St. Albert junior dragster Kassie Thomas is revved up for another world championship.
Thomas, 13, will race in the masters category in the eight to 17 junior age group class after qualifying for the 2015 International Hot Rod Association Summit Racing Tournament of Champions in the junior advanced category out of division six, a northwest racing circuit.
“I’m always excited to do more drag racing because it’s my favorite thing pretty much to do,” said the Grade 8 Lorne Akins student. “Honestly, it’s a thrill every single time we go out to the track, even if it’s a normal weekend race. It’s a thrill just to be able to be out there.”
Last year as a 12-year-old, Thomas was the best of the best out of 16 advanced and masters qualifiers from their divisions at the IHRA’s inaugural world finals for junior dragsters last October at Memphis International Speedway.
“My goal mainly was to make it past the first round. If I did that I would be happy,” said Thomas, a two-time division six junior advanced champion. “Just imagine the thought that you came all this way down to the states from Canada and you lost in first round. That sucks.
“There are no second chances. You do the race and that’s it. It’s one shot.”
The combination of achieving the perfect reaction time on the electronic starting line tree and the closest dial-in estimation to the 1/100th of a second of your race time determined the bracket race winners.
Thomas prevailed against two 15-year-olds, one 17-year-old and 12-year-old Hayden Lambert, a division nine racer from Albemarle, North Carolina, in the fourth and last elimination round at worlds.
“I was nervous like everyone but what my dad (Jayson) has told me, and I completely agree with it, is when I put on the helmet I look at the staging lanes ready to race. As soon as I put my helmet on I focus only on the race, that’s all my attention is on. The emotions shut off,” she said. “I pretty much just recite in my head quickly no matter what the outcome is, if I’m a winner or a loser it doesn’t matter. I’m honoured to be here and my parents and no one else will think less of me because I got to go to the world championship.”
Thomas didn’t realize the magnitude of the moment until the trophy presentation in the winner’s circle.
“It was kind of a late reaction of me clicking in that holy crap I won this. When I was getting this gigantic trophy and they were sizing up a nice ring for me and asking me questions, this is when it actually popped into my head: ‘This is actually an important thing that I did. Wow!’ ” said Thomas, who finished six inches ahead of Lambert and cut a .007 to his .034.
“I’m not the greatest of celebrators, I guess. I don’t like to brag in front of other people to make them feel bad but I just felt completely overwhelmed, especially with my brother (Reed) and mother (Charlene) being super, super proud of me.”
Thomas will now focus on qualifying for the 2016 junior worlds out of the masters category in division six.
“You always try for your best but I wouldn’t be too bummed out if I do not end up making it this season because if you kind of think about it you are the only person out of the rest of the people in the world who won the world championship.”
Masters are generally the most adept junior dragsters because of their race experience, knowledge of their vehicles and are more consistent on the reaction time at the tree and dial-in estimations.
“In masters, most of the time the older and more experience will almost win all the time,” said Thomas, who went head-to-head against some masters as an advanced racer in the junior class in division six. “There is a little bit of an advantage to me I guess this year because other racers who are less experienced they might get a little bit wowed out, saying, ‘Oh, this girl won the world championship. She is tough to beat so I better be very good with my reaction time or I will mess up.’ ”
June is the busiest month of the racing season for Thomas, who competed in six Summit Pro-Am races last year and in four finals was a winner once and runner-up three times. Her 342 points sealed the deal as the division six junior advanced champion for a berth at worlds.
Racing is a family affair for Thomas, who comes from a sixth generation of racers and third generation of drag racers. At worlds, her grandfather, Don Thomas, raced his 2004 Pontiac Grand Am in the Super Stock class and her dad, Jayson, competed in the Super Rod class with his 1966 Chevelle.
“When I was too young to race I would always watch and learn from my oldest brother, Corey (IHRA 2008 Rocky Mountain National junior champion), and my middle brother, Reed (IHRA 2012 junior division champion), and I would just watch them race and work on the cars. I just grew up knowing that I would have a chance at this and I’m going to take it to my advantage,” said Thomas, a type 1 diabetic who started racing at age 10 with Thomas Family Racing.
Her dragster, based off a full-sized model, can cover 1/8th of a mile track in basically eight seconds at a maximum race speed of 85 miles per hour with a 7.90 engine and it takes 3.5 seconds to go from zero to 60 mph.
Split second decision making with calculations and estimations also play a role in the driver’s success.
“It does have a lot of skill to it, I agree, but it’s also luck,” said Thomas, who races out of Edmonton’s Castrol Raceway.
Thomas Family Racing is looking for sponsors this year to assist in her repeat bid as world champion. Contact Jayson at [email protected] for more information.
