Thomas even met the Drift King Keiichi Tsuchya a few years back!
Thomas is a very special driver to me for various reasons. I’ve first met the guy many years ago when we were both barely 18. Back then, we were both IT trainees in the same company. The main difference was that Thomas was already obsessed with cars, while I was still mainly obsessed with having a mighty computer and wearing Birkenstocks with lame white socks.
You could say Thomas was the guy who first got me into proper cars, since his first car (I won’t count your crappy micra) was an S13. I’ll spare you this story as we covered it already in the „The days we started racing“ report.
Time for bosozoku exhaust pipes!!
Thomas is a very versatile driver – He started off with grip driving and I believe that’s still where his heart belongs in the end. He can drift very well too as he proved on various occasions but in the end, he can’t rest until he’s done his obligatory 75 laps on the Nürburgring Norschleife every year. What a nutter!
His current S14 racecar is a sight to behold
I’d describe his driving style as very calm and controlled. He’d rather work his way up on a trackday, starting off taking it easy and then raising the bar more and more. But when he’s at the peak (which usually doesn’t take long) then you better be ready or he’ll smoke you on the spot. His driving is also very precise since he’s a perfectionist in general.
Thomas joined Team Speed Industries over a year ago, but he’s always been part of the gang back when the team started taking shape. Even tough he does not drive competively in either Grip or Drift, I still maintain he’s a force to be reckoned with especially on the scary Nordschleife track. The legendary Norschleife battles between Thomas (s13) and myself (AE86) back in the days come to mind… oh the memories. It’s actually surprising we are both still alive!
His previous car, the S13 sitting at the pit lane at Grobnik racetrack in Croatia
He drives the stunning white & gold S14 racecar at the moment and unfortunately recently sold his first S13 that he’d kept for Nordschleife driving. But his S14 isn’t too shabby either, sporting a fully built SR20DET with forged internals, NOS-injection and 450hp at peak boost. Fucker!
The S14 is both used for grip and drift driving
I heard rumours that he’s already plotting to get a new Nürburgring toy! Can’t wait to see what it will be…
What’s also special about Thomas is the fact that he is both a driver and a media-team member of Speed Industries. That’s because he is donthomaso.ch, one of our top photographers.
Thomas is also in our media team, here together with Martin from silverpics
Be sure to check out his website if you haven’t already! That is probably why you don’t see him on the track that often – he’s constantly supporting the drift team at the competitions by taking pictures and helping out! We can’t thank him enough for that.
Hopefully, we will see much more driving action of Thomas in this 2011 season. And of course the same awesome photographs he always delivers.