8/23/2023
Five Flags Speedway
After 7 Years Away, Thorpe Excited to be Racing PLMs Again; Fans Get Shot at $1K for Attending Weekend Races in Pensacola, Mobile
After 7 Years Away, Thorpe Excited to be Racing PLMs Again; Fans Get Shot at $1K for Attending Weekend Races in Pensacola, Mobile
By Chuck Corder
5flagsspeedway.com reporter
Keith Thorpe still remembers when nights carried on forever.
Crowded in the family shop that still today sits behind their home in Milton, the Thorpe men—Keith, his brothers, their father and uncle—turned wrenches on a multitude of racecars and trucks. His mother, Frances, would deliver chili and hot dogs to the shop when the guys needed a much-deserved break.
“You always knew there would be plenty of food because she cooked such big meals,” Keith Thorpe said of his mom.
Keith and Dougie Thorpe were mainstays in both the local racing scene at Five Flags Speedway and national touring series throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. Keith followed in the footsteps of his older brother and quickly advanced to Late Models while Dougie tested his mettle on what is now NASCAR’s Xfinity Series.
Family has always defined the Thorpes’ racing program. It was Keith’s father, Doug, and his uncle, Kenny, who fell in love with the sport in the 1970s.
“They were gearheads,” Keith Thorpe said of his father and uncle. “They started racing out (at Five Flags) when there were only two divisions.”
Today, there are eight different divisions that compete at Pensacola’s high banks throughout the year. After a seven-year layoff, Keith Thorpe is back racing in one of them, the Allen Turner Hyundai Pro Late Models.
The PLMs are back in action Friday for their third 100-lap feature of the season, and Thorpe will look to improve on his 18th-place finish in June and cash in on the $5,000 winner’s prize. The Zoom Equipment Pro Trucks (25 laps), Lloyd’s Glass Pure Stocks (20) and Story & Bleich Crown Stocks (15) share the marquee. Gates open at 5 p.m. Friday with racing slated for 8 approximately.
Admission is $15 for adults; $12 for seniors, military and students; $5 for children ages 6-11; and free for kids 5-and-under.
Fans have a shot to make their ticket money back and then some this weekend if fortune shines on them. Five Flags and Mobile International Speedway are offering a chance for one lucky fan to win $1,000 if they attend both Friday’s races in Pensacola and the Saturday night slate at MIS. Fans who make both weekend shows will be entered into a drawing, which will occur Saturday.
Thorpe acknowledges his time away doesn’t always allow him to keep up with the PLM contenders but help from family members and Late Model veteran-turned-crew-chief Mike Garvey has allowed him to chase his passion once again. Thorpe’s wife, Paula, and sister-in-law help letter the cars while he, Dougie and Michael work on them.
“It takes a bunch of us. Everybody gets involved,” Thorpe said. “It’s tough to keep up with it. Our main car is 22 years old. Garvey puts clips on it and updates it as we go. We don’t have what the big boys have, but we’re just local guys that want to support the track.
“Give it one more hurrah and see what we can do and have a good time.”
Thorpe’s friendship with Garvey was a driving factor in returning to racing. Thorpe worked with Garvey’s young drivers in recent years, as a spotter and crew man, and marveled at all the technology Garvey had to keep up with to maintain competitive cars.
Doug Thorpe, Keith’s father, passed away a few years ago. Not a day goes by that Keith Thorpe doesn’t fondly think of his father, especially when he’s working on cars with his brothers and uncle.
“He was our motor guy,” Keith remembered. “He’d tell us what we were doing wrong. I miss that a lot.
“Dad is always with us in spirit. He was our mainstay. Our words of wisdom. It has been tough not having him around, but I know he’d be so proud of us.”
Frances will still ride out to the shop on her golf cart to check on Keith and his brothers. She doesn’t come out to the track anymore, but her sons got her a subscription to Racing America and she can watch the races on the pay-per-view broadcast.
“She’s not tech savvy, so we had to get her set up,” he said.
Thorpe battled a wheel issue at the June race, but believes the problems have been solved after a good series of practices last week for his PLM machine, which is sponsored by K.W. Custom Homes, Live Oak Landscaping, Parker Pools, Integrated Surroundings, Florida Jack Construction.
He plans on running Friday night and the season finale race in September before regrouping and deciding on what to do about the Snowflake 100 at the 56th annual Snowball Derby.
“What we spend on that weekend, we could run all next year,” Thorpe said of the Snowflake. “Not many people work on it anymore. They just show up at the racetrack. We work on ours two and three nights a week. We’ve gotta get more speed. Five Flags can be so different. This week, we can be super-fast, and next week dead-last.”
Article Credit: Chuck Corder
