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RACING SCENE Column – (Tulsa Chili Bowl/MAVTV) – By Tim Kennedy
LOS ANGELES – The 28th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Midget Nationals presented by General Tire in Tulsa, Oklahoma, “the super bowl of midget auto racing”, raced five days from January 14-18, 2014. The classic event at Tulsa Expo Raceway is a favorite of racing fans and drivers from many racing disciplines. The Saturday finale reached its largest audience this year. All 15,000 seats in the building were sold as usual. The MAVTV American Real first live telecast without charge of Saturday night racing added thousands of eyeballs this year. The clay indoor quarter-mile clay occupies one end of the 11-acres, block-long 448,000 square feet exhibition building. All racing cars, haulers plus team pits and a trade show occupy the other end of the massive building.
A national television audience was able to see two 15-lap C mains, twin 20-lap B mains and the 55-lap A feature. In 2008 Chili Bowl Saturday night mains were televised live nationally from 5:00-9:00 pm (PT) by HBO on a pay per view basis for $24.95. That effort was not repeated. Grassroots open-wheel racing fans this year watched the final five features after 16 prior features from K to D mains had been run during the afternoon. They are known as “alphabet soup” mains. A MAVTV press release on January 24 revealed the 2014 Chili Bowl live telecast brought the network the highest rating in the history of MAVTV, which started in September 2011.
FORMAT: Consecutive racing nights from Tuesday through Friday divided the record-tying 281 car field (same as 2009) into four preliminary rounds. On Tuesday 69 midgets drew to compete in heat races, followed by 70 more on Wednesday, 70 on Thursday and the final 72 on Friday. Position and passing points were awarded and each preliminary A main started 24 cars. The top three finishers each night advanced directly to Saturday's A-feature (12 cars). Total points earned each night slotted drivers into the Saturday mains. There were 73 races run from Tuesday through Friday and 21 more Saturday for an amazing 94 races on the still racy clay track when racing concluded Saturday.
Drivers came from four nations--USA, Canada (two), Australia (three), and New Zealand (one). The 296 pre-entries (281 drew for starting positions) listed drivers from 33 states. Eight states had double digit driver representatives. They were: Oklahoma-46 (16%), California-42, Indiana-37, Illinois-29, Texas-18, Pennsylvania-13, Missouri-12 and Kansas-10. There were 65 Chili Bowl rookies. Five female drivers raced—Shannon McQueen, Taylor Ferns, Hannah Adair, Harli White and Michelle Decker.
CHASSIS/ENGINES: Entries this year showed a wide array of dirt track midget chassis and engine choices. There were 29 different chassis constructors and 28 engine builders. Eight chassis constructors had nine or more midgets at the Chili Bowl. Spike had 119 midgets (42%). Stealth had 55 cars, Beast 15, DRC and Twister-12 each, Bullet 11, Triple X 10, and Ellis-nine. Esslinger was the most popular engine with 99 entries (35%). The next most popular engines were: Fontana-46, Chevrolet-33, Gaerte and Mopar-27 each, Toyota-18, Ford-seven, and Hawk-five.
Saturday's A-feature winner receives the coveted “Golden Driller Trophy”, a reference to the original petroleum industry exhibition purpose for the huge building. It now hosts the Chili Bowl Nationals each January during the off-season for most racers. Personable Bryan Clauson, originally from Carmichael, California and now racing out of Noblesville, Indiana, became the 18th different driver to win a Chili Bowl Golden Driller Trophy for his trophy collection. He won by 1.556 seconds over Kevin “Bulldog” Swindell, who was trying to win his fifth consecutive Chili Bowl Saturday A-main. Kevin, 25, won the 2014 Chili Bowl “Hard Charger of the Week Award” for advancing his position 49 times. Mike Curb Records sponsorship adorned the cars of the top three Saturday A-main finishers.
Chili Bowl 2014 Rookie of the Year recognition came down to a contest between a pair of young Saturday B-main drivers. Indianan Parker Price-Miller, 15, who placed 11th in the second B-main won the honor over Nevadan Tanner Thorson, 17, who finished 14th in the first B-main. Both teens raced in the 2013 Perris Turkey Night Grand Prix and performed well. Thorson won the TNGP rookie of the year award by finishing tenth.
Christopher Bell, 18-year old 2013 USAC National Midget Champion from Norman, Oklahoma, deserves praise for finishing third in the 55-lap Chili Bowl feature. He battled K. Swindell and exchanged second place with him several times late in the race. Alex Bright, from Pennsylvania, came from 12th to his Chili Bowl best fourth place in his season-long midget, not a lighter but legal “Chili Bowl only”chassis. Dave Darland, 48, proved he still is one the best open-wheel racing drivers. He continued his recent hot streak and did so for his third different car owner. Dave finished fifth in Saturday's A-main after starting tenth. Last November in Perris, Calif. he won the annual Oval Nationals for USAC sprint cars and the USAC TNGP midget 98-lap feature on Thanksgiving.
