SWS: Driver profile - Thomas Martin

Driven to make it: Thomas Martin

Auburn, Calif. (September 25, 2002) At twenty-four years old, Thomas Martin knows exactly what he wants to do. He wants to drive race cars. While most his age are fumbling around figuring out where to go on Friday, Martin is in his race shop preparing his racecars for the weekend battle. It has always been that way for the former high school football star. While catching touchdowns and making tackles, his mind was always on going fast and turning left.

Martin's interest in motorsports started at a young age. His dad John has been a Toyota certified mechanic for many years and owned several min-stock racing machines. Young Martin would hang around the shop and as he grew, his dad would give him projects to do on the car and a love affair was born.

Thomas Martin started racing on his sixteenth birthday and has never looked back. His first season was spent tackling the tough quarter-mile dirt confines of Grass Valley Speedway. Late in 1994 he joined the Pro-Four West coast series and immediately made a name for himself. He won the prestigious 1995 Rookie-of-the-Year honors and followed that up in 1996 with the series championship. Martin followed his championship campaign up with top-three points finishes in 1997 and 1998. He still holds the one-lap Pro-Four qualifying record at Altamont Raceway Park.

In 1999, Martin moved his attention to racing full-sized Late Model stock cars at Madera Speedway in Central California. Since then he has raced Late Models whenever he can and is focusing his attention on a Rookie-of-the-Year run in 2003 on the Featherlite Southwest Series, NASCAR Touring division.

Martin devotes all his time to racing when not working as a CNC machinist or attending college majoring in Business and Marketing. His goal is to be racing every weekend and ultimately make to NASCAR's upper divisions.

"I don't have a lot of hobbies other than racing," Martin said. "I have loved racing from the minute I went to my first race as a kid. Most everything I do centers around racing."

With the support of his parents, John and Betty Martin (recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary), and his focused desire to compete, this young talent is one to watch.

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