With a year under their belt, the team spent the off-season doing the necessary maintenance and then anxiously awaited the traditional openers in Tampa, Florida in February. Thinking back to those days, Dosher noted that he “always looked forward to going to Florida in the winter because it was a vacation for us.”
It was also a time to do some serious racing. Then, as now, it is important to get a good start on the year. One of the oddities of the IMCA Winternationals is that many of those who assembled at Tampa‘s Plant Field would disperse widely to other parts of the country once the event came to a close and race with other associations. The 1973 lid-lifters underscored this point. Over the course of the five-day affair, Jan Opperman and Kenny Weld would win twice, while Bobby Adamson captured the miniseries finale.
Significantly, none of those men were gunning for the IMCA championship. As a result, with two runner-up finishes and four top fives overall, Thad left the warmth of Tampa in the catbirds seat for the title. It was a grip he would not loosen.
Back in the Midwest, Dosher scored a BCRA win at WaKeeney, Kansas, and then turned his attention to the traditional IMCA fair dates. Over the course of a banner year he would take the checkered flag at Lincoln, 81 Speedway in Wichita, and the Clay County Fairgrounds in Spencer, Iowa. Also noteworthy, over the course of 20 races he finished in the top five an impressive 11 times.
In the end, Thad easily outdistanced Gene Gennetten and Bill Utz for the title and happily accepted the M&H Racemaster Championship Trophy at the annual awards dinner in Des Moines. By the time the original IMCA had ceased operations, only Jerry Richert, Thad Dosher, and Ray Lee Goodwin had won both the Knoxville Nationals and the IMCA championship.
In 1974 Thad picked up his final IMCA win at Oklahoma City and, in a surprise, made a USAC Silver Crown start for owner Don Duerst at Sedalia, Missouri. At the end of his life, Dosher admitted he liked the speed that came with racing on big half-mile and one-mile tracks, so it wasn‘t surprising that he acquitted himself well at Sedalia‘s big mile oval.
Looking back on that day, he recalled that “Bill Utz was supposed to drive it, but the power steering went out. They put another unit in it but he didn‘t want to get in it.” It turns out the race was a bit challenging, but all of those years racing on fairgrounds tracks with the IMCA and BCRA prepared him well. “I remember driving down the backstretch and stretching my hands to loosen up a bit,” he said. “Sometimes when you raced on a rough track and went as hard as you could, you couldn‘t let go of the steering wheel. When it was over, to get out you had to sit there for a little while and get somebody to help you.”
At the Missouri State Fairgrounds he did his job by qualifying in the 10th position, and in a 100-mile grind won by eventual series champion Mario Andretti, he turned heads with a credible seventh-place finish. While there were other opportunities on the Silver Crown trail that summer, the team could not find the speed to bump into the field again.
When you get unexpected results in novel situations others pay attention, and his Silver Crown performances may have provided the entrée to an interesting opportunity just as his racing life was winding down. Picked up by owner Bobby Hillin and the Longhorn Racing team, Dosher made eight starts during the 1975 USAC sprint car season, beginning with the opener in Reading, Pennsylvania in March.
A high water mark came with a strong performance at the prestigious Tony Hulman Classic at the Terre Haute Action Track, where he was named the Rookie of the Race. Thad did not get another chance on the Silver Crown trail until 1977, but once again he made significant noise. In August, Dosher was one of 49 drivers on hand to attempt to make the starting grid for the annual Tony Bettenhausen 100 at the big mile at Springfield, Illinois. On this day, Thad would shock the USAC gentry by taking the pole position. Unfortunately, a mechanical issue would end his day prematurely.
Eight days later he was back with the Hill/Boykin team facing similar odds. Dosher would qualify in the 17th spot for the Ted Horn Memorial on the beautiful mile at Du Quoin, Illinois and would finish 14th after completing 86 circuits. It would be his last splash on a big stage.
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