Just to Say I Did It: Tommy Gorman Finished the Job at 35 Raceway Park

Back in March, when I first sat down to introduce Tommy Gorman, I asked the Waverly, Ohio racer what he wanted out of the 2026 season. Tommy didn't dance around it. He wanted a championship at 35 Raceway Park. That was the single mission.

At the time, it was still easy to say. The first green flag of the season hadn't even dropped yet. There hadn't been any broken parts, rain-outs, points calculations, Saturday nights spent wondering where James Deal was going to finish, or weeks where a few little mechanical problems made the entire thing feel harder than it needed to be.

Six months later?

He can officially say he did exactly what he told me he wanted to do.

𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 2026 35 𝑹𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝑷𝒂𝒓𝒌 4-𝑪𝒚𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒊𝒐𝒏... 𝑻𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒚 𝑮𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒏.

And fittingly enough, he didn't just survive championship night... He swept the whole damn thing.

𝟐𝟔

Maybe Tommy was feeling a little superstitious when he reached into the pill draw Saturday night. He pulled 26. It's 2026. Tommy drives the number 26... Pepsi Season Championship Night.

“I don't know, maybe I was a little superstitious or something,” Tommy laughed. “It's the year 2026, I run number 26, and I drew that 26.”

Not a bad start. Although Tommy will also openly admit there was another part of him looking at the weather and thinking maybe Mother Nature could just finish the championship for him.

“I was kind of praying for the rain.”

He had an eight-point advantage entering the night, and after the kind of season Southern Ohio racing's endured with weather, nobody could've exactly blamed him for taking the easy route if it came, but 35 Raceway Park owner Tony Boetcher worked his tail off alongside the track crew to get the place ready.

Tommy even went out and helped run the track in. If they could race, they were going to race, and deep down, that's what Tommy wanted anyway.

He won the heat. James Deal finished second. That gave Tommy a little more breathing room going into the final feature of the season, but with double points on the line and one of the toughest racers in the division sitting right there, nothing was done yet.

Then came the five-car invert. James drew the outside pole. Tommy would start right behind him in fourth.

When the green flag dropped, James wasted absolutely no time taking command. By the time they came off Turn 2, the two men who had spent much of the summer fighting over the 4-Cylinder championship were exactly where you'd expect them to be. James first, Tommy second. Tommy was perfectly content to leave it that way.

“I was just thinking to myself, I'm gonna ride here,” Tommy told me. “I'm okay with finishing second because if I finish second, I'm gonna win the championship.”

That's a very different mentality from the guy whose entire job every other Saturday night is figuring out how to pass whoever's in front of him. For once, second was enough. Then James broke, the caution came out, and just like that, every calculation Tommy had been doing inside that car disappeared.

“As soon as he broke, I knew,” Tommy said. “I was like, I got the championship. Now let's go win a race.”

That's exactly what he did. Tommy inherited the lead, brought the number 26 home first, completed the heat-and-feature sweep and became the 2026 35 Raceway Park 4-Cylinder Track Champion.

The final points margin wound up looking considerably larger than the battle actually was thanks to double points and James' DNF. Don't let that fool you... This championship was a dogfight.

𝐍𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐑𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐓𝐨 𝐆𝐨... 𝐍𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐡 𝐈𝐧 𝐏𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐬

Tommy's championship season damn near began with disaster. The first points race of the year? He was leading it, not just running well. Tommy said he was starting to walk away with the thing when the ignition control module failed. Instead of opening the season in Victory Lane, Tommy walked away sitting around ninth in points.

That's a hell of a hole when Mother Nature ultimately allows you only a handful points races total, and we already know how much the weather mattered this season. Every rain-out shortened the championship. Every lost Saturday meant one less opportunity to make up ground. One bad finish suddenly meant more.

Tommy ultimately recorded two DNFs during the season. Outside of those two nights? He doesn't believe he finished outside the top five. That's the part of this championship that may get lost years from now if somebody simply looks through the results and counts trophies. Tommy won two features this season. So did James.

This wasn't somebody steamrolling the division with eight or ten wins and cruising into the championship. Tommy won this thing with consistency. Keep the car clean. Finish races. Take the points that are available. Don't turn one bad night into three.

And when the opportunities come... capitalize.

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐈𝐭 𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥

If you've followed Tommy's season through 2026, you already know August changed everything. That's when we talked after he finally picked up his first feature win of the year. Before that, the car had been quick but aggravating.

Overheating, lifter chatter, a brake caliper hanging up. Little problems... always little problems.

Then they started getting them sorted. A second-place run showed the changes were working, then came the win. Around that same time, Tommy finally climbed to the top of the points standings for the first time. That's when he started thinking this thing was actually possible.

“I feel like I can win this.”

