Marty Gordon
NRVsports@ourvalley.org
NASCAR currently has its own crop of young guns with the likes of Martin Truex, Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott. But it was not that long ago, a Christiansburg driver by the name of Ronnie Thomas was blazing his own path.
Christiansburg’s Ronnie Thomas shows off his Winston Cup circuit car that has been restored to its original self and now sits in his garage.
He drove in the Winston Cup Series from 1977 to 1989, and a stint in the Busch Series from 1982 to 1985. He was the 1978 rookie of the year, finishing 18th overall in the final rankings and would record nine top 10s and ran 197 races over 12 years. He led a career total of four laps in Winston Cup.
While the checkered flags were few and far between, Thomas was a thorn at the time in the side of many top tier drivers. He was the first driver to break the 200 miles per hour mark at the Talladega raceway on May 4, 1986 with 202.62 mph. The big difference for Ronnie was the lack of sponsorship with the most being $75,000 in 1983.
“Yes, I wonder what if, what if I had more sponsorships and what I could have accomplished,” he said.
The lack of money was one of the reasons he stepped away in 1986, and he turned back to the local tracks. Thomas took multi-track championships at Pulaski County Speedway winning titles in cars from three different automakers– a Ford, Chrysler and a Chevrolet.
“I wasn’t blessed with a lot of money for cars, but I was blessed with a lot of help from a lot of people,” he said.
Most of that help came from his family and other local individuals that worked on his car and served on his pit crew.
Thomas’ father, nicknamed and commonly known as Jabe (born in 1930 as Cerry Ezra Thomas), served as his crew chief and main advisor. “It was amazing to race and work alongside my dad. Not many people get to say they did that,” Ronnie said.
Of course, Jabe had established his own name on and off the track, competing from the mid-60s to the late 70s. He drove over 75,000 laps on the paved oval, earning almost $300,000. With the adjustment from the time to now, that would be $1.18 million. Jabe had three top five finishes, 77 top 10 and a total of 322 NASCAR races.
Those around the racing circuit labeled Jabe “the clown prince” because of his antics that kept other drivers guessing. Reports say he would slip chicken bones into the pockets of other drivers, who would sometimes find them before or during a race.
He made his mark on dirt tracks around the state, winning the 1958 track championship at then-Radford Speedway. His final race on the big circuit came in 1978, finishing 37th at Dover International Speedway.
Longtime NASCAR writer Kenny Bruce has said you won’t find Jabe Thomas on any highlight reels and the NASCAR Hall of Fame has not come calling. “But the contributions of drivers such as Thomas, small as they may seem to some, were just as important to NASCAR during their time in the sports as the contributions of the better know, more successful drivers they competed against.”
Bruce said the current NASCAR exists today because of Jabe Thomas and others. “NASCAR’s history is filled with them. And lest we forget, NASCAR exists today because of them,” he said in a 2015 article.
The elder Thomas would finish sixth in the final standings in 1971 and claimed an 11th place in the 1972 Daytona 500. Locally, he owned a Christiansburg gas station, tinkering on his son’s race cars in his garage many years after he retired.
“It was great to have him there to help me and point out things with the car,” Ronnie said of his dad.
Locally, Jabe owned a Christiansburg gas station, tinkering in his garage after he hung up his driver’s suit. He remained active in NASCAR as the “guiding force” in his son’s career.
Once, just once, the two raced against each other. The elder Thomas beat his son to the line at Dover International Speedway.
Jabe passed away three years ago, but his son held onto a dream they had been discussing for several years—to restore their original Winston circuit car to its original look. The first thing was to find it and buy it back.
“A guy in Salem had purchased it, and it was rusting away in a back lot. He had planned to fix her up, but never got around to it. So, I convinced him to sell it back to me,” Ronnie said.
NASCAR’s Tommy Cromer was the last one to drive the car before it was made its way to Salem. Three “rookie of the year” winners drove their car.
“It had been sitting in Salem for almost 30 years and I wanted to buy it,” he said.
From there, he found original motor parts and had the body redone. It also includes the original decals and sponsorships seen in photos around his garage.
“It brings back a lot of memories when I stand back and look at it. I think my dad is looking down and smiling. He really would love it,” Thomas said.
Mementoes can be seen in a room at Ronnie Thomas’ Christiansburg home. There are pieces of cars driven by Junior Johnson and Richard Petty, a few of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s and of course Ronnie Thomas’ trophies including the “rookie of the year” and Late Model wins at then-Pulaski and New River Valley Speedway in Radford.
Many of the treasures are though his father’s connections and friendships with other NASCAR greats with names like Childress, Earnhardt, Johnson and Petty
In addition, he also has another special race car sitting in his garage—the 1978 last Dodge ever driven by Richard Petty.
He fires both up every now and then and neighbors are treated to the rumble of a former race car.
For their outstanding performance in those early years of racing, Ronnie and Jabe are the first two inductees to the inaugural Montgomery County Sports Hall of Fame.
More of the first class will be announced over the next month.