BY: Chris Santos
10/25/22…Tulare California: Thursday Night, Tyler Thompson would team up with the Brett Smith Racing team and head to Tulare California for the 2022 Trophy Cup. An insane field of 86 Winged 360 Sprint Cars would pack the Tulare Thunderbowl pit area ready to roll on Thursday Night.
Tyler would roll out in group B for qualifying and go out 27th out of the 43 cars in his group. He would end up going 23rd quick out of the 43 Winged 360 Sprint Cars that would be in his group. That would barely put him in the 6 car heat race inverts.
He would roll off from the pole of his heat race, needing to win it to lock into the feature. He would get out to the early lead. However Carson Macedo would charge in the heat race and feel him in. He would take the lead and Tyler would go on to finish 2nd.
In the B-main he would roll off from the 9th position inside of row 5. He would fight hard in a stacked B-main and would hold his own. However it wouldn’t be enough as he would finish in the 9th spot, falling 5 spots short of a transfer position to the Thursday Night Feature event.
Friday Night, Tyler Thompson would return to the Tulare Thunderbowl for Night number 2 of the 2022 Trophy Cup. Another strong field would be in action as 84 Winged 360 Sprint Cars would return to tue tricky track in hopes of getting a good points might going into Saturday.
This time he would be in the first group and be the 15th driver out. However the result would be the same as he would end up going 23rd quick again and making the 6 car heat race inverts. “We went out early but didn’t really lay down the lap we wanted. We got pretty lucky and made the invert barely.”
Once again, Tyler would roll off from the pile of his heat race, needing to win to make the feature. He would once again jump out to the early lead. Only this time he would hold on to the lead and win the heat race, locking into the Friday feature. “Started on the pole of our heat again and had to win that and we won it.”
That would lock him into the Friday Feature, where he would start in the 21st spot. Starting 21st, Tyler would have a rough time passing in the back. However as things got going he would gain spots courtesy of some cautions and picking cars off when it got slick. He would end up finishing in the 15th spot. “
“Locked in the main and had to start pretty deep from 21st. I feel like we had a really good car. We just weren’t good early when it was hooked up. Once it slicked off about halfway through, it felt like our car came alive we were able to pas a couple cars and get to 15th.”
Saturday Night, Tyler would enter the night sitting 29th in the points, needing to get to the top-20 to lock into the show. Saturday they would get straight into heat races with no qualifying, as he looked to gain points and lock into the show.
He would start on the outside of row 2 in the 4th spot. Starting 4th he would need to gain as max spots as possible to lock into the show. He would end up only getting to 3rd and would sit 26th in the points heading into the B-main.
The B-main would see a 6 car invert which put Tyler on the front row inside. Early on he would struggle and fall back outside of the top-10. However, he would start to charge towards the end of the race but it would not be enough as he would only get to the 8th spot where his night & weekend would end.
Overall it was a good weekend for Tyler aboard the Brett Smith number 98H. He would show very good speed in just his 2nd appearance in Tulare and against a very strong field of cars. It was a great way to end the year off for Tyler and his team.
Next Race: TBA