Thunder Roads Magazine of Oklahoma/Arkansas January 2016 | Page 32

FEATURES JUSTICE ALMA WILSON SEEWORTH ACADEMY VISITS TOMBO RACING by James Pratt ·and www.tomboracing.com Aretha Franklin music played in the background as a group of inner-city high school kids filed into the Tombo Racing shop early this morning. Tommy Bolton was hosting these impressionable youth for a shop tour at the request of Tarrence Rodgers, principal at Justice Alma Wilson Seeworth Academy in Oklahoma City. Fifteen kids filed in past high performance race bikes and gleaming chrome choppers, eyes wide as they gazed at the 11″ slick rear tires, custom paint job, nitrous bottles and turbocharged engines. “I have never been to a shop like this” one latino youth breathed in awe. “I have only seen a place like this on T.V.” 32 Thunder Roads Magazine of OK/AR Once assembled in the shop, Tommy talked to the youth about his experience growing up in Los Angeles. He explained how he had dropped out of high school to work as a motorcycle mechanic, but that as soon as his boss found out his age and that Tommy wasn’t going to school, he fired Tommy. “He told me when I got back in school come back and talk to him. I decided I better get back to high school so I could get this job.” Tommy went back to school and soon the Honda powersport dealer put him back to work part time. “The shop owner made me keep my grades up or I couldn’t work for him.”