by Patt Buell
Published November 13, 2003
Have you met Thom Asay? Believe it or not, he's been around quite a few years. The black and white photo of Thom (on your right) was taken in 1979.
Thom has always wanted to go racing. His first car was an MGB. He drove it to Elkhart Lake in 1970 to see the CanAm races at Road America Raceway. He says he took photos of Leonard Janke and Tex Arnold in their CanAm cars.
I first met Thom in the early 1970's, after he joined the Central Nebraska Sports Car Club in 1972, in Grand Island. I saw him at a solo at Fonner Park. He was driving a silver gray 1968 XKE Coupe. Nice looking car!
Thom joined the NRSCCA three years later. He married Michelle in the summer of 1974, and they both started coming to events.
In 1976 he began autocrossing a silver BMW. By this time he and Michelle were crewing for me and my team; also for Clayton Peterson, and Jack and Judy Beck, and anyone else that wanted them to go along.
When Thom finished college he started teaching wood shop classes. He and Michelle moved to Omaha and Thom taught at Beveridge Junior High for several years. He resigned at the end of the 1976 school year and they moved back to Kearney, where he started a home building company with his brothers.
In 1980 Thom bought his first race car. It was originally white, and is the car he is racing now with his son, Tad.
In 1985, the Asays moved back to Omaha and Thom started working as a carpenter. Michelle is Director of Children's Ministries at Brookside Church and teaches Math part-time at Grace University.
Thom and Michelle have two children. Their daughter, Kara, is 22 years old and son, Tad, is 18 years old.
Thom let his membership lapse for a few years but he re-joined NRSCCA in April of 1993. He painted the race car green and Tad has now started racing with his dad. They now share the "little green car" on race weekends.
Thom is still building homes and has just started a company building spec houses. It's called "Reframe Homes."
Thom and Tad will continue racing. Thom loves the sport!
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