Thomas Gaydos is the real-life Lightning McQueen
Written by: Shane Siddall
Tearing down the track leaving nothing but rubber and tire smoke in their wake, the roaring sounds of beasts made of iron and steel. At the wheel of these monsters is a driver, braving the dangers of speed and gravity with a chilling calmness. Their visor and eyes behind, revealing nothing but pure determination and sheer force of will. Racing or motorsport is something that people see on television or from far away on race tracks, not something that one of our peers can do but in that thought, most would be wrong because among our ranks there is one that stands out, a lover of speed, a daredevil, and an overall quieter member of this school, senior Thomas Gaydos.
Thomas and his self built car pictured above
Thomas to the vast majority of people is just an average student going through his senior year, but to a few close friends and family he is so much more, Thomas is a racer. He builds his own cars from the ground up with him stripping junk cars and building them up with racing in mind. With full confidence in his work, Thomas takes them out on the track and pushes them to the limit.
“Yeah, we take cars, strip them down to their base components, and then we build them back up with speed in mind,” said Thomas. Just that skill of being able to build cars would normally be impressive enough but to him it's not enough he has to be at the helm of his creation leading it into the fray of smoke and debris like a ship cutting through the fog, proving that his mechanical prowess and driving expertise is unparalleled.
Now as stated before most would not expect Thomas to take up such a pastime, to brave the dangers involved, but they would be wrong; he is the one in a million that are willing to do what most are terrified of. But what is his motivation to brave these dangers well that falls to his heroes, “ Growing up watching Formula One, you know drivers like Jensen Button and of course Max Verstappen were massive idols of mine and I would love to do what they do”, naturally with idols from the world's most elite motorsport, it will have an impact on one's interests.
To add on to his impressive repertoire he races with three cars all of which are honda hatchbacks that have been repurposed for speed with the cars already being lightweight, then with their expertise in mechanics it can go faster than those cars were frankly ever meant to. With that they are pushing these cars to the absolute brink and sometimes beyond which is where accidents can happen.
Thomas pictured driving above
With the act of any motorsport comes the inherent dangers, mechanical failure, crashing/rolling,fire, and countless other risks. With that I asked Thomas how do you guys prevent accidents, injuries and possibly fatalities,”The risks are massive when it comes to racing, thankfully due to the development of racing safety, going into that a good example is the hans device which is a neck stabilizer that helps prevent whiplash, and naturally our race suits are heavily fire resistant along with our gloves and helmets as well.”. But when it comes to the stability of the cars in the event of a roll, “ We have installed roll cages to stop us from being crushed when we inevitably do roll” says Thomas, The risks are enormous but so is the skill of the drivers, with them being the best in the area and Thomas is among their ranks.
The assassociation that Thomas races with is the S.C.C.A a.k.a the Sports Car Club of America, this is a non-profit organization that is a sanctioning body for racing, rallying, and autocross, this organization help amateur drivers find and then compete in varying levels for competition, in all different forms. The organization itself also helps put safety measures in place at these amateur events, which would otherwise be lack-luster, and helps promote these drivers to more “professional” competitions and events.
But no matter the competition or the organization its under, it takes a different breed to willingly and knowingly embrace the countless dangers and calculations involved with this savage sport, with man-made monsters being pushed to the absolute brink, chaos and mechanical carnage enveloping the cars, but in the eye of that storm is Thomas, and with a soul chilling calmness shifts into another gear.