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Rita Thomason is a police sergeant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, who races part time in the ARCA Menard's Series. She drives the #31 Chevrolet SS for Tim Goulet Enterprises in the ARCA Menard's Series (a NASCAR touring division and a feeder series into the top three NASCAR series).
About Rita Thomason
My Story
Hi! My name is Rita Thomason, I'm a patrol sergeant in the Tuscaloosa Police Department (Tuscaloosa, Alabama), and I'm currently racing in the ARCA Menard's Series, driving the #31 for Tim Goulet Enterprises.
First, a little bit about myself. I grew up exceedingly poor and became homeless at 16, in part due to a father who was addicted to alcohol and gambling, and a mother who struggled with mental illness.
When the tragic events of 9/11 happened, I was living at a homeless shelter and working part time at a small theater in Anchorage, Alaska. I remember seeing the disaster unfold on our little break room TV. All I wanted to do was come over and help, but I realized that I didn't have any useful skills and would only be in the way. I resolved to never feel that useless again and came up with a plan to be able to spend my career helping others.
Shortly afterwards, I put myself through paramedic school in Alaska while escaping an abusive marriage, then moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 2006 to complete my paramedic training. I finally learned how to drive when I was 23 and I bought my very first car, a 1992 Mazda Miata. While driving that little Miata, I felt a sense of freedom and control that I had never experienced before, and I was absolutely in love with driving it to the limit. I wanted to race, but at the time, racing was not financially feasible, so I settled with zooming all over my local backcountry roads.
After five years of working as a paramedic, I realized I wanted to do more for my community, so in 2011, I became a police officer for the City of Tuscaloosa (I was promoted to patrol sergeant in 2018).
I finally started my motorsports career in 2018 by becoming involved in autocross (a tiny racecourse set up with traffic cones in a parking lot and each car runs the course for the best time). I started talking with other drivers and realized that with a few updates, it was possible to race my Miata on an actual racetrack. Without having ever actually been on a racetrack, I started slowly turning my Miata into a race car. I simply knew that this was what I was meant to do. My first track day in that Miata was March of 2019, and by November 2019, I had my novice racing license and had completed my first race (I won my class!).
I spent all of 2020 racing my Miata in events throughout the Southeast, but I'd still watch old NASCAR videos and daydream. All those drivers started so young and didn't have the challenges I had growing up. So, a daydream it remained, until I started researching and found out that there's a NASCAR series called ARCA that's relatively affordable and perfect for new drivers just starting out! It's considered the fourth tier in the NASCAR series and is a developmental series into the upper tiers of NASCAR (Trucks, Xfinity, and Cup).
After a year of preparation and training, I took the leap in 2022 and made my ARCA debut driving the #03 for Clubb Racing at the Berlin Raceway (Marne, Michigan) in June. I'm planning on continuing developing as a driver throughout 2022. Through my life experience and story, I hope to inspire others not to let challenges in life slow them down!
Rita Thomason and Her Unbelievable Journey to First ARCA Start | TobyChristie.com
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