Written By: Tyler Thomas Motorsports

(July 14th, 2006) -- Tyler has been anticipating the 3rd round of the Stars of Karting series at Lowe's Motor Speedway. It was the teams first trip to one of the most technical tracks that Tyler has had the opportunity to visit. Their week started out with a tour of the many race shops in the Charlotte area with Jim McMurray the father of Nextel cup driver Jamie McMurray on Wednesday and to get to see and meet a few of the big names in the NASCAR industry was a very memorable time for all of the team at Tyler Thomas Motor sports. Thanks Jim!!

Friday's practice seemed to go pretty smooth for Tyler learning the track and trying to get the chassis and the gearing dialed in for this really cool track. By days end Tyler was in the top 10 to 15 on the speed charts which they were pretty happy with. Saturday's practice and qualifying Tyler was mostly in the top 10 with a qualifying effort of 15th. The pre final on Saturday looked like it was going to be a good effort as Tyler moved up as high as 8th in the first few laps of the race but after about half way Tyler started to fade and ended up 15th the same as he qualified.

In the final, the team made some changes to the gearing and to the chassis, again Tyler would start to march through the field early in the race Tyler would be running in 7th at the tail end of the lead pack but again he started to fade and fell out of the race on the start of lap 6 they found out later the engine’s lower rod bearing failed and answered the teams questions as to why Tyler was fading after a few laps. They were very disappointed and didn’t feel the need to weigh since Tyler was one of the first to not finish resulting in a DQ for that day’s event. They didn’t see the point to weigh since they are not running for the points but after thinking about it they should have at least made the effort to show all of our sponsors the respect that they deserve and for that the team apologizes to all of our sponsors. Tyler Thomas Motorsports will not let that happen ever again.

The next day of racing brought a new sense of enthusiasm to the entire team. Jim Stroud of MiSi had another stout engine from the fleet and as it turns out it was probably better than the one from the day before with Tyler running 4th on the speed charts after the first practice. Tyler would qualify in the 11th position in a very tight field. Showing the intensity from the day before Tyler was showing his talent in the pre final he moved his way up to 7th and on the last lap lost 2 spots to put him starting 10th for the final.

By the time the final came around they had made some changes to the chassis that they were reluctant to change early in the weekend that proved to be the right direction. Tyler worked his way up to 7th in the first 2 laps running with the lead pack and with a few tense moments by the end of the final Tyler finished a respectable 12th after a tough battle with hard charging Daniel Vela that slowed them down considerably to put to much distance between 7th through 10th. All in all they felt pretty happy with Tyler’s results after knowing how much more experience most of the front runners have at this track than Tyler since it was their first time there. The next stars event will be round 4 in Shawano, WI. Another new track for Tyler. They are really looking forward to the experience.

Tyler Thomas Motorsports would like to thank all there sponsors for the help to both the team and racing in general. Those include; MiSi , Grand Products , OVRP Racing , B.T.Machine , Walters Web Design , On Track Promotions , and Remington Investigations.