Team

Tom Fares, Sr.

With almost 20 years experience owning and managing businesses that offer machining, fabrication and assembly services, Tom Sr. brings a very technical and experienced eye to the team. His expertise is in mechanical applications, shop floor decisions, supplier relations management and business sales.

Tom Sr. has recently acted on his interest in the performance racing industry by buying a late model car driven by Tom Jr. and being the crew chief for the race team through its first two successful race seasons. Tom Sr. gained a quick and thorough understanding of the car from his vast mechanical and technical experience and plays a lead role in spearheading the company’s new growths.

With Tom Sr.’s experience the team is now beginning to launch operations in custom parts manufacturing for the performance racing industry and labeling them under the TNT Custom Racing name. Look for these parts to begin selling as an industry leader in the near future.

Tom Sr. is continuously seeking new opportunities to grow and better serve the performance racing industry and our customers. Please feel free to contact him with any questions or opportunities via our contact us page. Read more >>

Tom Fares, Jr.

Tom Jr. is the driver of the 07x Late Model 2012 TNT Custom Racing Ford Fusion.  He has driven the car for the past 3 seasons, guided by crew chief and car owner Tom Sr.

In 2012, TNT Custom Racing has grown a bit more with the addition of racing legend Gary Balough as Tom Jr.’s new Crew Cheif. The TNT Custom Racing team with be fielding 2 cars for Tom Jr. at Speedweeks in New Smyrna and as he races his way through the 2012 TBRA Series.

Tom Jr. competed in the 2011 TBRA Series of Champions and took an overall 4th place Points Chase Finish. In 2010, he completed the Bounty Series with several top 10 finishes and an overall points series finish in 8th place of the 33 drivers in the series.  Tom Jr. continues to hone his knowledge of racing and gain seat time as he gears up for another great season of racing.

Off the track Tom Jr. owns TNT Custom Equipment, a full service machine shop offering machining, fabrication, assembly and gear cutting services. Tom Jr. has a mechanical engineering degree from Ohio University and has over 15 years experience working in the machining industry. Tom Jr. is always up on the latest in new technology, processes, and tooling serving his industry and brings this same strength to the team at TNT Custom Racing.

Tom Jr. will work closely with Tom Sr. on a new venture, with race industry insights from Gary and Scott, to begin manufacturing custom racing parts for the performance racing industry.  The new product venture is in the early stages but is growing rapidly since the partnership formed in January 2011. Tom Jr. is spearheading the project to offer our customers the best performing and most cutting edge products to keep them on the track and racing toward the finish line.

To contact Tom Jr. about specific custom part inquiries or with mechanical and technical questions please visit our contact us page. Read more >>

Gary Balough

Born: September 17,1947

From: Miami Florida

Bio: Over the course of his driving career, Gary Balough has won in almost everything he was able to get behind the wheel of compiling a winning list of over 1000 races. The “Batmobile” is one of the most famous, or infamous, cars ever in short track racing. Running the car was one of the many stories that Balough was synonymous with. It the late 70’s Balough drove a black car that looked much like it should have been in Gotham City and not on the mile at Syracuse. The legendary car, designed by Kenny Weld, helped Balough win four times on the mile, a record that has only been passed by Brett Hearn.

Accomplishments:

1986 All Pro Champion	1980 Syracuse 200 Winner
1986 Snowball Derby Winner	1978 Syracuse 200 Winner
1986 All American 400 Winner	1977 Syracuse 200 Winner
1984 All American 400 Winner	1976 Syracuse 200 Winner
1984 World Crown 300 Winner	1968 Florida’s Governor’s Cup 200 Winner
1980 Snowball Derby Winner	Over 20 All Pro Wins

 

Gary has now teamed up with TNT Custom Racing. Read more >>

Scott Baker

Bio and Background Coming Soon…

Josh Hankish

Born: December 31^st 1989

Hometown: Martin, Ohio

Josh began his racing career at the young age of seven in the quarter midget ranks. In 2001, he was named Northwest Ohio Quarter Midget Racing Association Driver of the Year. At 14, he decided to hang up his racing gear to focus on setup and maintenance of the quarter midgets that his brother Jacob and sister Stephanie raced.

