Pitside-Chapter 3-Patrick Thomas Sportsman at the Governor's Cup

[OldSchool+]

Patrick Thomas was all smiles after winning the pole position in his sharp re-bodied #111 Sportsman for Sunday's event.

The car is now featuring sponsorship from Jim Harris, all around good guy who is serious about winning in everything he does.

After winning the pole, Patrick drew for the invert and pulled a #10--his new starting position. "It somehow wouldn't be right if it was any other way..." said Thomas.

The race started out well enough, with Thomas temporarily getting by hotshoe Sean Bass, but early on an "altercation" in front of the #111 involved the car resulting in a trip to the rear of the 32 car field for the restart.

Now racing with body damage, the car began smoking from the exhaust and was not as strong as it had been, but nevertheless, Patrick picked his way through the field during the 50 lap event, and eventually was battling with Sean Bass and Todd Allen for the lead, but had nothing for them.

Until...following one of the many restarts they basically took themselves out. I am unsure of the details, but it looked like a Rusty Wallace-Darrell Waltrip pit crew reunion with both teams having a serious "discussion" in the pits afterward.

Patrick then was able to hold Earl Beckner off for the win in the slowing car, stating that although it was running when he shut it off in victory lane, he believed he had lost the motor on the final lap.

Thanks to Jim Harris and the entire Patrick Thomas team for including me in their efforts.

For reference, here are pertinent websites for Jim Harris Oil and A/C in Mount Dora, Fl:
http://www.harrisoilco.com/about/
and for mini storage needs:
ghttp://www.yellowpages.com/mount-dora-fl/mip/harris-mini-storage-467427657

[Patrick Thomas 25]

This race is proof the fastest car doesn't always win. We got incredibly lucky Sunday afternoon, something happened to the motor when I spun the car in turn 3 on lap 2. It began smoking out of the exhaust and out from under the hood when under deceleration. The minor damage to the body did little to hurt the car, but all the rubber put down by the 200 lap super late race, really hurt my handling. The motor began loosing oil pressure at the ends of the straightaway on lap 5, with 3500 laps or so on this motor I made the decision to run it till it quit. We got through to 3rd pretty well from 29th on the lap 2 restart. When the leaders got together it opened up the lead and I thought we were going to be okay until 4 to go, the oil pressure went to 0. Having come that far I was not going to stop at that point. It started seizing up down the back stretch on the last lap, but made it back around. I purchased this motor in January 2012 and it owes me nothing, but has 30 wins in that time. After pictures I fired it up and drove it knocking all the way to tech. That motor has never let me down.

Thanks to all of my guys for the help this weekend and thanks Mr Jim Harris for giving me such beautiful racecars to drive.

Patrick Thomas 111