By Grant Clark
Garrett Thomas had been around racing his entire life. Growing up in McCleary, not too far from Grays Harbor Raceway, he spent plenty of his summers as a kid watching his father, Brian, drive fast and turn left.
“Sprint cars, Modifieds, Midgets,” Thomas remembers, “he pretty much raced everything.”
The list was hardly limited simply to cars, however, as Thomas’ dad was drawn to basically anything you could ride, and more importantly, race. Thomas’ dad’s vehicles of choice included everything from snowmobiles and BMX bikes to dog sleds and more.
But despite his dad’s racing legacy, growing up, Thomas’ said he never really felt drawn to the sport.
“It’s strange, but growing up I had no interest at all in racing,” said the 20-year-old Thomas. “I was always around it, but it was something I never really wanted to pursue when I was younger.”
Thomas, a 2013 graduate of Elma High School, stuck to more traditional sports during his teen years, playing basketball and soccer for the Eagles.
Thomas’ sister, Brandi, was an all-state basketball selection in 2010 at Elma before going on to play at Washington State University, where she appeared in 128 games — second-most in school history.
It was beginning to appear dad’s love for all things motorized would not be passed on to his children.
Then, at age 16, Thomas took a spin in a go-kart.
While the word “go-kart” springs up visuals of amusement park rides open to the general public where the patrons would zip around a small course for a couple laps reaching top speeds of 12-miles-per-hour, this go-kart was different. This was a Speedway Kart.
The outside of the Speedway Kart appears like a traditional go-kart, but the vehicle possesses several traits better associated with open-wheel racing. And they’re fast. Really fast.
“I have no idea why it didn’t interest me before,” said Thomas, “but I was sold after that.”
Five years later, Thomas is one of the top drivers in the Northwest Focus Midgets series at both Grays Harbor Raceway — where he currently sits second in the seasonal points standings (having won two of the four feature races he has competed in) — and Skagit Speedway, where he’s also won a pair of races and ranks first among drivers in the points standings.
Despite getting involved in the sport later than some of his peers, it didn’t take Thomas, who also belongs to the welding program at Grays Harbor College, long to find his groove on the track.
In just his 10th race, Thomas won the Buddhe Kinser Memorial — the biggest Speedway Kart race in the Pacific Northwest — before claiming the Raymond Indoor championship at Salem Indoor Speedway.
Within a year, Thomas made the transition to Midget car racing.
These four-cylinder vehicles weigh 1,000 pounds and can feature 400 horsepower. They’re small but powerful — and quite a leap from go-karts.
“I did some practice laps, a lot of laps actually,” Thomas said. “But you can get hundreds of practice laps in and it’s still not the same as when you’re racing.”
Thomas, with his father helping every step of the way, made the jump in class look rather easy, winning Rookie of the Year in the Midgets Division at Grays Harbor Raceway following his 2011 campaign.
During his sophomore season, Thomas finished in the top five of the main event four times. The next season he continued his evolution as a driver, finishing second in the points standings at his home track.
Thomas raced in 10 feature races in 2013 as an 18-year-old, collecting eight second-place finishes, including finishing as the runner-up in the final seven races.
“It’s one thing to keep finishing second, but to lose every time to the same guy is pretty frustrating,” said Thomas, who was second to overall division champion Chase Goetz eight times that year. “Before every race you try to figure out what you can do differently, but I just kept running second.”
Thomas shook off the bride’s maid label the following season, taking a first-place in Grays Harbor through a disqualification after the original winner’s vehicle was overweight. Nice, but hardily as satisfying as crossing the wire first.
Thomas, however, didn’t have to wait long to taste victory again; he claimed victory in his very next start at Skagit Speedway.
“The first win was great, but that’s not really how you want to get it,” Thomas said. “To win it next time out was just an incredible feeling.”
With a combined four victories already this year, Thomas, whose father won the 2006 Midget championship at Grays Harbor Raceway, is clearly one of the top contenders for a series championship at both Grays Harbor and Skagit.
“There’s still a lot of racing left,” Thomas said, “but I couldn’t ask for a better start [to the season].”
Grays Harbor Raceway has 16 remaining race dates in the 2015 season, beginning with the Fred Brownfield Classic/ASCS Nationals on July 3 and 4. The season concludes on October 3 with the annual Season Championships.