In 2006, Josh moved on and joined ARCA Late Model driver Brad Birr as a crew member of his number 23 late model that competed at Toledo Speedway and Flat Rock Speedway. In 2008, after graduating from Lake High School he decided to follow his passion of racing by enrolling at the University of Northwestern Ohio (UNOH) majoring in High Performance Motorsports Technology.

In the spring of 2011 Josh graduated from UNOH with a High Performance Motorsports degree. Josh then joined the team at TNT Custom Racing where he is a key player in setup, maintenance and track planning as Crew Chief for Tom Fares, Jr.’s 07x primary and backup cars working side by side and with guidance from Race Team Manager Gary Balough. Josh is a keycontributor to the success of the team and brings with him great insight, experience and work ethic from his years of racing experience and education. Read more >>

Wade Miniea

Bio and Background Coming Soon…

Matt Flynn

Born: December 8, 1989

Matt started working on cars as a hobby at a young age. He has experience working on everything from drag cars to off road trail trucks.

Matt loves the thrill of racing not only with cars. He raced BMX from age 12 to 16 where he won both state and national titles and tallied up over 100 first place finishes.

When around cars, Matt know what he is doing from years of experience, vast technical and mechanical education and an attention to detail that allows to add to that knowledge when working in a team environment. Matt put his racing knowledge and skills to the track in 2011 as Crew Chief for Tyler Strickland.

Matt graduated from Manchester in 2008 and has gone on to pursue a mechanical engineering degree from Stark State where he will be graduating in the Spring of 2012.

Matt first got the opportunity to work in a race shop back in 2008 cleaning nuts and bolts for Scott Baker through an introduction by Chad. He has since worked his way up to rebuilding transmissions and rear ends with TNT Custom Racing and will be working in 2012 as the Crew Chief for Wade Miniea with guidance from Race Team General Manager and Driver Development coach Gary Balough.

Matt is also looking forward to putting his mechanical engineering education to use with TNT Custom Equipment to hone his skills and help them with their vision to develop and manufacture their own line of performance racing parts for TNT Custom Racing in the long term. Read more >>

Chad Nickison

Born August 9, 1989

Chad started his career at the age of 6 cleaning race car windows for Petrus Racing along with other miscellaneous tasks.  By age 10, he was working on Late Model cars with the Petrus Racing Team.  With the help of the Petrus Racing Team, he built a Hobby Stock car to race at Barberton Speedway. Chad won his first feature race there at age 14 and continued weekly racing there until age 18.

Chad set a goal to race in the Late Model Division which he accomplished with his first appearance resulting in a 4^th place finish. This followed with his Feature Win and trip to victory lane in his second Late Model appearance. Chad has also made a racing appearance at Midvale Motor Speedway where he won his heat race.

By age 14, he was scaling and setting up cars for divisions up to and including Late Models, and by age 15, he had begun fabricating cars.  Throughout his teens, he had become proficient working on and setting up cars in the following classes: Hobby Stock, Detroit Irons, Late Models and Modifieds.

At age 16, Chad joined the team at American Thunder assisting in the building of Custom Harley Davidson motorcycles.  He was also responsible for fabricating and servicing the Custom Harley Davidson’s.

At age 17, Chad left American Thunder and took an opportunity with Baker Performance Parts and Baker Race Cars which partnered to become the new TNT Custom Racing. Chad continues to be a key player on the TNT Custom Racing team and a team leader in fabrication operations. His many years experience fabricating have given him knowledge, insight, skill and expertise in many car types including: Template Body Late Models, Outlaw Body Late Models, Modified Body Styles and Street Stock Body Styles.

Chad is also a proficient mig welder, with 4 years experience updating framework and providing clip replacement services. Read more >>