Looking back on his days racing in the West series, Thorn says his arrangement with Brunacti was always meant to be for a limited amount of time and there was never a guarantee it would lead to something more.
“Bob offered me a ride and upfront was like, ‘I want you to drive for me for a year or two and this is it,’” Thorn recalled. “The financial backing to pull in the sponsors, and the business-to-business relationships that go on back East, I’ve never really lived in North Carolina and got a taste of how all that stuff really works.
“The days of just waiting for a phone call for someone to call you up and drive their stuff, it seems like it’s few and far between anymore.”
Despite not getting the opportunity to move up and pursue a NASCAR career, Thorn has no regrets. He is a full-time employee of Campbell Motorsports in Bakersfield, Calif., where he works in the shop and helps prepare his car and the car of his teammate, Carlos Vieira.
“I think everything in life happens for a reason,” said Thorn. “I met my wife here in Bakersfield after I began driving for Byron and to have the family relationship with Byron and Carol and Mike and Vicky Keene and just to have all that camaraderie with the people we’ve had in our crew.
“To have my wife, two healthy kids, we have our house here in Bakersfield. I live 15 minutes from work and I get to see my kids every night,” Thorn continued. “We run between 10 and 15 races a year. I work in the shop as a fabricator. I work on our stuff and Carlos Vieira’s, my teammate, and I’ve been able to make a living at it.
“I have no regrets. I love every minute of what I do. Is it NASCAR? Is it on TV on Sundays? No, but I couldn’t ask for a more fortunate circumstance for myself to be in than the position I am.”
He may not have gotten his shot at NASCAR, but Thorn still has plenty he wants to accomplish. There are plenty of big races he wants to win, including the Snowball Derby.
His runner-up finish last year, along with two consecutive poles for the event, has lit a fire under Thorn that isn’t going out anytime soon.
“We’ve always had speed and we’ve had great success in SRL and we’ve always gone to open shows like the Summer Showdown, Winter Showdown, the Derby or even the All American 400,” Thorn said. “We’ve had speed at every single one of those and led laps at every single one of those. The Winter Showdown evaded us a couple different times.
“The Summer Showdown I’ve gotten a couple of flat tires. I got wrecked back there at the All American 400 after leading 200 of 300 laps. We got snookered in the last 30 laps of the Snowball by Majeski.
“There are a lot of races that we’ve gone and run that we haven’t won yet,” Thorn added. “My goal, or our goal, is to try and win every race we attend. But to go back and win those races and compete at those races are the ones that are probably highest on our list right now.”
Meanwhile, Thorn and Campbell Motorsports are going to continue racing with the SPEARS SRL Southwest Tour. Between March 20 and June 26, Thorn and Campbell Motorsports won five consecutive races with the series.
His most recent victory with the series came on June 26 at Kern County Raceway in Bakersfield, Calif., where Thorn survived a race-long battle with Buddy Shepherd to claim the trophy.
After climbing from his car to a roar from the crowd, Thorn ended his victory lane interview by saying, “They’re trying to beat us and we’re trying to stay ahead of them. It’s a never-ending battle.”
For Thorn and Campbell Motorsports, the battle rages on.