BOISE, Idaho -- The Thompson Motorsports crew is hard at work prepping a new chassis that will be fitted with the new composite body that is being phased in for use in 2007 in the NASCAR Grand National Division AutoZone West Series.
Led by crew chief Rob Dixon, the crew is working hard to get the new car ready for the Basalite 150 presented by Havoline this Saturday, April 29 at Stockton 99 Speedway. The $107,460 event is to be televised to a national audience live in high definition on HDNet. In addition, SPEED is to provide an enhanced replay.
Brett Thompson, AutoZone West Series driver of the #61 Thompson Motorsports Chevy Monte Carlo recently explained that over the winter as the team began to repair and rebuild a chassis wrecked at Evergreen Speedway last season, that by the time they removed all the bent pieces from the old chassis, they ended up constructing a new chassis from the ground up. The short track chassis is patterned after the team’s most successful car, a car they won with at Mesa Marin Speedway with in 2004 and scored 4 top-5s with. Rather than skin the new car with the traditional sheet metal body, the team elected to mount the new composite body.
Thompson is anxious to get back in the Top 10 in points after a disappointing finish at Phoenix last Thursday. Although Thompson qualified 23rd he practiced in the Top 10, saved his fresh tires until only 20 laps left in the race and was charging to the front when he got caught up in an accident while running 11th. Thompson finished 18th in the race and slipped from eighth in West Series points to 12th.
Thompson was “real pleased with our crew members and how quickly they changed out the radiator after the accident.”
Brett Thompson and Thompson Motorsports enter 2006 coming off their best season in 2005, finishing 6th in NASCAR Grand National Division West Series championship points. Brett and the team scored 2 Top-5s and 8 Top-10 finishes including a 3rd place podium finish at Irwindale. Brett Thompson is anxious to get back to Victory Lane like he did in 2004.
Thompson Motorsports is based in Jerome ID and prepares racecars out of a 12,000 sq. ft. state of the art facility completed in February 2004. Thompson Motorsports prepares Rich Thompson Trucking Chevy Monte Carlos for Brett Thompson for the NASCAR Grand National Division AutoZone West Series, in addition to preparing cars for customers for regional and local racing series.
