NEWTON, Iowa – ThorSport Racing general manager David Pepper offered details Friday afternoon of the “major fire” that broke out in the back of the company’s 100,000 square foot building Monday morning that has affected all four of its championship contending NASCAR Camping World Truck Series teams.
The fire, which its cause has been yet to be determined destroyed nearly 40 percent of the team’s facility, while all other areas of the building received extensive smoke and fire damage. Pepper added that all four teams suffered truck losses in the blaze, including vehicles for next weekend’s race at Gateway (Ill.) Motorsports Park.
Despite the emotion and stress the fire left on the two-time championship-winning organization, “the team’s goals haven’t changed.
“Whether we’re building trucks in parking lots, whether we’re working at race tracks and asking them to stay late so we can build them, we have to build race trucks that keep the points lead, the put all our trucks in the Chase and win a championship,” Pepper said Friday at Iowa Speedway.
“There can’t be a built-in excuse. This is where we have to show our leadership and lead this team to where it needs to be and that as one of the premier teams, which we feel we are.”
For now, the team is scattered at various places around the city of Sandusky, preparing for the upcoming races. Pepper expects that routine to continue for now as the shop has already begun to be cleaned and rebuilt.
“We’re kind of scattered all over Sandusky right now. A lot of people in the community and in the NASCAR community have helped, just bringing us pieces and parts on trailers,” Pepper said. “We have a plan – we’re here. The good thing is no one was hurt.”
While the team continues to rebuild and restock the team’s assets, Pepper said it won’t carve into the team’s goals of running the full schedule or contending for race wins and ultimately their third championship.
“We plan to compete on schedule the rest of the season – all four trucks will be at every race.,” Pepper added. “We’re kind of going ‘old school’ now – working in the parking lots. Back in the 1990s, we used to build trucks in parking lots in between races, particularly on the West Coast.”
While the overwhelming support of over the Motorsports community has been embracing for the Duke and Rhonda Thorson-owned team, Pepper said the team would be in a much worse position without those who first arrived on scene to battle the fire.
“We would not be here racing without the first responders,” he said. “We had firefighters from four different locations in the counties. They were fighting the fires in full fire gear and asking us what race trucks did they need to push out in order for us to get to Iowa.”
Pepper, who also serves as a spotter added that within the first 24 hours, he received over 400 calls and emails from the Motorsports community, including teams from the Sprint Cup, XFINITY, Truck and ARCA offering varying degrees of help.
On Saturday night, the team will for at least for a moment put the shocking and unfortunate event in the rear-view mirror for a few hours with one goal in mind, “The best medicine for us right now would be to win,” Pepper concluded.
Matt Crafton, a two-time series champion, currently leads the series standings and has already earned a season-high two wins this season. Cameron Hayley is 11th in points, Ben Rhodes, a rookie is 15th and Rico Abreu also in his rookie season is 17th.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