Chili Bowl 2014 preliminary night 25-lap A-main winners (with their starting positions in parenthesis) were: Tuesday--Jonathan Beason (1), Wednesday—Caleb Armstrong (2), Thursday—Christopher Bell (1) and Friday—Bryan Clauson (2). Clauson started third and won Saturday's A main by leading laps 6-55. He passed early leader/pole sitter Armstrong on the inside in the first and second turns. Sixteen of 24 starters finished. A special 20-lap Race of Champions on Tuesday went to Kyle Larson (No. 71K) over Damion Gardner.
This year four drivers tied at three mains for advancing and running in the most Saturday features—the alphabet soup endurance contest. They were: Seth Motsinger (I main-P.1, H-P. 4 and G-P. 13), Brent Beauchamp (H main P.3, G-P. 4 and F- P. 7); Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. (E-P. 1, D-P. 1 and C-P.7-only one spot short of making the B); J. J. Yeley (D-P.1, C- P. 6 and B-P.11). NASCAR driver Stenhouse was Saturday's hard charger with 23 passes.
MAVTV: American Real MAVTV has been owned since 2011 by Forrest Lucas, founder of Lucas Oil Products and a major benefactor of racing in this country. MAVTV is offered by many cable companies and the Chili Bowl telecast was available also on satellite services DirecTV and Dish Network. MAVTV operates out of Corona, California. It appears Lucas and his MAVTV network and TV production company are ready and willing to fill the void left when Speed-TV and Fox Sports downsized auto racing for more general, ESPN-like sports programming. MAVTV (DirecTV and Dish also) will re-air the entire 2014 Chili Bowl three hour and 20 minute telecast on Friday, February 21.
Lucas and MAVTV president Bob Patison are racers at heart. They present grassroots racing the right way to please current fans and attract newcomers to the sport. Last October they televised their first live event--off-road races from Lake Elsinore. The Chili Bowl was their second live telecast. They hired knowledgeable Dave DeSpain as soon as his contract with Speed/Fox Sports ended on December 31. Dave's first MAVTV assignment was to serve as on-site broadcast host of the Chili Bowl telecast. He did his usual stellar job of setting the stage for Saturday racing and interviewing competing drivers Kasey Kahne and Kyle Larson after their Saturday racing concluded. “Wind Tunnel” vet Dave will have his own half-hour show starting this spring on MAVTV and that is welcome news. Speed Sport News and MAVTV also have a collaborative show in the works.
MAVTV brought in experienced motor sports broadcasters as on-air talent for the Chili Bowl telecast. Announcer Ken Stout and analyst Rob Klepper (brother of former USAC midget driver Clay Klepper) were in the booth and performed admirably. Dave Argabright and Erin Banks were in their usual roles as pit reporters and asked appropriate questions. The three hour MAVTV Chili Bowl telecast was scheduled from 5:30-8:30 pm (PT) and it went overtime by 19 minutes to 8:49 pm. Of course MAV stayed live at the Chili Bowl and interviewed the top two A-feature drivers. Then MAVTV joined the program in progress—a 2013 Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model stock car race at Knoxville, Iowa.
While a Chili Bowl full purse payout is not published, it is widely known that Saturday' s A-feature winner receives $10,000. (The USAC TNGP feature winner receives $6,000.) On TV DeSpain said drivers and teams compete for the three P s—pride, prestige and passion to become a Chili Bowl winner. He also mentioned on air that the three triple crown midget racing events are the open comp Tulsa Chili Bowl each January, the Belleville (Kansas) Midget Nationals in August, and the USAC Turkey Night GP in California each Thanksgiving.
The annual Chili Bowl Saturday A feature was 50-laps for years. It was bumped up to 55 laps after the January 14, 2012 fatal shooting of driver Donnie Ray Crawford III, 24 at his home in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. He used No. 55 on his race cars. The preliminary A-main winner opening night this year was Jonathan Beason, a close friend of Crawford. Beason's Hard Eight Racing No. 8J Spike appeared to be a snub-tail copy of the Chili Bowl creations used by Sammy Swindell and his son Kevin to dominate Chili Bowl racing in recent years. Sammy is a five-time winner (1989, 92, 96, 98 an 2009).
During the usual extensive track reworking prior to the A-feature Saturday Argabright walked through the pits and interviewed noted Indy Car drivers Johnny Rutherford and Sarah Fisher, NASCAR's Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.. plus open-wheel champions Jimmy Sills and five-time CRA sprint car champion Jimmy Oskie. “Ski” said he enjoyed visiting with racing friends and even managed to find a dance hall in Tulsa after the races so everything was A-OK for him.
TV WINNERS: Brandon Waelti won the first 15-lap C-main in a 13-minute race that had one flip. Tim Crawley won the second C-main in seven minutes. Shane Cockrum re-took P. 6 (the final transfer to B-main two) on the final lap from Stenhouse leaving turn four. ... The first B-main went four minutes with driver ability evident. Rico Abreu led all 20-laps from the pole in a caution-free race. Nor Cal driver Shane Golobic started fifth and had a transfer to the A until the final lap when he jumped the cushion and lost three positions, ending his night. Jerry Coons, Jr. started ninth and finished fifth, joining Darland with11 straight Chili Bowl Saturday A-feature starts.
