In Conversation with Joseph Thomas

The ALSCCA recently had the opportunity to interview Joseph Thomas, owner and founder of Corsa Crew. Corsa Crew is our club’s new Title Sponsor for our 2025 season. We hope you enjoy learning more about what drives Joseph and the team at Corsa Crew through this dialogue with ALSCCA’s Sponsorship Program Director, Mike Wenning.

Joseph Thomas, Owner of Corsa Crew

Interview conducted April 14, 2025.

How and when did your interest in cars begin?

Probably at 6 years old. My Dad drag raced competitively and I was involved at an early age in motorsports. I was around building engines and building the whole car. This was at the drag strip in Biloxi, Mississippi. Gulfport Dragway. Those are my earliest memories.

When I first met you, we discussed your background in engineering. Can you tell us more about that?

I started out as a Quality Engineer at Honda of Alabama, and then transitioned into the Design Engineering side, specifically water intrusion, working with models like the Odyssey and Pilot. I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Mississippi State University. Saying that out loud makes me feel special. (Laughs). No, not really!

I left Honda. I didn’t have to leave Honda; it was a great job, but I wanted to try something new, so I worked with Maxxis in northeast Atlanta. I met my future wife in Georgia. We had both graduated from Mississippi State and five years later we re-met each other there in Georgia. I started at Maxxis as Senior Tire Design Engineer and when I left, I was the Manager of North American Third-Party Tire Tests. I orchestrated all the tire testing for offroad, sports car tires and spare tires. Worldwide, Maxxis is a large brand similar to Michelin in global reach.

When did you start Corsa Crew?

It started out as a part-time side gig in August 2015. At that time, we were just doing data analysis and reports for drivers, trackside on track days, and tire pressure analysis. Depending on the weight of the car and the driver’s goals, we could help them with alignment setting and tire pressures to help them dial in the car. We used lap timers, G-Force Meter, and cameras. These were all tools I used at Maxxis. It’s like being a driving coach without being inside the car. The business was fully mobile for a while, and then I went full-time around the end of 2018. I had a fully mobile tool setup, and I could travel to clients’ homes in the Atlanta, Georgia area to set up their cars.

When I was at Honda, I was on the Honda Race Team for five years. We worked on Hondas for Autocross and other motorsports disciplines. We had a fleet of Accords. Each year Honda would select 30 employees who had contributed in some way to the efficiency, design or process improvement at Honda and reward them with a track day at Talladega Grand Prix. We got to coach those people, which was entertaining. It’s fun to watch dirt track, for sure.

Going into business for yourself, why did you start Corsa?

At the time I had a lot of ambition. It was extremely challenging to get through my college years. It was not easy. I did not start college until I was like 22 years old. I did well and finished with a high GPA. College definitely elevated my learning capabilities. I moved to Alabama, and I was bored until I joined the race team. All of this really started me thinking that I could, and wanted, to do more. I was inspired by some people on YouTube, and I knew that there was so much more I could do to bring joy to the world. I knew that my corporate world experience with both Honda and Maxxis, even though they were exceptional companies to work for, was not my future. That was really my “why” for starting my own business.

I wanted to use my interests and abilities and see them transferred out into the world. And that’s exactly what we do at Corsa Crew. We make people happy.

Where did you come up with the name Corsa?

Corsa is Italian for racing. Some of Ferrari’s models are designated Corsa, meaning it’s the race version of their cars. Someone else came up with the name and the logo was done by a college student. I thought it was different. I really liked it.

Initially I didn’t know what I was doing at all. I was just blind ambition. I just wanted to go and do. I didn’t have a lot of overhead or responsibilities holding me back at the time. When I went to the tracks, I asked if I could throw up a tent and work track days. I started to see a market. You have people that race, who drive competitively and have a race team, and then you have people who come to the track and just want to be a better driver. That’s the driver education part of what we do. Everyone needed help. There are people that come to drive, and they don’t know all about tire pressure, and other performance factors, they just want to drive and have a little fun. If they don’t have a bit of help and education, they can have a really bad day and never come back. The market for what we offer just continues to build.

Autocross is the same way. We bring in novices and if we throw a course at them that they can’t read, we won’t see them come back. Now that we are at Barber, we are running 12-20 novices per event.

For the past ten years, and even longer than that, when I go to things like Chin Track Days, they always ask how many novice drivers are there, and it is always 5 hands that go up. I go to 20-30 events per year. Novice class fills up in seconds. The growth for track days and motorsport has been crazy.

At the shop we can do maintenance on the sports cars, inspections, motorsport performance packages, products for safety, seats, helmets, etc. and we can install them, plus educate everyone on these products and how to use and adjust them. We just launched 2,500 more products in our shop. We’re going to communicate more with people on that. We are a vendor for probably 67 different companies right now.

Do you rent your simulator out?

We do. It’s $75 per hour on the simulator with a 2-hour minimum. Mostly we set it up for different tracks, and we can bring in a coach. It has a VR headset as well. We have a hub of racing games that you can use in the simulator.

You can bring four or five people and just hang out and take turns on the simulator. It’s a lot of fun. I can break a sweat on KartKraft. It’s just like a go cart racing simulator, as close as you can get.

How many employees do you have now?

We have three full-time and three part-time employees. We can staff up for larger events.

What is the best part of running Corsa?

Making a difference. There are a lot of people whose lives are completely changed from renting and driving a car from us. Their experience was so good. And we love to build relationships with people long-term. We build their trust. When you are making people happy and getting that positive feedback, that’s a great thing.

What is the most challenging part of running Corsa?

I suppose it’s things like parts arriving on time, people who want a car set up by a certain time, communicating the importance of car maintenance to the customer. We work on multiple exotic brands. It’s great because Birmingham does not have dealerships for these cars. We can do anything the dealer can do for brands like Lamborghini and Ferrari. We have the software set up to perform all the mechanical services. We also sell all kinds of modifications, whether you drive a Mazda 3 or a Ferrari. We’re focused on delivering a quality experience.

What’s your personal driving experience?

Drag Racing first, and I was in the streetcar class just for fun. When I got to Honda, I learned about road racing and autocross with the race team. We raced a 300hp V6 with an automatic transmission for One Lap of America. It was a modified Honda Odyssey van with a roll cage. We had a lot of success with that setup. That Odyssey was not slow!

When I was at Honda I owned a Volkswagen Jetta. I had a BMW E46 M3 as well. I ran these basically stock with the ALSCCA when the autocross events were at Oak Mountain Amphitheater in Pelham.

Do you foresee offering “Arrive and Drive” for Autocross?

Yes, and the price would be a lot cheaper than doing track days. We now have a Ford Mustang Eco Boost, and it’s quick. It’s all stock. We can offer any of the cars we have. Reach out to me and let me know the autocross event you want to do, and we will price it for you. The Mini Cooper GP is also very fast. I have some Yokohama slicks coming in to test on that car. I think I can make it three to four seconds faster.

Tell me about the coffee.

In 2019 we started our own coffee brand. Me and the roaster created this coffee. I wanted a premium coffee that is a dark roast but has the caffeine content of a lighter roast. I wanted it to really appeal to the motorsports community. The taste and quality are great. We have whole bean and K-cups. It’s another thing we sell at the track and on our website.

The ALSCCA would like to thank Mr. Joseph Thomas for this conversation, and for his Title Sponsorship of the club. For more information on Corsa Crew and to plan your next track day experience, book your sports car for service, or see the new products available from Corsa Crew, please visit corsacrewrace.com.