Tom L.’s Type 65 Coupe R
Tom Leeming took delivery of his Factory Five Type 65 Coupe R on November of 2018 and completed the build on April of 2019, 100% in-house at VRacing, ready to race.
Including testing and tuning, Tom has done 185+ track session races sanctioned by SOVREN, VARA, RMVR, NASA, and SCCA. Tom has had 25 race weekends to date in Spokane, Seattle, Portland, High Plains, Pueblo, La Junta, Willow Springs, Pahrump, Sonoma, and Salt Lake to name a few.
Some of his most memorable finishes include racing in Spokane where Tom says he was 1—2 with Karen Salvaggio and she beat him by 3/10 of a second. In fun, he protested blocking because the door kept opening in right hand corners. Another was at Salt Lake in a NASA race, where he says he outclassed in Super Unlimited and finished 3rd (the 2 Lamborghinis that had lapped him both crashed out).
Some of the less memorable races included 3 on-track incidents over 3 consecutive weekends (none of which were his fault). Tom got hit by a Corvette, Mustang and Nissan. Tom says about his Factory Five that “the car can take a beating —everything buffed out.”
If you’re curious about the car’s flashy appearance, the paint and graphic colors were selected by none other than Tom’s wife of 47 years (shoutout to the awesome, supportive spouses out there)!
Except for this past year, Tom tries to make 8 to 10+ races a year. He says “living in Montana people are always curious how I can travel so far (1200-2000+ miles a weekend) to race. It’s perfect. I’m centrally located 600 to 1000 miles from everywhere.”
As for Tom’s racing bio, it is safe to say he has some major street cred and experience. He roadraced motorcycles in the 70s, and campaigned a GT 550 Suzuki and a TD 250 Yamaha. The last 12 years he had to take a break from racing to raise a family and make a living. Now he AutoCrosses, Hillclimbs, and does Vintage road racing.
He raves that “Overall, the car is competitive and always draws a crowd in the paddock. Quite a few 1st place in class finishes, lots of other podiums in class, overall under SOVREN, and Sportsman of The Year in the first year for the Daytona in Big Bore.”
