After winning five races and the Sportsmen championship at Five Flags Speedway last year, Randy Thompson wondered if he could ever top such an impressive season.

But 2008 was even better for Thompson, as he won eight races on his way to another Sportsmen championship.

Now the 29-year-old Tate High School graduate is looking to top off the season with something every short-track racer dreams about: Winning a feature race during the Snowball Derby week.

The Sportsmen feature takes place tonight and after finishing first or second in 13 of the 16 Sportsmen features this season, Thompson is one of the favorites to win.

"We had a really good year," Thompson said. "We've won a lot of races and even the ones we didn't win, we were still really close. But winning the Derby (Sportsman feature) would make it even better. We've come close before and I think we're even better now."

Thompson has come painfully close to winning the Derby both of the past two years. He finished second in the Derby in 2006 and came within a lap of winning last year's Derby. He led the last half of that race, before a broken rear-end on the last lap forced him to coast to a third place finish.

"It was pretty tough losing it like that last year," Thompson said. "But something like that just makes you try harder. Now I just want to win it even more."

Determination to bounce back from last year's heartbreak has Thompson excited about tonight's race. Even with the extra competition that the Derby brings, Thompson is still confident about his chances.

"I know there's going to be more cars in the Derby (Sportsman feature) than there has been at most of the races this year," Thompson said. "But I still feel like we have a pretty good chance, as long as we don't have any more mechanical trouble like we did last year."

The Bomber division will also be competing tonight. Qualifying starts at 6:15 p.m. with races starting at 8.