he’s had behind the wheel, and the success his IRP Racecars brand has achieved since its inception. While he’s built a ton of SportMods in his day, he’s excited to wheel his own Modified machine this weekend.
“We made the trip to the opener in Ardmore and ran fourth,” Ingalls said via cell phone on Wednesday. “I’m ready for this weekend, for sure. I’m doing something different this year, and wanted to follow the TOMS deal. I like running the Modifieds, I was running them when I started building SportMods.
“I finally built me a SportMod to drive because I was selling so many of them. My car was the 82nd chassis we built, which tells you how many of them we sold before I started driving one. I had always run Mods, but saw the growth in SportMods. So that’s good business, now we’ll go Modified racing.”
Max Eddie Thomas is always a factor in open-motor Modified racing, no matter where he unloads. The cagey veteran from Wills Point, Texas, says he’s ready to go for Waco and Kennedale.
“I think we’ve got this car ready to go for a busy weekend,” Thomas said. “We started off a little rough up in Ardmore for the opener, but hopefully we have it straightened out. The motor let go, which is pretty rare for us. We’ve had real good luck for the most part, with no issues in the engine department.
“We started off a little slow in 2023, as well. We had a couple of rough nights before we got everything squared away. That put us a little bit behind the eight-ball, but we bounced back and almost got the points lead. We ended up second and felt that was a pretty strong comeback. I’m ready to go again.”
Last April when the TOMS warriors rolled into Heart O’ Texas, Chase Allen, of Midlothian, powered to victory over William Gould and Josh Landers. Troy Taylor and James McCreery finished fourth and fifth, while Max Eddie Thomas just missed a top-five run in sixth.
Jack Sartain, of Royse City, won the 2023 TOMS points championship by a margin of 60 over Thomas.
If you can’t make it out to Heart O’ Texas Speedway on Friday night or to KSP on Saturday, you can catch every lap of the TOMS action with a Membership at RaceON.com. When you sign up today, you’ll enjoy tons of great Live content while supporting the sport via our revenue sharing program.
Spectator gates open at 6 p.m. at HOT on Friday, with racing set to begin at 8 p.m. On Saturday night, Kennedale will swing open the gates at 5 p.m., with racing set to kick off at 7 p.m. on the immaculate oval. It’s two nights of wall-to-wall Modified action with full cards of support divisions included.
By Phil Whipple, RaceON.com Staff Writer. Photo by: Mike Frieri
