Thomas “Ready to Go” in Tower Replacement Drive

Steven Thomas feels “honored” to have been selected as the replacement Bronze driver in the Tower Motorsports lineup for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, subbing for John Farano.

The American driver was brought in as a late substitute for Farano, who stepped down from the French endurance classic as a “precautionary measure.”

It came after a crash for Farano in the recent IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship round at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca that saw the Canadian taken to the hospital for further evaluation and released after “a few hours under observation.”

Instead, the team opted to bring in Thomas, another Bronze-rated driver and a defending LMP2 Pro-Am class winner from last year’s edition of the race. He teams up with Ricky Taylor and Rene Rast.

“I think it’s sad for John,” Thomas told Sportscar365. “He and I talked about opportunities for next year.

“It’s just a dream of his and we really want to find a way to make sure he gets to do this.  Gentleman drivers have got to stick together. Hopefully there’s a plan in place and he’ll be here next year.

“I think that’s really important because there’s not that many of us doing the LMP2 car around the world who are true gentlemen.

“Guys who didn’t race when we were kids and started later in life, and John’s one of those guys. It’s important he gets to do this.

“I feel actually kind of honored that he picked me to take his place because I know how important it was to him to be here and I just want to hopefully do a good job.”

Thomas revealed that TDS Racing, the squad providing operational support for the No. 13 Oreca 07 Gibson at this weekend’s race, reached out to him in the week leading up to the Le Mans test day.

“I had spoken to John over the last few weeks, not about driving, but because he had had that incident at Laguna and I texted him during the race,” said Thomas.

“I texted him like, ‘Hey, hope you’re doing okay.’ Just gentleman drivers texting back and forth, [checking] how he’s doing.

“He was getting better and then I got a call from Xavier [Combet] from TDS while I was in Los Angeles.

“He was like, ‘Hey, I’m about to have a call with John, I’m not sure everything is okay. He’s fine, but not sure he’s going to drive. Are you?’

“I said, ‘Well, it’s my team. I’m interested.’ An hour later I talked to John and he was saying, ‘I don’t think I can go and I didn’t think you were interested.’

“I said, ‘This is TDS, I’m interested.’ The call was 20 minutes maybe and at the end of that I was like, ‘I’m in if you’ll have me.’

“Thursday morning, 24 hours later, I was sitting on my plane at LAX to fly. So it was a 24-hour period before I had to change my schedule. I obviously do different things.”

Thomas has an existing relationship with Combet’s TDS operation, as he races with the French squad in the WeatherTech Championship’s LMP2 category.

The 55-year-old noted that the link with TDS and his previous experience in the event were crucial determining factors in taking up the late offer to compete at Le Mans.

“It just makes a huge difference,” Thomas said. “One, I know the car. Obviously this is a low downforce [aero kit] and Goodyear tires, but it’s the same engineer, so I know how he sets up the car.

“There’s a great comfort level. They’re a great team, I know all the mechanics, I know everybody involved.

“So it makes a huge difference to me, the comfort level, just to walk in and I don’t have to think about anything else but driving.

“I’m going to have the same person on the radio that I’m used to. That’s a big deal.  So having my team, yeah, it’s a big difference for me. 

“If it had been my first time ever driving Le Mans, coming this late would have been an impossibility. Because the team tested and I didn’t test with them.

“That would have been an impossibility, but having done it last year and been successful here last year, I feel like I’m ready to go.”