The “guy from Missouri” is fast, but he’s actually a Mississippi boy.
Well, sort of.
Josh Tomlin showed up at Magnolia Motor Speedway on March 18 and dominated the Street Stocks race in his first feature win at the track. He’s also competed this year at Columbus Speedway and Whynot Motorsports Park in Meridian.
Those tracks are a common trio for area drivers, and it’s becoming that way for Tomlin, a lawyer in Caruthersville, Missouri, roughly 10 minutes from his hometown of Hayti, Missouri. Each weekend, he’s made the eight-hour round-trip from Missouri to Mississippi to compete in NeSmith Street Stocks events, as he’ll do this weekend for the third annual Golden Egg Classic, a two-day show that begins tonight.
“I’ve heard about the NeSmith deal down here, and it’s a competitive circuit,” Tomlin said. “We like to race with the best. It’s getting a lot more expensive to race back home because the motor rules are getting out of hand. This is a way to cut the costs and still have a lot of fun.”
Tomlin’s familiarity with Mississippi racing dates back to last season, when he competed in a few races and quickly realized he needed to step up his program.
“We got our butt kicked,” Tomlin said. “We did our homework, built a new car and changed up some things with our program. We’ve been pretty good so far, winning a few heats and a feature at Magnolia. So things are looking up for 2017.”
Tomlin knew about the racing scene in Mississippi from his time as a law student at Mississippi College. Strangely, though, outside of a race at Whynot, he spent his college years racing on the weekends close to home in Missouri.
“I didn’t have class on Friday, so Thursday after class I’d drive immediately back home to Missouri,” he said. “We would race primarily in Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. We would race the whole weekend, drive back to Missouri, I’d get back in the truck and go back to Jackson. We did that for two or three years, nearly every weekend.”
Tomlin started racing go-karts at 4 years old but quit racing when he started playing sports in school. He talked his father, Randy, into buying a Crate Late Model after high school and raced in that division before moving to Street Stocks and winning nearly 30 races. He then moved to modifieds, but by that time, he’d started law school and couldn’t commit to that division. He then moved back to Street Stocks and has been competing in the division ever since. He credits his father, his crew chief, Darrell Beckham, and car-builder, Race McMahon for his successful start to the season.
Tomlin said the most popular division in Missouri is Street Stocks, but he has to drive two hours to reach the nearest track. And while tacking on a few extra hours to the weekend trip adds to the race budget, the ability to hit multiple tracks throughout the weekend helps balance the budget, Tomlin said.
“The drivers down here respect you and respect everybody’s equipment,” Tomlin said. “You can come down here and have a clean race and come back the next weekend. NeSmith has a handle on the rules, and the racetracks and surfaces are really nice down here. We’ll be here for Mississippi Street Stock Series, NeSmith shows – anywhere that’s offering decent money to help us break even on the weekends.”
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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