Don Thomson Jr. was 5-time national champ
Hall honours Canadian driver whose black Chevy was familiar sight on the ovals
He’s been considered one of the finest racing drivers in Canada, particularly on an oval. He doesn’t race anymore, but he’s still heavily involved in the sport, building race cars and mentoring the next generation.
For his dedication to auto racing, Don Thomson Jr. will be inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in a few weeks and the following words from Teresa Luckanuck will give you an idea of what this sportsman is all about.
“Don lives and breathes racing,” she says. “He is fair, humble and has great respect for his competitors on and off the track. I am his better half and have lived through 21 years of race schedules, 3 a.m. nights at the shop, travelling right across Canada and the U.S., many highs and lows, rule changes, crashes, rebuilds and the relentless pressure to succeed and stay on top.”
When asked about his induction into the Hall of Fame next month, Thomson, a 52-year-old Hamilton native, said he was taken aback by the tribute.
“Was I surprised? Yes, I was surprised,” Thomson said recently. “There have been so many people involved (in racing) to make it happen. I could not have done it without help.”
“I still go to the race track and am involved and I’m super happy. Do I miss it? Sometimes. But I’m at peace with my race career.” DON THOMSON JR.
In the first decade of this century, Thomson won the CASCAR Super Series Championship five years in a row from 2001 through 2005. He won the CASCAR Super Series Eastern title in 1999 and 2000. His black, Home Hardware-sponsored Chevy was a familiar sight in victory lane at ovals across the country.
Thomson started racing with a Street Stock on the small inner oval at Cayuga Speedway, south of Hamilton, in 1979.
It wasn’t long before he took his car to the larger oval at another Hamilton-area track, Flamboro Speedway. It was then that he knew racing was his calling.
He learned his craft during the next few years, his race cars improved along with his driving, and by 1991 Thomson was racing full time in CASCAR, which was then Canada’s national stock car series. When NASCAR took over the CASCAR series in 2007, Thomson didn’t miss a beat. He said one of his most memorable races was winning the very first round of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series.
“That win was big for me,” he noted about his victory at Cayuga in 2007. “I really wanted that race. Not only was it the first in the new series, but I wanted it for my team owner, John Fitzpatrick, who had recently been injured in a road accident.”
Thomson did acknowledge a couple of lows in his career that were gut-wrenching, including finishing second to NASCAR Sprint Cup racer Matt Kenseth during Canada’s largest stock car event, the Canada Day Shootout at Cayuga in 2002. He and Kenseth were neck and neck during the latter stages of the race, but the tires on Thomson’s Chevy were worn out and he had to settle for runner-up.
Then there was the time he thought he’d won the annual race on the road course at Trois-Rivières, Que.
“I led every lap of that race until the last corner when the clutch broke,” he lamented. “I’m thinking, ‘I have this in the bag,’ but it wasn’t meant to be.” Thomson has been successful throughout his racing career. With two regional titles and five national titles, he sat on the pole in 19 of those CASCAR races. Between 2007 and 2011 when he raced in the Canadian Tire series, he started on the pole 11 times, and took seven victories.
Today, Thomson continues in the sport, building race cars for competitors in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series. He also mentors and works with some of the series drivers, including 15-year-old rookie sensation Cayden Lapcevich of Grimsby. Thomson also handles the crewchief duties for the Lapcevich team.
Thomson said he is still enthusiastic about the sport and his role in it, but knew in 2011, after 30 years behind the wheel, that it was time to step aside.
“I still go to the race track and am involved and I’m super happy,” he said. “Do I miss it? Sometimes. But I’m at peace with my race career.”
In being inducted, Thomson will join Maritime stock car racer-builder and significant contributor, the late John Chisholm; builder and significant contributor Ralph Luciw of Uxbridge; and longtime Indy car and stock car racer Alex Tagliani of Montreal.
The International inductee will be Sir Jackie Stewart.
The gala evening will take place Oct. 17, at the Glenn Gould Theatre in the CBC Building on Front St. in Toronto. Tickets are $85 and can be ordered online at cmhf.ca