When Ryan Thomas decided to take on the challenge of building his own open wheel modified cars, he probably never dreamed it would take off like it has.
Thomas, 38, lives in Brownstown and operates Diamond Race Cars, a chassis building company that builds cars for customers all over the country.
Thomas races regularly on Friday nights at Bloomington Speedway and on Saturday nights at Brownstown Speedway. Usually, Thomas hits all the high-paying modified shows in the Midwest when he is not at those two tracks.
Thomas started racing motocross at age 5. He continued that until age 10. He then started racing dirt stock cars in the superstock class at age 16 from 1998-2000. His first year in the modified division was 2001.
Thomas then raced an American Made chassis modified for three years. He raced a Pierce chassis from 2004-08.
In June 2008, Thomas built his first dirt modified racecar in his garage near Martinsville. By the end of 2009, he had built four cars for local customers, all of which had scored wins. When word soon got out that Thomas was building a quality product that was consistently getting wins for its drivers, and business began to pick up.
With 15 cars on the track by the end of the 2010 racing season, Thomas knew it was his time to shine in the motorsports industry. Diamond Race Cars was then formed, and he leased a facility in Gosport. In 2015, Diamond Race Cars moved to Seymour to be more centrally located with the dirt racing community and near an interstate. After quickly outgrowing that facility, a new facility was built on five acres near Brownstown in 2016. Diamond Race Cars has now manufactured more than 250 cars for drivers in 10 different states across the Midwest.
“I have car No. 258 on the jig now. When I started in 2008 out of my 24×24 garage, I now have a 50×80 shop with three employees. We have built over 20 cars since late September, and pretty much most of them are new customers.”
Besides Indiana Thomas has two other chassis dealers in Ohio and Michigan selling his product.
Thomas, like everyone else involved in racing gave his thoughts on the COVID-19 restrictions.
“The Coronavirus has affected us in every aspect because of not being able to get parts. Dirt track racing has come to a screeching halt, and customers and racers in general are scared of what’s going on or what lies ahead. I think if we can get back sooner than later, dirt racing will come back stronger than ever.”
Eldora promoter earns honor
Tony Stewart’s Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, is honored to announce that promoter and general manager Roger Slack was named Auto Racing Promoter of the Year (ARPY) during last month’s 47th Annual RPM Workshops in Daytona Beach, Florida. The honor, awarded for the 44th consecutive year by Racing Promotion Monthly, is selected by promoters of over 1,200 speedways, dragways and road courses across North America.
Additionally, the 36th annual Kings Royal was voted Outstanding Annual Short-Track Event of the Year. Previously honored in 1997, the Kings Royal is the first event to earn the prestigious accolade for a second time.
“This is a tremendous honor to be able to accept this award on behalf of our entire team at Eldora,” said Slack, who garnered over 73 percent of the ARPY votes during the final round of balloting. “This is voted on by the industry, and to be recognized like this is very humbling. I am very fortunate to have my family and so many friends here to share in this. It’s incredible. Eldora has such a great history, and our entire team, sometimes as many as 400-500 at our biggest events, earned this honor with their hard work and welcoming nature. They are all so dedicated and we’re fortunate that Tony (Stewart) continues to provide us with the resources to grow Eldora and continue the legacy built by Earl and Berneice (Baltes).
Brownstown opener on hold
The No Way Out 40 scheduled for tonight at Brownstown Speedway has been canceled. The track at this time is unsure as to if the event will be rescheduled this season. The track has announced that they may know more in the next couple of weeks as things are ever changing as far as the upcoming race schedule.
“We do understand that Gov. Holcomb’s “Stay at Home” order is through April 7. We will make a statement concerning the April 4 race next week as we remain hopeful that something may change,” said track officials.
There will up-to-date information on the upcoming 2020 race schedule available when necessary at brownstownspeedway.com.
Lawrenceburg opener off
Lawrenceburg Speedway has cancelled its opening race scheduled for April 4. The USAC National Sprint Car Series was to make their 2020 Midwest debut that night. No makeup date was announced.
For continuous updates on the racing schedule, visit lawrenceburgspeedway.com.
Florence Spring 50 postponed
The Spring 50 for late models rescheduled for tonight at the Florence Speedway in Union, Kentucky, has been delayed again. The race was originally scheduled for March 7, but was weathered out. No immediate makeup date has announced. The 2020 schedule at Florence has been put on hold for the time being.
For the latest info, visit florencespeedway.com.
This week in racing history
From 2000, Brownstown Speedway held the Indiana Icebreaker with Don O’Neal taking the win over John Gill, Rick Aukland, Greg Johnson and Steve Barnett. Josh Lucas was victorious in the modified feature over Matt Boknecht, Wes Steidinger, Adam Sasser and Tim Dierlam. The bomber feature was taken by Matt Bex over Ray Godsey Jr., Tony Mahoney, Matt Cummings and John Phelps.
From 10 years ago in 2010, Jimmy Owens won the Indiana Icebreaker at Brownstown over Earl Pearson Jr., Scott Bloomquist, Bart Hartman and Don O’Neal. Devin Gilpin took the modified main event, winning over Matt Hamilton, Clint DeMoss, Ryan Thomas and Matt Bex. The super stock feature went to Chris Hillman over Steve Peeden, Tyler Cain, Jeremy Hines and Tim Clark. The bomber main event went to Keaton Streeval, who took the win over Josh Turner, Aaron Fields, Kevin Applegate and Nathan Baker.