Then came the Bill Secrest Memorial... Tommy broke a left rear... Finished thirteenth. James won, and just like that, the points lead Tommy had worked half a season to take belonged to James again.

Tommy took it back the next race... That's pretty much the second half of this championship battle in a nutshell.

Neither guy disappearing. Neither guy handing it away. And Tommy knew all season that James wasn't going to.

“With James, man... James is tough,” Tommy said. “That whole class is tough.”

Going into championship night, Tommy wasn't only worried about being outrun. 35 Raceway Park is tight. One mistake, one piece of contact, one broken brake, one DNF... that's his championship gone.

Tommy and James actually talked before the races. Tommy told him straight up that he wasn't going to race him dirty for a championship.

“I'm just gonna go out here and use my head, and whatever happens, happens.”

That might be one of the more important things Tommy learned during this entire season. Sometimes winning a championship isn't about finding another tenth of a second. Sometimes it's knowing when not to force one.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐮𝐲𝐬 𝐇𝐞 𝐇𝐚𝐝 𝐓𝐨 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐇𝐢𝐦

There's something about Tommy's championship that I absolutely love. The guys he wanted to beat the most are also some of the guys responsible for making him good enough to beat them:

Charles Dozer.
Matt Brown.
James Deal.

If you've been following Tommy's story, you're no stranger to those three. Tommy doesn't hesitate when he talks about what they've done for him.

“I'm the driver, of course, but James, Matt Brown, Charles Dozer... them three are the ones that's really helped me with setup. They've got me to where I'm at.”

Think about that for a second... James Deal spent the season trying to take a championship away from Tommy while also being one of the people who taught Tommy how to build a championship-caliber race car. That's grassroots racing.

Tommy said those three racers had essentially controlled the 35 Raceway Park 4-Cylinder championship among themselves since 2021 before he finally broke into the group this season. They could've protected that advantage. Could've given him half-answers. Could've pointed him in the general direction and kept the last little bit to themselves. Tommy says they didn't.

“People say all the top, fastest guys aren't gonna give you everything,” Tommy told me. “Them guys straight up gave me everything that I have to win.”

And there's still nothing friendly about wanting to beat them. Tommy openly admits he'd rather outrun those guys than damn near anybody. They can run inches apart, race side-by-side, push each other. Tommy even laughed about occasionally getting into the back of Brown or Dozer because he was trying a little too damn hard to get around them.

Then they climb out of the cars and go right back to being the people who help each other. Dozer in particular has been instrumental throughout Tommy's racing career. When Tommy was blowing motors and struggling through his early seasons, Charles eventually put him in another car.

They later worked out a deal. The GT Tommy races now also came through Dozer.

“I don't know what it is about that guy,” Tommy said. “That guy's just... he's gave me everything.”

Now one of the racers Dozer helped bring along has his own championship to show for it.

“𝐌𝐲 𝐖𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐏𝐮𝐭 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐲 𝐂𝐚𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐈 𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞”

Then there's Kayla Gorman. We've called her Tommy's crew chief before. We've joked that she's the actual boss of the entire operation... After talking to Tommy this time, I'm increasingly convinced neither description goes far enough.

When I asked what his family had to sacrifice for him to chase points all summer, Tommy didn't pretend racing exists in its own little Saturday-night bubble.

Family cookouts? Missed them.

Events? Missed them.

Time with his mom and dad? A lot less of it.

When you're racing for points, Saturday isn't available just because somebody else has something going on. The schedule owns you, and Kayla was there for all of it.

“My wife has sacrificed a lot,” Tommy said.

Then he started listing what she actually does.

She washes the tires, the car, makes sure Tommy's fire suit's clean, charges the Raceceiver, makes sure there's a battery for his steering buddy, makes sure the tools are loaded into the trailer, handles the details that become really noticeable the first time somebody forgets one.

“My wife probably put more work into my car this year than I have, honestly,” Tommy admitted.

Then came probably the simplest explanation possible:

“I drive the car. She does everything else.”

There's your crew chief... The championship might say Tommy Gorman beside it in the record book, but Tommy emphasizes, it sure as hell wasn't won by one person.

𝐀 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲... 𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐎𝐫 𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐞

Toward the end of our conversation, I asked Tommy one question I really wanted him to think about. Years from now, when somebody looks back at the 2026 championship season, what part of this story does he want them to remember? He barely had to think.

“Family.”

And he immediately clarified something important.

“They don't have to be blood family.”

Kayla and the kids. His parents. Charles Dozer. Matt Brown. James Deal. The people at the racetrack. The people who helped him when he was struggling. The people he now wants desperately to beat every Saturday. That's Tommy's racing family.

And there's another member of Tommy's family who wasn't physically standing there Saturday night but still carries a lot of weight whenever Tommy talks about racing... His uncle.

