While a win at even one NHRA national event is considered a significant achievement by the competitors who race on the 24-event POWERade tour, a victory for Team Chevy's Tom Hammonds at next weekend's 39th annual ACDelco Gatornationals would mark a noteworthy accomplishment and season turning point for the former NBA power forward now turned Pro Stock driver. A Florida native who calls Crestview home, the 40-year-old Hammonds fully understands the heritage and tradition of competing at Gainesville Raceway and what it would mean to take home an event trophy from the Gatornationals.

"The ACDelco Gatornationals are a huge deal for me," Hammonds said. "Other than the U.S. Nationals, it's one of our biggest races. It's the first race on the East Coast, and just looking at the entry list for Pro Stock, there are 34 cars already pre-registered, which gives you an indication of just how big this event is. Not only in that aspect, but it's pretty close to my hometown.

"To have a 'Wally' from the Gatornationals, an event that's practically in my backyard, would be tremendous. There's so much prestige and history at Gainesville and it's always one of the fastest races of the year. As a racer, that's what we want to do, we want to go fast, and next week in Gainesville, you'd better hold on."

Tom Hammonds remains confident a victory this weekend during the NHRA Gatornationals would adequately serve as a noteworthy accomplishment and season turning point for the former NBA power forward now turned Pro Stock driver. A Florida native who calls Crestview home, the 40-year-old Hammonds fully understands the heritage and tradition of competing at Gainesville Raceway and what it would mean to take home an event trophy from the Gatornationals.

"The ACDelco Gatornationals are a huge deal for me," Hammonds said. "Other than the U.S. Nationals, it's one of our biggest races. It's the first race on the East Coast, and just looking at the entry list for Pro Stock, there are 34 cars already pre-registered, which gives you an indication of just how big this event is. Not only in that aspect, but it's pretty close to my hometown.

"To have a 'Wally' from the Gatornationals, an event that's practically in my backyard, would be tremendous. There's so much prestige and history at Gainesville and it's always one of the fastest races of the year. As a racer, that's what we want to do, we want to go fast, and next week in Gainesville, you'd better hold on."

When Hammonds announced at the 2006 U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis that he was returning to NHRA Pro Stock Drag Racing after a three-year hiatus, he knew that the challenges of acquiring cars, engines, and something as fundamental as a raceshop for his crew and equipment, would be enormous. Less than two years later, though, Hammonds has built a spacious new shop for his Chevy Cobalt team in the Florida Panhandle community of Holt, and he's confident that he's getting closer to his ultimate goal of winning a POWERade championship.

"Having the new shop and getting everything moved in has been a huge improvement for us," Hammonds said. "Especially when you look at where we started. It's unbelievable. I just have to thank God to be able to get up in the morning, and go to work, and be able to do something that I love to do. The facility that we have, the race shop, the dyno room, the ability to make the parts we need, or test on the dyno, having that at our disposal is an unbelievable feeling and I'm so excited about this race team's future in this sport.

After a season-opening DNQ at Pomona (Calif.) where his Chevy Cobalt ran strong backhalf numbers but faltered on the front side of the track, Hammonds rebounded two weeks later at the CSK Nationals in Phoenix and qualified 14th during a rain-shortened event. Hammonds' Chevrolet made the 16-car despite suffering engine problems that went undiscovered until after the race.

"We have some mixed emotions about where we are right now," Hammonds explained. "Obviously, I would have felt a lot better qualifying at Pomona, but I think we came back okay at Phoenix, and ran fairly well there. After the Phoenix race, we came back and kind of broke everything down and took a good look at everything, and we found that the engine we were using at Phoenix wasn't 100 percent. Two more qualifying sessions and maybe we would have found the problem and moved up. That was positive in the sense that we were able to still qualify and our engines were not at 100 percent. Our goal, though, is to consistently put ourselves in a position to win races every time we go in the gate, and we won't be satisfied until we get there.

"We did have Rickie Smith, who's a friend of mine and who's been around these cars his whole life, come out to Phoenix at Speed World and test with us before the race. Sometimes when you look at a car up close on a constant basis, everyday, you can't see the forest because of the trees. There may be some little things you may be missing that somebody else may look at and do a little differently. Rickie was able to help us in a few areas, and we should take those few areas that we've improved upon and have a better racecar. We wanted to do it right now so that if there was something we were doing wrong, we could fix it and not wait four or five races into the season when it would be too late. Case in point, the Pomona event where we had tremendous horsepower at the top end, we just weren't able to get the setup right the first part of the track."

Before the start of the 2008 season, Hammonds announced the formation of the Tom Hammonds Race for Achievement program which will enable the NHRA Pro Stock driver to interact and mentor with middle-school and high-school students all across the country in conjunction with the NHRA POWERade schedule. Hammonds' goal is to encourage students to pursue their dreams through education, achievement and hard work.

"We set up the racecar and tractor and trailer, give the kids a chance to tour our setup and see an NHRA Pro Stock Chevy Cobalt up close," Hammonds said. "But most importantly, this program gives me a chance to mentor to the kids on the importance of an education, which has to be stressed. I want them to know that you can be successful in anything you want to do in life as long as you have faith and work hard toward you goals. You have to have an education and you have to believe in yourself - that's the main message I want to give to these kids. Everybody has a talent and you have to find out what that is. Everybody can't be a pro basketball player, everybody can't be an NHRA driver, but you can be a doctor or a teacher, and if you want to do those things, you have to believe in yourself and work hard. That's what I want these kids to know.

"Ever since we announced the Race for Achievement program, we've been getting calls from all over the country. O'Reilly Auto Parts, Mac Tools, Goodyear, Chevrolet, all of our sponsors have stepped up to help us with this program and that makes me feel extremely good about what we're doing."

Determined to lead his "Race for Achievement" students by example, Hammonds is leaving no stone unturned as he readies his Chevy Cobalt for a return trip to the ACDelco Gatornationals. Before parking tractor and trailer at Gainesville Raceway, Hammonds plans to spend a couple of days testing his Chevrolet in final preparation for the Gatornationals.

"We worked extremely hard over the winter on our engines trying to get them up to par with some of the elite teams in the NHRA Pro Stock division," Hammonds said. "Jimmy (Oliver) and I have been focusing on the engine department and the fruits of that labor are beginning to show as far as horsepower. It actually showed in Pomona with our top-end speed. Last year we had one good engine we could count on. Now I think all of our engines are very close and that gives you that much more confidence going into an event, and if you do have a problem with your primary engine, you can always put in a backup."

"Our goal is to make the POWERade top 10, make the cut and I really believe that's exactly what we're going to do. I feel things are in place now to move in that direction, and I'm more comfortable with where we are with our program."