By Brant Thurmond

The 2024 Touring Outlaw Modified Series (TOMS) officially wrapped up the season with the annual awards banquet held Saturday, Nov. 16, at the Hella Shrine Event Center, in Garland.

“It was a challenging year for scheduling purposes,” TOMS series Director Keith Pirtle said in a Facebook post on the TOMS series page following the banquet. “We had 16 races originally scheduled, four rainouts, one track closure, one track with no water, and two races cancelled. But with the help of our supporting tracks, we completed a solid schedule of 12 races.”

The 2024 season had 101 different drivers and 350 total entries race with the series through 12 events according to the Facebook post. The series averaged 29.1 competitors each race, a slight increase compared to 2023, but as the season went on, more growth and potential growth.

“The big thing to look at is we had 17 new racers to race the TOMS series for the first time, with that and the feedback involved that racers will race our series next year,” Pirtle said. “We had three first-time winners.”

“The 2024 Season for the TOMS Series crowned Triston Dycus (Maypearl, Tx) as our series 7-time series champion,” Pirtle continued. “We had four racers in the top 12 that had not finished in the top of our series points. We also had 14 of our racers complete in more than 70 % of our shows. The TOMS Series continues to grow not only with steady counts but the growing respectful and appreciative competition. Simply put, we are a family.”

Pirtle continued in the Facebook post announcing the point fund prize money and thanking the series sponsors.

“The TOMS Series was proud to present a point fund of $40,000, which blows away any previous point fund that we or most local tracks have been able to present,” he said. “Of course, we cannot do that without the support of our major sponsors of Summit Racing Equipment, Hoosier Racing and Smiley’s Racing Product.”

Blackwell, Tx native Fred Wojtek, was among those that were honored as he finished in eighth place in the points in his second year in the TOMS series.

“Last year, I think we were second or third there for a long time and ended up fourth,” Wojtek said following the season finale at Grayson County Speedway on Oct. 26. “Second year with these guys, the bad luck kind of got us. I’m surprised we ended up in the top 10. It was a tough year, but we don’t give up.”

It was an odd and rough year for Wojtek, who had a stretch of three straight DNF’s during the summer months.

The bad luck started at Southern Oklahoma Speedway on July 6, when a broken lifter arm on the rear end of his 44F car ended his night during the heat race.

Wojtek and his team worked to get it repaired and ready to go prior to the next race July 20, at Grayson County Speedway.

However, his night was cut short again following a broken drive shaft.

Wojtek did not race the next scheduled TOMS race at Waco on July 26, but did make another trip to SOS on Aug. 3.

Wojtek finished second in the heat, however the bad luck continued as he only made around two laps in the feature before fuel issues forced him to pull to the infield. It was later discovered that there was water in the fuel.

Even though Wojtek had a stretch of bad luck during the summer months, he did see some success to start the season back on April 6.

Wojtek finished third in the season opening feature race at SOS after finishing second in his heat race.

On June 14, Wojtek finished first in his heat race at Heart O’ Texas Speedway (HOT) and had a solid top 10 finish of eighth in the feature race.

Wojtek finished the season at the TOMS Nationals at Grayson County Speedway with an eighth-place finish on Oct. 25 and a fifth-place finish on Oct. 26.

“We had two decent nights to close out the season,” Wojtek said following the final race on Oct. 26. “Got in the redraw and redrew the three. We fell back two spots. These guys were pretty fast. We could have tightened it up a little bit. But all and all, way better than what we have been in the past and I’m happy about that.

“We had a good weekend and didn’t tear anything up,” he said. “We appreciate all our sponsors, and they are a big help. We couldn’t do it without them.”

Wojtek thanked the series director Pirtle for the hard work his staff does to make sure the series runs smoothly during each race.

“We appreciate the TOMS series with Keith and all his staff,” Wojtek said. “These guys are really fun to race with and are really nice people.

“Congrats to Triston Dycus on his championship,” Wojtek continued. “He’s a helluva racecar driver. Congrats to all the TOMS guys in the top 10. It’s fun racing with them.”

As for 2025, Wojtek said he hopes to improve his racing program.

“We are going to work hard this winter and do some things, probably going to sell some cars, try to get one new or good used car. I’m not sure what the plan is yet,” Wojtek said. “We are going to up our program a bit. With these guys, you got to have good stuff and hopefully we can get all our sponsors back. We really appreciate them.”

Wojtek finished the 2024 season with two top 5’s and five top 10’s in the TOMS series, unofficially.

The following were the final points standings for 2024 season.

1 13J Dycus, Triston Maypearl, TX 12 1017

2 56 Taylor, Troy Midlothian, TX 12 971

3 12 Ingalls, Jason Longview, TX 12 966

4 82 Thomas, Max Eddie Wills Point, TX 12 945

5 3 Cox, Sam Flower Mound, TX 12 895

6 11x Veal, Wesley Princeton, TX 12 855

7 11R Veal, Ryan Princeton, TX 12 795

8 44F Wojtek, Fred Blackwell, TX 12 772

9 12b Gunwall, Bryan Brookston, TX 12 766

10 17 Turney, Trinten Wolfe City, TX 11 595

Wojtek also competed at Rocket Raceway Park on March 2 with the USRA Modifieds, where he finished third in his heat race and 10th in the B Feature.

Wojtek drove his IMCA modified racecar at Abilene Speedway on April 13, where he finished fourth in his heat and third in the feature.

He competed in the IMCA stockcar class on the same night and was fourth in the heat race and fourth in the feature, according to My Race Pass.

Other non-TOMS races included a stockcar race at Kennedale on May 25, where Wojtek finished seventh in his heat, second in the B feature and 10th A feature.

He recorded another top five finish in his IMCA modified at Abilene Speedway on June 8 with a third-place finish in both the heat and feature race.

According to My Race Pass, Wojtek competed in 17 feature races and had five top 5’s.