Phenix City, Alabama (01/06/14) – William Thomas added another major event win to his resume over the weekend, when he powered his #19 AIS Motorsports/Alexander’s Industrial Services/Team GRT by Weaver Super Late Model past Eric Cooley in the final corner of the final lap to score the $6,000 victory in the 23rd Annual Ice Bowl at Talladega Short Track (Eastaboga, Alabama).
Sixty-four Super Late Models registered for action on a cool weekend at the famed, 1/3 mile oval. Thomas started his weekend by racing to his heat race win on Saturday afternoon, which positioned him starting 2nd alongside Eric Cooley for Sunday afternoon’s finale.
As the 50 lap finale went green under threatening skies on Sunday Cooley shot to the lead with Thomas assuming the 2nd spot. Daytime conditions made passing difficult atop the clay oval, and William looked to be on his way to a 2nd place finish, before a pair of miscues on the final lap by Cooley allowed Thomas to make a charge at the leader. Exiting turn four on the final lap William worked underneath Cooley and shot past him for the lead and the win!
“It was good racing there, but I wasn’t gonna get by him if he stayed in the bottom,” said Thomas, who became the second straight home-state driver to claim the Ice Bowl trophy. “We were right there on him pretty much the whole race and in lapped traffic we could stay right there with him. He just went in there and shoved. It was a racing mistake, and I just capitalized on it.”
Full results from the event are available at www.TalladegaShortTrack.com.
Thomas will now make the long tow west to Tucson International Raceway (Tucson, Arizona) to compete in the NDRL sanctioned, 2nd Annual Winter Extreme. The miniseries includes six events held over the course of January 11th-19th with purses ranging from $3,000-to-win to $5,000-to-win with a $10,000-to-win finale.
On their way home William and AIS Motorsports will compete in the Battle at the Border, which will be held January 24th-26th at El Paso Speedway Park (El Paso, Texas). Action opens with a $3,000-to-win race before seeing a pair of $5,000-to-win races contested. The El Paso events will also be NDRL sanctioned, but like the Tucson events will be non-points races. For more information on the events, please visit www.TheNDRL.com .
William Thomas is competing in the 2014 edition of the Champion Spark Plugs Search for a Champion. The contest offers $125,000 in sponsorships to drivers, and he will be competing against drivers from all forms of motorsports.
Fans can vote once per day leading up to the contest. To make William’s dreams come true to win this contest as well as to see his contest video please click on the banner at the top of his homepage at www.WilliamThomas.net .
William Thomas Motorsports would like to thank Alexander’s Industrial Services, Austin Trucking Company, Hoosier Race Tires, Outlaw Southeast, Team GRT by Weaver, Outlaw Race Parts Southeast, Shy Racing Suspension, Dirtwrap, Stealth Carburetors, Kinser Air Filters, Winters, PST Drive Shafts, Sweet Mfg, Ultra-Shield, Cloyes, COMP Cams, Eibach Springs, Holley, KRC Steering Pumps, Lunati, PRC (Douglasville) T&D Machine Products, Wiseco, Wrisco, AR Bodies, Schaefer Oil, Schoenfeld Headers, Sunoco Fuel, Keizer Wheels, Jay Dickens Motors, FK Rod Ends, TWM, Napa and MSRMafia.com Marketing Services.
For the latest information on William Thomas, please visit www.WilliamThomas.net .
Thanks!
Ben Shelton, Owner
MSR Mafia – www.MSRMafia.com
The Midsouth Racing Scene – www.MidSouthRacing.com