B-main two: K. Swindell led all 20 laps from the pole. The race had two cautions and took eight minutes. Chad Boat made an amazing outside move leaving a turn to move from P. 7 to P. 5, passing both Tracy Hines and Gary Taylor simultaneously. Shane Cottle had the sixth place final transfer spot to the A when Brad Kuhn (in his final race before retiring from racing to run his family business) hit Cottle's car. Cottle spun into the wall and hopped from his car angrily. TV showed Cottle running up the third turn ramp to the pits to confront Kuhn. Kevin Ramey, from 13th, took the final A transfer from Kuhn on the last lap with his inside pass leaving the fourth turn.
As expected, the track crew bladed, watered and repacked the track for almost an hour and made a “new track” for the 24 feature drivers. Adding showmanship, co-promoters Emmett Hahn and Lanny Edwards turned off infield lighting for driver introductions. All 24 cars were pushed by quads from the third turn track entrance ramp through a temporary infield tent. Flashing strobe lights and smoke were added for effect. The A-main lineup had the four preliminary night winners starting in the first two rows. Preliminary nights runners-up occupied positions five through eight. Third place drivers from preliminary nights earned positions nine through 12.
A 1-4 pill draw for prelim winners gave Wednesday winner Armstrong the pole and Thursday winner Bell the outside front row spot. Friday and Tuesday winners Clauson and Beason drew positions three and four. Second and third place prelim night drivers followed the same 1-4 pill draw procedure to fill rows three through six. In the back half of the field the inside row (P. 13-23) drivers were the first six finishers in order of finish from the first B-main. The outside row (P. 14-24) was the first six finishers by finishing order from the second B-main. All was ready for a sensational feature and drivers obliged.
MAVTV on-air talent made their A-main winner predictions on camera. DeSpain picked fellow elder Sammy Swindell, 58. Klepper opted for either front row starters Armstrong or Bell. Stout then chose sixth starter S. Swindell. Argabright also picked S. Swindell. Erin Banks next selected Bell. I picked third starter Clauson or 15th starter Larson as a long-shot. No one selected 14th starter K. Swindell, who was only going for his fifth Golden Driller victory in a row. Kevin deserves credit for declining an available provisional berth to start 25th in Saturday's A main. He opted to race his way into the A Saturday from the B and start from row seven with a B main victory.
FEATURE: The 55-lap A remained green to lap 10 when Thomas Meseraull blew his engine entering turn three and stopped. Armstrong's No. 7C led five laps over Clauson. On lap 6 Clauson's No. 63 Joe Dooling Spike/Esslinger took the lead and remained out front to the checkers. On the lap 10 restart USAC-CRA 2013 champion Damion Gardner bicycled and flipped entering turn one, sidelining one of Andy Bondio's two unique midgets. Tim McCreadie, the 2006 Chili Bowl winner, finished sixth in the other Bondio car. National Midget Driver of the Year Bell took second on lap 13.
MAVTV cameras captured the third through eighth place position-swapping. They were on top of the P.5 battle between sixth starter S. Swindell and Kyle Larson (P. 15 to P. 6 at that point) when they collided leaving turn two. Sammy's car veered left, drove through the infield and came onto the track on the front stretch in front of the leaders. He incurred a one lap penalty for cutting the track. Larson's Keith Kunz Bullet/Toyota blew its engine as lapping began. Ironically, Kunz removed his electronic fuel-injection engine and replaced it with the mechanical fuel-injection engine for added reliability.
An alert MAVTV employee on-site brought Larson to join DeSpain for an on-air interview. He said, “I was in the thick of it for positions three through five.” Larson, nicknamed “young money”, praised his Kunz midget teammate Christopher Bell and said, “He is better than me. He is smooth and smart.” Bell, at 18, could be “young money II” as he follows Larson's rapid route into the top three national NASCAR series. Larson also lauded Abreu.
Spins by Danny Stratton and P. 8 C. Armstrong followed. Then Michael Pickens flipped and the cars of Chad Boat and Alex Schutte stalled to miss him. Abreu passed K. Swindell briefly for third place before he spun low in turn four and a few laps later Coons flipped at the starting line infield. Bell and K. Swindell swapped P. 2 in thrilling cross-over moves. Both cars pushed up to the fourth turn wall, bumped and continued with Swindell second and Bell third. The race started at 8:04 pm (PT) and concluded at 8:37 (PT) as two cars tangled in the third turn with K. Ramey's car overturned. Argabright interviewed winner Clauson and Banks interviewed runner-up K. Swindell. If you recorded the 2014 Chili Bowl save it. It's a keeper and worth re-watching during long winter months. The next live MAVTV telecast will be the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model from East Bay Raceway near Tampa, Florida on Thursday, February 13 at 3:30 pm ET, 6:30 pm PT.
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