Tommy wasn't even a race fan growing up. His uncle raced, but Tommy never really went to watch him. His uncle lived with Tommy's family for much of his childhood, and with Tommy not having an older brother, he became somebody Tommy looked up to.

He passed away in 2008, and years later, Tommy somehow wound up becoming the racer. In 2024, before 35 Raceway Park's season-ending Championship Night, Tommy had a dream. His uncle was there.

Tommy remembers him telling him he was proud. And telling him he was going to win. The next night? Tommy won. He didn't win the championship that year, but he won Championship Night.

Two years later, Tommy came back to the same season-ending race and he won it again. This time, there's something else waiting at the checkered flag. The championship his uncle never won.

“I accomplished something he could never accomplish,” Tommy said.

That's part of why Saturday hit him so hard. Tommy generally doesn't love getting handed a microphone after races because he knows where his emotions can go. Saturday, they went there. He heard the crowd cheering. Not just his buddies. Not just Kayla. What crowd had managed to stick through the rain was cheering for him.

Tommy knew he'd won the feature. He knew he'd won the championship, and he absolutely got emotional... November's championship banquet isn't going to be any easier on him.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐮𝐲 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐈𝐭

But maybe my favorite moment from Tommy's entire championship night happened after the checkered flag. Not on the front stretch. Not with the trophy. Back at tech.

If you read Tommy's original Driver Spotlight in March, you might remember the name Teddy Lowry. Tommy was racing RC cars when the itch hit him that maybe he wanted to try the real thing. Teddy was the guy who gave him that chance. Tommy had spent more than a decade doing demolition derbies. Teddy put him into a 4-Cylinder, and the direction of Tommy's entire motorsports life changed.

They've aggravated each other since. Had disagreements. Done what people who spend five years around racing together inevitably do, but when Tommy pulled back into tech Saturday night, Teddy was there. Tommy thinks he might have been the first person to come up to him... The guy who gave Tommy his first ride walked over, hugged him and said:

“Congratulations, champ.”

That's pretty damn full circle. The guy who opened the door was standing there when Tommy finally put his name on top of the division.

𝐒𝐨... 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐍𝐨𝐰?

Funny thing about finally accomplishing the thing you've spent all year trying to accomplish... eventually you wake up and start thinking about the next thing.

Tommy already knows one thing about 2027. He's probably racing damn near every weekend, but he's also not intentionally chasing another championship.

“If a championship happens, it happens,” he said.

Tommy told me back in August that racing for points feels like a job. Now he's actually completed the job and his assessment hasn't gotten any softer.

“It's very stressful to chase a championship, and I don't ever want to go through that again.”

Fair enough.

The number 26 isn't disappearing. Tommy still plans to race the Stock 4-Cylinder. He's also looking for another car this off-season with the intention of eventually putting his younger son behind the wheel when he's ready. The next generation of Gormans may start in go-karts first, but eventually Tommy wants to build him something of his own.

And once he gets comfortable? Don't be surprised if another little Mini Late Model-looking 4-Cylinder starts showing up.

Dad's ambitions aren't shrinking either. Actually, Tommy might be more open to opportunities coming his way than ever.

Super Late Model? Absolutely.

Ohio Valley Late Model Dirt Series? Yep.

604 Crate? Bring it on.

Ohio Valley SCDRA? The logical next step.

Sport Mod? Sure.

Modified? Why not?

Hell, Tommy told me if somebody called him tomorrow and told him to bring his fire suit to Mansfield or West Virginia Motor Speedway and get into a Sprint Car, he'd be headed out the door in a heartbeat.

Kayla was apparently sitting beside him shaking her head no during that portion of the conversation... Sorry, Kayla... He sounded pretty serious.

Tommy isn't claiming he'd jump into a Late Model or Sprint Car tomorrow and immediately set the world on fire. What he believes is that given good equipment, some time to learn and somebody willing to work with him, the throttle control and momentum management he's learned in these front-wheel-drive cars can translate.

And at this point... Why not find out? He only raced a handful of times in 2021. 2022 was his first full season. A few years ago he was blowing up cars, struggling with motors and figuring out dirt racing as he went. Now he has around eight career wins by his count... and one very important new line on the résumé.

2026 35 𝑅𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑘 4-𝐶𝑦𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑖𝑜𝑛.

The money wasn't really the point. Tommy doesn't even know exactly what the championship pays. He wanted the hoodie. He wanted the banner. He wanted the picture Kayla already had framed for him. But mostly?

“I wanted to do it to say I did it.”

Back in March, Tommy Gorman told me what he wanted.

A season later, after rain-outs, broken parts, two DNFs, a points lead won, lost and won again, countless hours from Kayla, guidance from the very racers he had to beat, and one final Saturday night spent trying not to screw the whole damn thing up...

He can say it... He did it.

Championship graphic courtesy 35 Raceway Park.