Jimmy Thomas won the 2021 Crate Racin’ USA (CRUSA) Dirt Late Model Series championship with a car built by him and his father, Ben. Thomas cited one area on their Scorpion chassis that he believes made a significant difference.
“We reversed the strut on the right front,” Thomas, 29, of Phenix City, Alabama, said. “It is something other chassis builders have tried, but were not very successful with.”
Thomas could see the benefits of changing the right front. However, it took extensive testing to make it work.
“The new right front has more travel, without the chassis digging into the dirt,” said Thomas. “That allows everything to work better. The car steers better. The right front gets down, without scrubbing speed, and traction increases.”
Ben Thomas helped build cars at the family’s Jig-A-Lo Chassis during the 1990s. As the 2000s rolled around, Ben concentrated on building cars on his own at Scorpion Chassis, as his back could not take the rigors of being behind the wheel anymore. Ben’s son, Jimmy, then took up racing in 2009.
“What makes Scorpion Chassis great is that it’s just me and my dad building the cars,” Thomas said. “We keep the circle small. We get feedback from our customers, and we’ve made changes along the way to make our chassis faster. The assembly-line chassis companies are too busy for that.”
Thomas said 10 cars from their shop currently compete in the South, with two using their new right front. They’re in the process of building four more cars, all of which incorporate the right-front Thomas had used.
Thinking differently paid off for Thomas. In his first year in CRUSA touring competition, he won five features and the title. But, it didn’t come easy.
“We had terrible bad luck,” said Thomas. “I hit the wall at Magnolia Motor Speedway [in Columbus, Mississippi]. I hit a tractor tire going for fourth at Boothill Speedway [in Greenwood, Louisiana]. We were 22 points out of first going into the last race. We took the car all the way down before the last race [at Needmore Speedway in Norman Park, Georgia], and won a smooth $22,000 —$10,000 for the championship, $10,000 for the feature, and $2,000 for the race the night before.”
Jimmy Thomas intends to race the CRUSA circuit again in 2022.
“I’d love to go super late model racing, but the numbers aren’t there,” Thomas said. “The chassis cost is the same. The purses are the same in my area. The difference is the engine. A super late model engine costs you $30,000 to $45,000. A blueprinted 604 crate costs $10,000 to $12,000. That makes all the difference.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
