DAWSONVILLE – Local race car driver Johnny Thomas received the “greatest honor of his career” when he was inducted into the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame on Saturday, Aug. 2, alongside four other drivers: Mike Helton, Fulmer Lance, Ethel Flock Mobley and Bob Morris.
The Georgia Racing Hall of Fame was established in 2002 as the state’s official museum of motorsports and inducts a new group of drivers into its ranks each year. The selection process is extensive and involves several rounds of voting by Georgia motorsports experts.
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Inductees like Thomas are recognized for their achievements and contributions to the sport.
Thomas’ racing career began at 17, when he bought his first dirt-track car.
“I was drag racing in Silva, North Carolina, (when) a guy named Jacky Jones asked me why I didn’t get a dirt car,” Thomas said. “So, I bought a dirt car.”
As excited as he was to get the car ready for its first race, his father disapproved.
“We went 50 miles out of the way (because I) thought he wouldn’t be there, but I looked up in the stands and there he sat,” Thomas recalled, describing seeing his father at a track in Gilmer County. “I won (that) first race I drove, and he didn’t say anything else after that.”
Thomas dominated the limited sportsman class for about a decade before moving into late models. In his first year in the new class, he won 42 out of 59 races. In 1987, he claimed two NASCAR Winston Racing Series championships.
Over the years, he leased and operated several tracks, including Tri-County Racetrack in Brasstown, North Carolina, and Sugar Creek Raceway in Blue Ridge, Georgia. He also opened a go-kart track, Lost Creek Raceway, in Blairsville.
“(Racing means) everything,” said Thomas, who retired after a win in 2007. “I miss it hourly.”
Thomas isn’t alone in missing the action. His wife Jan explained that racing has always been a family affair.
“It was always exciting,” she said, adding that their two daughters were raised around the track.
“I grew up around a track with my dad racing,” said their daughter Jillian Myrick. “From going to the NASCAR banquet at 2 weeks old to my first race at 6 weeks old, it has been a huge part of my life and my sister’s life.”
Added Myrick, “We could not be more proud of dad and his achievements in his racing career. While we know him as dad first – and the ‘papa’ to our children – his induction into the Hall of Fame shows (how respected he is by) the public and his racing peers.”
Now, Myrick’s 8-year-old son Thomas is following in his grandfather’s tire tracks as a driver in the quarter-midget class.
“The first race he won meant more (to me) than all the races I won together,” said Johnny Thomas, who hopes the community will come out to support Thomas Myrick for his last race of the season on Sept. 13 at Cumming Fairgrounds.
