Tom Coury discusses what it's like to be a new racer

What do you like most about racing?

               I like the competition the most. Passing and going wheel to wheel with other racers of the same or greater skill level is always exciting. One awesome aspect of competition is the comradery of racing. Meeting the people that you fight with on the track is awesome! The conversations after the race are the best. I recently had a race at Gingerman and it was my favorite race yet. The part that made me enjoy it most was when another driver, Fritz, passed me. A little backstory on Fritz, he is another B-Spec driver that races a Ford Fiesta. He helped me learn a lot when I was involved in a crash at Road America. If it hadn’t been for Fritz, I would have strongly considered not racing anymore because of that incident. When Fritz passed me, that put me back to fourth, knocking me off the podium. He passed me on the second to last lap. That made me push extremely hard to get that position back. Gingerman is an 11 turn track. I was able to pass Fritz back on the 10th turn of the last lap. That was the best feeling ever and Fritz and I agreed that it was an awesome race.

How did you get started?

               I got started by building a fun kart when I was around the age of 10. After that I never stopped loving driving and racing. A few years later my dad took a driving class at Mid-Ohio and met Robby Buhl. We met with him and he said the best way to get into racing is through kart racing, so that’s where I started. I met Brian at CRP Racing and bought my first race kart. I was 15. It was a 2014 Top Kart Twister with a Yamaha KT 100 engine on it. I raced Yamaha Senior for one year. Then I met Ted Sahley. He got me into B-Spec and I got a Mazda 2 from David Daughtery and have been racing B-Spec since.

What is your favorite car right now and why?

               My favorite car right now is the McLaren P1 LM. The LM is the road legal version of the P1 GTR which is a track car. It is, in my opinion, the best looking of the “Holy Trinity”. McLaren is one of, if not the most impressive automaker right now. The cars they are developing are some of the most powerful and visually stunning cars ever. They also improve on their cars faster than any other automaker. Since their return in 2011 with the MP4-12C, they have improved their cars at an incredible rate. They pushed out the 650s with upgraded body styling, engine and handling in 2014, and now in 2017 they released the 720s which is the fastest Super Series car yet. McLaren has made leaps and bounds in just 6 years of development. That is truly amazing.

Who is your favorite driver and why?

               My favorite driver is Robert Alon. He is an absolutely awesome racer. He has raced prototype lites,  prototype challenge and currently races a Lexus RCF GT3 for the Lexus team. He has progressed to where he is now in such a short amount of time, and to me that is truly impressive. He has also been extremely helpful to me. When I was first getting into karts, I found him on Instagram and decided to shoot him a message. He helped me figure out how to get started and then we stopped talking for a bit. A year passed, then I was in cars. I was extremely nervous about racing at Road America because of how fast of a track it is, so I decided I should text him. I asked him about it and he gave me some great tips that helped me gain a lot of speed. My goal is one day become as good of a driver as he is, and be as helpful to a new racer as he has been to me.