STONY PLAIN, AB. – The major commute for NPP Series competitor Mike Tom just got a lot shorter this past week.  The final box was unpacked as the former resident of Salmon Arm, BC now resides on an acreage outside of Stony Plain, Alberta.  “I don’t even want to think about how many miles or hours I’ve got on the highway but as far as the major drive to race in Edmonton……she’s over!”  Before Tom joined up with the NPP Late Model Series in 2004 he raced Super Stock at Yellowhead Raceway in Hinton.  Tom won rookie of the year in 1997 and took the track championship.  “I got the racing bug real bad in Hinton,” smiles Tom, “then work took me and my family to British Columbia.  I still wanted to race, thus the long commutes to Hinton every few weeks.”  With his home in BC, Tom still added 2 more Hinton track championships before hearing about the N.P.P. Series.  During his 10 years in Salmon Arm BC, Tom stored his race car at his parents home.  This tradition continued when he went racing with the NPP Late Model Series.  Tom is still working for the same company that originally took him to British Columbia.  “Coe-Newnes-McGehee provides a major service to the forest industry,” explains Tom, “they now have an office set up in Alberta and needed someone to run it so I stuck up my hand.  So me moving here was perfect.”  The 2006 NPP Late Model Series season has not been perfect for Mike Tom.  “The first half of the season hasn’t been any fun for us.  It’s been heartbreak after heartbreak.  We needed some positives to keep us going and we got them in Swift Current.”  Tom won a heat race and placed sixth and third in Feature events.  “Hopefully our three strikes are behind us and its just good race days ahead.”  Tom heads into the next event in High River eighteenth in the points chase.  “We’re thinking positive here,” laughs Tom, “we are only 100 points out of being in the top 10.  So right now that’s our target.  If we do better great.  We just want to salvage our year as best as we can.”