With the season now over and the curtain closing on a very good year for Stompin Tom and the team, we wanted to reflect on 2008. Unfortunately, Mother Nature throughout 2008 was rough on racing to say the least. Sunset lost 7 race nights, while Kawartha lost 6 race nights to inclement weather. On the other side of that, the good race nights brought out fans and spectators in record numbers on many nights.

For the 47 team, 2008 was a race for history, looking to win their 25th Championship. Tom had put an impressive, championship winning crew together consisting of Ken Donaldson, Chris Pariseau AKA "stickman", Sandy Donaldson, Kevin Vande Beek, AKA "Hackit" and John Steiger. The wealth of knowledge, experience, commitment and desire to win that this team brought to the table made the racing that much more exciting and fun.
If the opening night at Peterborough was any indication of how the rest of the season would shape up, it was going to be a good year. On opening night Tom would race his way to the first of 5 hat tricks in 2008. It was evident then, that right out of the gate the team had done their homework big time and the Sunset car was ready to go. A big call out to McColl Racing Enterprises for making an angry racecar into a very content racecar.

With a month already in the books at Sunset, Tom and the crew would maintain the points lead and score their second hat trick of the season before getting to Kawartha for the season opener. The opening race at Kawartha with the second car would throw a curveball to the team as fuel issues would set the team back on this night. Leaving Tom sitting 7th in the points after night one. By the time the end of June rolled around, Tom and the crew had made their way back up to third in the points at Kawartha as well as a steady lead in the points at Sunset.

The month of July would see 2 races at Kawartha, with one being a 100 lap invitational. Tom and the crew were victorious in both. With that, they now had a slim lead in the points at Kawartha. At Sunset, there would only be 1 race night in July and this was a 50 lap race that Tom won, extending his points lead at Sunset.

August would turn out to be about the same as July with "Mother Nature" still dropping rain. Tom would end up racing only 3 times in August and even one of these races was cut short due to inclement weather. August 30th at Sunset Speedway would be the stage for probably the best heat race of the year. Tom would line up on the front row, outside of Chris Morrow. When the green flag dropped, the two would race each other hard side by side for the entire 10 laps with neither man willing to give up top spot. On the final laps everyone in the place was on their feet watching the duo come to the checkered flag. It would be Tom that would win the race by about a fender over Chris. And on this night, Tom would also record his 4th hat trick of the season.

Leading into September, the points race at Kawartha was heating up as Tom was ahead by a mere 3 points over Vic Parsons. Tom and the crew would suffer a major setback as Tom would blow an engine taking the green flag for the first heat of the night. With threatening skies looming, the rain started before the semi and shorten the race night again. Derek had decided to include these points and therefore this would put Tom back behind Vic Parsons overall by 7 points. The final night at Kawartha was a nail bitter, with a new motor in the car and no test time, Tom would rely heavily on the crew to keep focused for that 25th Championship and like a story in Hollywood, it would be Vic Parsons on the final night that would suffer the same setback as Tom, with an engine loss. Tom would remain focused on what he had to do to win the championship and managed to bring home 3rd on the night and this would give Tom and the crew enough points to capture the Limited Late Model championship at Kawartha. The final night at Sunset was far more unforgiving as Ron Quesnelle would send Tom into the wall and ultimately play a large role in the questionable issues with the championship points standings at Sunset Speedway. To this date no replies have been answered in regards to the standings.

2008 also saw the presence of the Special Olympics and some of its athletes on board with Stompin Tom and the crew. Tom would become a goodwill ambassador and had the privilege of meeting many athletes during the year. With the racing seasons wrapped up at Kawartha and Sunset. It was now time to go have some serious fun and tackle another goal for 2008. The Oktoberfest Race at Flamboro and Autumn Colors in Peterborough.

The Flamboro Oktoberfest race is special for Tom and the crew as they would try to repeat a win, as Tom has won this classic the two previous years. And this is where hat trick number 5 came. Tom dominated the field on Saturday winning both heats. The team was pumped and eating Flammy Burgers like no tomorrow. In the feature it would be all Tom and Jason Parker. The pair would end up lapping the field and Jason remained glued to Tom's bumper. Tom would lead every lap and go on to capture the title once again this year.

Peterborough Autumn Colors had eluded Tom in recent years. And this year was as wild as ever. The hits were hard and the cautions were long but as someone had said before, "Sometimes you have to be good to be lucky". Tom would capture the win as Jason Witty would lose his rearend in the closing laps of the race. Tom meanwhile looked like he should have been at a dirt track, driving one very loose racecar.

Also for 2008, in the June 2008 issue of Inside Track, Stompin Tom made the pages with a little reflection of the past 30 or so years.

And so this was 2008 for Stompin Tom Walters and the crew. They had accomplished their goals for this year. Other notable accomplishments, Hackit along with Kyle Donaldson have mastered the unicycle. We will expect a match race between the two in 2009.