PENSACOLA, Florida – “Derek Thorn, go figure.”
Those were the words of driver Connor Okrzesik as he watched Thorn, the defending Snowball Derby champion, go to the top of the speed charts Friday during qualifying for the 56th running of the event at Florida’s Five Flags Speedway.
Thorn’s name at the top of the charts has become a common sight in the last five years at Five Flags Speedway during the Snowball Derby. His pole lap on Friday, a speedy 16.501-second lap around the half-mile oval, gives Thorn four Snowball Derby poles in the last five years.
“I’m just enjoying the moment,” Thorn said as he watched his Paul Shafer Motorsports team go through the traditional post-qualifying technical inspection that comes with running the Snowball Derby. “To be back here in Pensacola, to be fast, that’s one of the things that obviously makes it the most fun.”
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While Thorn has made a habit in recent years of controlling qualifying for the Snowball Derby, it hasn’t taken away from the intense atmosphere that surrounds the annual Friday tradition at Five Flags Speedway.
Friday’s qualifying session locked in the top-30 starters for Sunday’s 300-lap main event, with all other drivers forced to compete in a 50-lap last chance qualifying race on Saturday afternoon.
Only the top-four finishers from that race advance to the Snowball Derby, with two additional drivers joining the field based on the championship standings in the local Blizzard Series and the ASA Southern Super Series.
That adds up to 36 potential starting positions for Sunday’s race, meaning of the 49 drivers to take time Friday afternoon, 13 of them will be forced to pack up and go home Saturday night.
One of the drivers on the outside looking in is rising NASCAR Cup Series driver Carson Hocevar, whose time of 16.954 was nearly half a second slower than that of Thorn. Hocevar will be one of the drivers looking to race their way into the Snowball Derby via the last chance qualifier Saturday.
“I don’t think there is a single car that plans to miss this race,” Hocevar said. “These are guys that win regionally, locally, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at the NASCAR level or dirt level, whatever the case may be. They’re all here.
“Everybody has different agendas and a lot of them want to come win the race. Sometimes they realize they might not have a shot to win the race, now they’re just fighting to get in the race, which is crazy. With how much this place takes, it’ll humble you real quick.”
Thorn knows all about being humbled by Five Flags Speedway. In his first trip to the Snowball Derby in 2011, he narrowly made the starting field only to flip his Super Late Model during crash late in the event.
That’s why the success he has enjoyed recently, which includes leading more than 800 laps in the last three years combined, means so much to him.
“It’s the failures that make this part the most fun,” Thorn said. “When I came the first year 13 years ago, I blew two motors, qualified 30th by one one thousandth and ended up flipping the car in the race.
“To look back now at what we were doing then and just the passion of coming here to the Derby…we come here because we want to race against the best. That’s the reason we’re coming. But to be on top of the board in front of the best so many consecutive years is really something special.”
Despite his recent success at Five Flags Speedway, Thorn isn’t immune to the nerves that come with qualifying for the Snowball Derby.
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After setting his fast lap shortly before the midway point of the session, Thorn had to stand and watch as car after car made runs trying to knock him off the pole.
“You’re always biting your nails,” Thorn said. “Any one of them could be fast. There are so many guys here that are so good. The [Last Chance Race] tomorrow, whenever they have it, is going to be probably one of the best features at a weekly show or a touring race all year. It is nerve-wracking because there is so much talent in this field.”
With qualifying now behind Thorn, his focus turns to Sunday’s 300-lap finale, where he hopes to become just the fourth driver to win consecutive Snowball Derby’s.
Going fast for one lap at Five Flags Speedway is one thing. Putting together a perfect 300-lap race is the challenge of a lifetime.
Thorn’s done it once and there’s no reason for him to think he can’t do it again, but he knows there is still work to do.
“We’ve been snakebit in a few of them,” Thorn said of his past Derby experiences. “Last year was great, but we just have to get in the race and execute and be there when it counts and hopefully everything falls our way.”