Atlanta pro truck dragster Sam Tompkins tried hard and his crew worked themselves to near exhaustion but once again, the Saturday semis and Sunday finals of his chosen sport eluded him.
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But the trip was hardly a wasted one. Tompkins, one of only three African Americans in the pro division of any form of drag racing, was not a stranger in Richmond.
His trip proved to be quite a magnet for the native of Tappahannock Virginia. He was asked to participate in a fund-raiser in front of his former high school and was part of a large front page sports article in the Richmond Times -Dispatch.
Not unexpectedly, he was asked about the absence of blacks on the car racing circuit. "It is a big issue, " he told the reporter. There's probably a number of reasons you don't have more African-Americans in racing. I know, in the sense of sponsorships, when you go to a minority business, they really don't want to support it because they just don't feel like that's going to affect the bottom line and then you go to larger companies, they usually already have established people."
Tompkins is becoming an icon on the circuit and its not all because he is black. Tompkins, who owns the successful Wood and Tompkins Cores in Atlanta, has plunked close to $200,000 in his racing venture, having a truck built from the ground up by legendary builder Jerry Haas. He also hired Dave Aelsio to build his engine and hired him as a crew chief. He is still searching for a major sponsor.
Georgia will get an opportunity to see Tompkins in action May 13-16th at the Southern Nationals in Commerce Georgia.
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