THOMAS AND HIS OFF-SEASON
Mon, 2008-08-25 16:28
Mark Thomas knows it’s the little things that have kept him from
successfully defending his IHRA Alcohol Funny Car
championship in 2008.
The veteran driver from Louisville, Ohio, has won 29 career national
events but none of them have come this season.
He’s frustrated, but the likable Thomas, a past sportsmanship winner, keeps the negatives at bay.
“You come off two championships in a row then you come into a year where little things keep happening over and over," Thomas said. “Yeah it’s better than knocking the hinges off of it every run. But it’s one small thing after another. Yeah it’s tough and we’re not getting beat up over it. I mean if someone said you could take two championship years and one terrible year out of three years or just three middle-of-the-road years. That’s a no brainer. The longer you do it the more you’re going to see everything happen that can happen. Mark Thomas knows it’s the little things that have kept him from successfully defending his IHRA Alcohol Funny Car
championship in 2008.
The veteran driver from Louisville, Ohio, has won 29 career national
events but none of them have come this season.
He’s frustrated, but the likable Thomas, a past sportsmanship winner, keeps the negatives at bay.
“You come off two championships in a row then you come into a year where little things keep happening over and over," Thomas said. “Yeah it’s better than knocking the hinges off of it every run. But it’s one small thing after another. Yeah it’s tough and we’re not getting beat up over it. I mean if someone said you could take two championship years and one terrible year out of three years or just three middle-of-the-road years. That’s a no brainer. The longer you do it the more you’re going to see everything happen that can happen.
“[Is it] frustrating? Yes. We broke the throttle cable last night. But that’s just kind of the way our season has been. One thing after another, little things, the things that we’ve won the last two championships not doing, have happened to us this year. It’s very uncharacteristic in our program to have this happen. But I’d rather have this happen to us all in one year and just get it out of the way.”
Thomas advises that his crew isn’t working any less hard, nor are they paying any less attention to detail. That’s what makes this experience tough to swallow at times.
“The guys have worked as hard as they have at every race for the last X amount of years,” Thomas admitted. “It’s not like we’ve had a drastic change in crew, we’re the same people who have won a championship for the last two years. I tell you what I could really let it beat me up and tear me up, I could get angry but it’s not going to make anything better. You just accept it and know that it is going to turn around. If you look at our track record over the years you will see we have years where we win the championships and one oddball year where nothing can go right. No one likes to see the same guy winning it year after year, so I’d like to say we planned it this way but no we want to win now more than we ever have.
“We need to win now, it’s just a point right now where we know it is out of reach but we’ve just got to do the best we can to finish the year off on a strong note. The pride factor? Yeah it’s always there. We don’t ever come to a race to just qualify; we want to win every race we enter in.”
Thomas said the little miscues are a part of the puzzle, but also impresses on the fact the IHRA Alcohol Funny Car division is tough and continues to improve with each new season.
“There are a lot of good teams every year but that hasn’t affected us because it hasn’t been them that have stopped us, it’s the little things we can’t control,” Thomas added. “I think we’re about to turn it around. I think you’ll see this car sounding better for the rest of the year, hopefully we have all the craziness already out of the way.”
With the banner season Laurie Cannister has experienced, Thomas doesn’t see that better luck would have made a difference except for one factor.
“Not unless we had a year just like her -- seasons where you can’t do anything wrong,” Thomas said. “When you may have had a wrong you were still in the right place at the right time. Hats off to Laurie, she’s been out for a couple of years and she came back hungry. They’re doing all the right stuff, Kevin and Wendy and everyone who works on the team. They’re doing everything right. It’s nice to see it. That’s good. It’s good for the sport. She’s a nice person; she’s good for the sport.
“If you had guys that were always trying to bump heads it may be a different story but when you have a nice person it’s very good. She sat out the last few years because she wanted to. It’s awesome to see someone that can do that. Could we have hung with her? It would have been interesting the last few years when we won a lot of races.”
Rest assured Thomas will be coming after Cannister and anyone who stands in his path of recording an eighth career championship.
