Highlights of the Carolina Outdoors

Highlights of the Carolina Outdoors


Fast Lane with Tom Blocker

September 07, 2023

Segment 2, September 9th, 2023


For many getting outdoors means slowing down.  However going slow never was in the cards for Tom Blocker.  After graduating from NC State in the early 1970s with a degree in Economics, he continued adding to his resume by getting into racing motorcycles, cars, & then a career in the automotive industry.


Tom can be heard each week on BT with BT, speaking with Bo Thompson about cars & the automotive industry, but we’re going to shift the angle a bit.  Bill Bartee, the host of the Carolina Outdoors, delves into the genesis of Tom Blocker going fast.


We’ll


Tom Blocker welcome… Tom many of our listeners are familiar with you & your knowledge but we want to check in on the passion.


When was it that you decided that you liked going fast?

How did your parents safely coral that with safety?

“There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games,” Ernest Hemingway once said.


-When did you recognize going fast with a passion for motorsports?

-What about it do you love?

-What’s your favorite?  Motorcycles or cars

-When did you know that you wanted to work with cars & not just drive them?

-Favorite place to ride or drive?

-Worse incident, accident, wreck?

-Helping the new generation do it right?


Over 50 years in motor & auto—

water skiing


Blocker retired from the automotive industry in 2014 but not from the track.  He can still be found racing his beloved Porsche & enjoying the thrills of going fast, mixed with being safe & teaching others in his story, Fast Lane.