Hey everybody!
First off, what’s Toki Poki Motorsports??? Everyone asks! Toki is our dog (who just turned 14 and has been battling cancer for over 8 years…), and Toki Poki is the pet business we started to help promote pet cancer awareness and social outreach. Toki Poki is PET TRADING CARDS WITH A PURPOSE and we send them out several times a year to put smiles on more than 2500 kids in children’s hospitals nationwide. Check out the website for more info: www.TokiPoki.com. We hope to get our non-profit status in 2014 and look forward to keeping kids, pets and their people smiling!
As the 2013 year ends all I have to say is WOW!!!! What an amazing year for TPM.
The 2013 year was a growing year for the staff at TPM. We started the season with Duane M, David M, Doug T, Christyo, and myself running everything from our new shop here in San Antonio. We were lucky enough to bring Danny Webb from southern California on board full time towards the middle of the season and we are going to be bigger and faster than ever!
The stable at TPM has been growing nonstop including the 3013 car of SOA Racing (Randy & Chrissie Watson) in its 2nd season at TPM. The 1015 car (Justin, Don & Dan) came onboard for the last race of the Texas racing season, and we look forward to having them with us in 2014. The newest person to bring their car in to the TPM team is WFO Racing (Pat Sims) from New Mexico with his 4 seat Morphic Industries open wheeled pre-runner.
2013 was a rebuilding year for the Class 5 Unlimited of TPM. Duane and I had decided to go from a VW Type-4 air-cooled engine to a Water Cooled Ford 2.0 racing engine. We spent many late nights and long weekends converting everything over. Installing the engine, taking it out, and putting it back in and so on. I think we have installed and removed the engine at least 20 times making sure everything was going to fit. Running radiator lines was something new to us air-cooled VW guys but nothing was going to stop us.
Once the conversion was finished we took the 5016 car to the M.O.R.E 500 in Lucerne, CA last May and finished a great race with the new FORD Racing motor package installed and dominated all day. We teamed up with our west coast friends to co-drive the car and had a blast. Duane and I drove the car the first 3 laps reaching speeds of up to 106 mph through 4 foot deep California whoops. All I can remember is Duane telling me 80 percent Steve 80 percent…We handed the car over to the second group with an hour lead on the 3rd place car. We can’t wait to put the 5016 up against the fasted cars on the west coast in 2014 and we will be looking for a win.
The Watsons had a fantastic season in the 3013 car finishing 2nd overall in the TDRA season points. Randy is a seasoned veteran behind the wheel and should be nicknamed “Mr. consistent”. Randy runs some of the most consistent laps of any driver I know. He is fast, keeps the car together, and is just an all-around good guy! Chrissie on the other hand, is brand new to driving the 3013. She has 2 solid races under her belt and qualifies for the “Rookie of the Year” award in my book. She is a hard charger that in the drop of a hat climbs in the car and runs great lap times and not to mention she can change into a race suit in record time. She will be a hard charger in the 2014 season and we can’t wait to put her on the podium.
The 1015 car came to TPM towards the 2nd half of the season for a pretty full makeover. She came in a lil fat, a lil ugly, and a lil tired. She came out of surgery a Lean, Mean, Great running machine and is my underdog sleeper pick for the 2014 season. Don and Justin had a good race with solid lap times in Odessa until a chassis failure put them on the trailer. With the new parts being welded and a little luck it will be good to see Don and Justin running in the top 3 in 2014!
Pat Sims…. Oh….. Pat Sims……What can we say about Pat Sims…. Pat wanted to go to Baja. Pat loves Baja…. Pat pushes everything to the limits. Pat rips the front of the car off on day two of Baja. WE LOVE PAT!
Edit: Pats rips the front off again on day 3…WE STILL LOVE PAT!!!!!
After spending 48 hours straight on his car with 4 hours sleep and with 1 mile of testing we loaded the car on the trailer and met Pat on I-10 in the middle of the night so he could go live his dream. Pat brought his very tired 4 seat pre-runner to us for a makeover including storage box, roof rack, full re-build and prep for Baja. We finally received the power steering rack and transmission for the project 48 hours prior to him leaving. Let’s just say it looks like a bomb exploded in the shop as I type this. Pat sent photos of great food and sunsets in San Felipe last night. TPM went to battle so Pat could live his dream, and get ready for next year’s Baja season!
One of the reasons we all have had great success in 2013 is due to the support of our sponsors, great businesses and team effort of companies including KARTEK (Dave B is the man), AHRP (Alamo Hot Rod Parts), TexasMOS, Sotex Race Cars, VP Fuels and many more. Thank you all for the team effort!
2014…..
I would really like to get everyone organized for a trip to the M.O.R.E 500 usually ran in mid-May. The race is usually 500 miles of fantastic racing, with pre-running and camping all week. This would be a perfect event for all of you to get your feet wet in the west coast racing scene. We will provide pit support, race logistics and the winning attitude that TPM always brings. All of the TPM cars are ready for the event, can run strong and have the ability to be in the winner’s circle! M.O.R.E. is a smaller racing organization similar to TDRA and LOVES to see us travel all the way from Texas and goes out of its way to help in any way it can.
We would like to thank all of you for the great team effort in 2013. If we can help in any way, please feel free to give us a call, and once again….. THANK YOU for trusting us with your cars and dreams.
The ENTIRE team
