Written By: Tyler Thomas Motorsports

(January 2nd, 2008) -- After a short off season Tyler and team headed for Daytona International Speedway for only his second time for the World Karting Assoc. Manuf. Cup round 1 and looked forward to the new changes in the track configuration and to back up his strong performance in the Stars Finale in Vegas. Tyler would be competing in 4 classes this year Cadet Jr. Sportsman 1 and 2 ( TopKart Cadet chassis ), Yamaha Jr Sportsman ( TopKart 102 chassis ) and a new class for this year HPV Jr Sportsman ( TopKart Bullet chassis ). Team Tyler was very happy and honored to have Nextel Cup driver and former kart racer Jamie McMurray in the team pit/tent for the weekend while he qualified and ran up front all weekend in the 75 kart field in the tag class. (very impressive for the part time kart driver !!) Thanks Jamie for the time you spent with us this weekend we really enjoyed hanging out with you and Tim we had lots of fun and good memories.

Friday practice was very busy practicing and tuning 3 karts but by the end of practice day Tyler was one of the quickest in all classes and he was very confident going into the first day of racing on Saturday. After a few changes the kart on Saturday morning Tyler timed in 3rd in Cadet Jr Sportsman 1 and 5th in Yamaha Jr Sportsman. With time running short on Saturdays schedule WKA decided to not run prefinals but go straight into finals for 18 laps in each class. Tyler lead every lap of the final in Cadet after taking the lead from 3rd on turn one of the first lap except the last corner of the last lap after the driver running in second all of the race with many unsuccessful passing attempts performed a very aggressive move and tangled with Tyler and not only took himself out but knocked Tyler off track only for Tyler to finish 3rd at the line. Tyler was very disappointed with the finish and a little banged up but he still had another race to run and turned his focus to the Yamaha Jr Sportsman. Tyler started 5th and after a great start he led the race and ran second for the whole race. This race was an awesome race with very close smart heads up racing between Tyler , Jeremy Remick and Jake Cole drafting a little rubbing and position changes that lasted until they crossed the finish line. Jake Cole would finish first after the three would go thru the last turn 3 wide with Cole on the inside Tyler in the middle and Remick on the outside. Tyler would finish second in this battle but any of the three drivers could have won that is what it is all about!!

Sunday started out a little wet but WKA decide to run practice a little long to get the track dry and we were all very thankful to them and all classes had a dry track for practice before qualifying. After the tangle in Saturdays Cadet final Tyler was pretty sore and not comfortable in the kart Sunday morning. Unfortunately Tyler's qualifying showed just how uncomfortable that he really was qualifying 24th in Cadet and 10th in HPV. We had to get creative but by the time prefinals came around we seemed to be able to get Tyler at ease in the seat so he could try to get to the front after his disappointing qualifying attempts. In cadet Tyler advanced from 24th to 16th in 6 laps in the prefinal that would give him 18 laps to get as close to the front as possible in the 18 lap final event. With a very impressive run Tyler finished 8th in the final and was running lap times the same as the lead pack while going thru traffic unfortunately from his starting position the front pack got to far away to make it possible for Tyler to make a run for the lead. HPV was going to be just as challenging but Tyler had a little better starting position after finishing 7th in the 6 lap prefinal. Tyler moved from 7th to 4th in turn one of the final finding himself running with Jeremy Remick dicing it out for 3rd position while no one had anything for the front two driver as far as speed. Tyler would finish 3rd in the race but in post race inspection the race winner was disqualified for an engine issue. That would move Tyler up to 2nd place finish in his first HPV race ever with his brad new Bullet Top Kart chassis. Tyler and team were pretty disappointed with the qualifying effort but to watch Tyler display his true driving talents working his way towards the front was real exiting to watch. Tyler’s next race will be the Florida Winter Tour Jan. 18 thru 20 2008.

A special thanks to Tyler’s sponsors who have supported him and believed in him through the years--

Grand Products , MiSi , Ribtect , Citizens Security Bank , Remington Investigations , B.T.Machine,inc., Woltjer Racing Engines , Fleming Racing engines , Walters Web Design , Prospeed , On Track Promotions.

For More Information visit www.TylerThomasMotorsports.com