By: Chris Santos
12/20/22… Fast Time Media: 2022 was a year full of big steps & misfortunes for Tyler Thompson. Despite all of the misfortunes, he would impress on the track in both a 360 & a 410. He would show a ton of speed all year long & was one of the most consistent drivers on the West Coast.
Tyler would start off 2022 heading to Silver Dollar Speedway for the Silver Cup. Against a strong field of almost 50 Winged 360 Sprint Cars, Tyler would bring home some good finishes. Friday Night he would lead laps in the feature & finish 8th. Saturday he would go through the B-main, but still muster up a 16th place finish.
A two month break would fall into place before finally getting his season started in the Pacific Northwest. A solid run at Cottage Grove would be a solid start to the season, before heading to Skagit Speedway & putting together an 11th place finish.
NARC would head to the Pacific Northwest for the Fastest Four Days in Motorsports. A tough 17th place finish would start off the four races before bringing home an 8th place finish on Night two at Willamette. Night three would be rained out, while Night four would be a 4th place finish at Grays Harbor Raceway.
In late June, NARC would return to the Pacific Northwest, this time for the 50th Annual Dirt Cup. Night one would see Tyler impress in front of viewers from all over the country. He would battle in the top-3 for most of the race, before finishing in the 7th position.
Night’s two & three but be solid as well as he would make the feature all three nights. He would charge forward in the Friday Night B-main, making the final transfer spot & finishing 19th in the feature. Saturday would once again see Tyler go from 8th-4th in the B-main, but this time finishing 26th in the feature.
On July 9th, Tyler would head to the Cottage Grove Speedway where he would bring home his best finish of the season. Tyler would show good speed all night, and bring home a very good 2nd place finish in Oregon.
The Oregon Speedweek would bring on the toughest part of the season for Tyler. He would start the week off with one of his engines letting go. Then while leading at Cottage Grove Speedway, his second engine would blow, ultimately bringing his 360 season to an end.
When the World of Outlaws came to town, Tyler would have his team ready. They would show good speed every night. Tyler would make the feature three out of four times, with a best finish of 16th coming twice over the four races.
His Pacific Northwest season would come to an end at Cottage Grove Speedway aboard the Cook Motorsports no. 22x. Tyler would have a good weekend, as he would finish 3rd on Friday Night & 4th on Saturday Night.
The 2022 season would come to an end for Tyler in Tulare California at the 28th annual Trophy Cup. Tyler would once again impress at a big event. He would narrowly miss the feature Thursday. However, on Friday he would make the feature & finish in the 15th spot. The Saturday Night show would see him miss the feature by four spots & come home 28th in points.
2022 would test Tyler & his team. “The 2022 season was full of learning and overcoming adversity. We started the year off well at Chico. Went to Elma and had a great night going when we broke a front axle leading bending our frame. Looking back i believe it also hurt the mag in our motor that we weren’t able to find out till later.” Tyler stated, “We had some good runs all year and great run at dirt cup but never felt like we could go 2 or three races without getting involved in something or having new struggles. We lost both our 360 motors in one week. Bent our favorite car. Tried a lot of new setup ideas.“
Overall Tyler would be happy with his 2022 season, and feeling confident going into 2023. “We have gone 5 years with a sprint car win and this was our first year since then without one. Definitely a year of learning but I feel fully confident in our program going forward and really excited for 2023.”
Tyler’s 2022 stats: 25 features, 0 wins, 6 top-5’s, 12 top-10’s.
Tyler would like to thank his sponsors; J&K Auto Repair (Main Sponsor), Northwest Race Solvents, Ed Glazier Auto Chlor Systems, Burke Logging, Button Plumbing LLC, IBEW Local 280, James Gang Pizza, BC Motorsports, Bunce Equipment, Rocket Designs, and Double R Powder Coating.
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