Thorn Picks Up Where He Left Off in Thursday Snowball Derby Practice

Stop us if you’ve heard this before: Derek Thorn is fast during Snowball Derby week.

The California driver who won last year’s event set the fastest time of the day across three Super Late Model practice sessions for the 56th Annual Snowball Derby presented by Hooters and Safe Locator. Thorn clocked in at 16.482 seconds early in the first round of practice, a time that would not be matched the rest of the day.

Ty Majeski was fastest in the second round of Super Late Model practice, while Jacob Gomes logged the quickest lap of the third and final practice session of the day.

“It’s cool as a team," said Thorn. "We were fastest overall today. It was awesome to see [Jacob] Gomes, part of the same program, P1 in the last session. I feel like, as a program, we’re in a good place.”

The biggest setback of the day for the Snowball Derby field went to Kole Raz, who suffered a mechanical issue during the second round of practice and will be going to a backup car for the remainder of the weekend.

2005 Allen Turner Snowflake 100 winner Hunter Robbins was fastest in practice among Pro Late Model competitors on Thursday, with a lap of 16.840 seconds. Mike Hopkins was fastest in both the second and third rounds of practice.

Snowflake 100 practice ended with an incident involving Dawson Sutton. Sutton's Rackley WAR team had already changed engines earlier in the day, and now will be going to a backup car following the frontstretch incident.

Combined practice results for both divisions can be viewed below.

Snowball Derby qualifying is scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m CT/7 p.m. ET. Fans can watch the qualifying session as well as Saturday and Sunday's Late Model action live on Racing America by clicking here.

Meanwhile, feature racing for the 56th Snowball Derby weekend begins on Thursday night with the ZOOM Equipment Pro Trucks, Dock of Pensacola Beach Sportsmen and Lloyd's Glass Pure Stocks. Click here to watch Thursday's racing live with a RacingAmerica.TV subscription.

COMBINED THURSDAY PRACTICE RESULTS
56TH ANNUAL SNOWBALL DERBY PRESENTED BY HOOTERS AND SAFE LOCATOR

*-Stephen Nasse practiced in both his car and William Byron's No. 24 during practice. William Sawalich practiced in his car and Sammy Smith's 22s.

ALLEN TURNER SNOWFLAKE 100