“You just look at the years we have done well and the years we suck we’ve come back and won the next year so you know when it’s your turn it’s your turn and when it’s not, it’s not,” Thomas counseled. “The car is really starting to come around. I think we’re going to be good.”
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He’s frustrated, but the likable Thomas, a past sportsmanship winner, keeps the negatives at bay.
“You come off two championships in a row then you come into a year where little things keep happening over and over," Thomas said. “Yeah it’s better than knocking the hinges off of it every run. But it’s one small thing after another. Yeah it’s tough and we’re not getting beat up over it. I mean if someone said you could take two championship years and one terrible year out of three years or just three middle-of-the-road years. That’s a no brainer. The longer you do it the more you’re going to see everything happen that can happen. Mark Thomas knows it’s the little things that have kept him from successfully defending his IHRA Alcohol Funny Car
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He’s frustrated, but the likable Thomas, a past sportsmanship winner, keeps the negatives at bay.
“You come off two championships in a row then you come into a year where little things keep happening over and over," Thomas said. “Yeah it’s better than knocking the hinges off of it every run. But it’s one small thing after another. Yeah it’s tough and we’re not getting beat up over it. I mean if someone said you could take two championship years and one terrible year out of three years or just three middle-of-the-road years. That’s a no brainer. The longer you do it the more you’re going to see everything happen that can happen.
“[Is it] frustrating? Yes. We broke the throttle cable last night. But that’s just kind of the way our season has been. One thing after another, little things, the things that we’ve won the last two championships not doing, have happened to us this year. It’s very uncharacteristic in our program to have this happen. But I’d rather have this happen to us all in one year and just get it out of the way.”
Thomas advises that his crew isn’t working any less hard, nor are they paying any less attention to detail. That’s what makes this experience tough to swallow at times.
“The guys have worked as hard as they have at every race for the last X amount of years,” Thomas admitted. “It’s not like we’ve had a drastic change in crew, we’re the same people who have won a championship for the last two years. I tell you what I could really let it beat me up and tear me up, I could get angry but it’s not going to make anything better. You just accept it and know that it is going to turn around. If you look at our track record over the years you will see we have years where we win the championships and one oddball year where nothing can go right. No one likes to see the same guy winning it year after year, so I’d like to say we planned it this way but no we want to win now more than we ever have.
“We need to win now, it’s just a point right now where we know it is out of reach but we’ve just got to do the best we can to finish the year off on a strong note. The pride factor? Yeah it’s always there. We don’t ever come to a race to just qualify; we want to win every race we enter in.”
Thomas said the little miscues are a part of the puzzle, but also impresses on the fact the IHRA Alcohol Funny Car division is tough and continues to improve with each new season.
“There are a lot of good teams every year but that hasn’t affected us because it hasn’t been them that have stopped us, it’s the little things we can’t control,” Thomas added. “I think we’re about to turn it around. I think you’ll see this car sounding better for the rest of the year, hopefully we have all the craziness already out of the way.”
With the banner season Laurie Cannister has experienced, Thomas doesn’t see that better luck would have made a difference except for one factor.
“Not unless we had a year just like her -- seasons where you can’t do anything wrong,” Thomas said. “When you may have had a wrong you were still in the right place at the right time. Hats off to Laurie, she’s been out for a couple of years and she came back hungry. They’re doing all the right stuff, Kevin and Wendy and everyone who works on the team. They’re doing everything right. It’s nice to see it. That’s good. It’s good for the sport. She’s a nice person; she’s good for the sport.
“If you had guys that were always trying to bump heads it may be a different story but when you have a nice person it’s very good. She sat out the last few years because she wanted to. It’s awesome to see someone that can do that. Could we have hung with her? It would have been interesting the last few years when we won a lot of races.”
Rest assured Thomas will be coming after Cannister and anyone who stands in his path of recording an eighth career championship.
“You just look at the years we have done well and the years we suck we’ve come back and won the next year so you know when it’s your turn it’s your turn and when it’s not, it’s not,” Thomas counseled. “The car is really starting to come around. I think we’re going to be good.”
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