Tulsa Expo Raceway...The Chili Bowl

Every year since 1987 tons and tons of clay are trucked into the Tulsa Expo Center, also known as the Quick Trip Center, for a couple of exciting motor racing events. To bring in the new year, over 700 Modified Midgets, Mini Sprints, and ECOtec Midgets fill the massive building and run races from 9:00 in the morning to 6:30 at night, right through with no breaks, on both new years eve day and new year’s day. I certainly hope everyone is careful celebrating New Years; otherwise they’re going to have a helluva throbbing head the next morning when the races start cranking up.

Saturday Pit Action, Main Aisle

Then, a couple of weeks later the biggest midget race in the world takes place, The Chili Bowl Nationals. This years version brought in 260+ cars from around the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The cars, haulers, the 1/5th mile dirt track, grandstands for 10,000 fans and a trade show are packed into this surprisingly spacious building.

If you want to eat there you had better bring money. Although there is a wide variety of food items, Chicken Fingers, Quesadillas, Barbeques, Hamburgers, Domino Pizzas, and all of the other common sides that you’d find at a race track, you’ll be paying out of the nose for it. They do not allow food or beverages, except for one bottle of water, through the turnstiles and they’ll check inside any bag you take in.

Restrooms, they have three for the stands and two in the pits. Although there will be long lines for the men’s, mainly between races, it moves along at a steady pace. Actually, the women’s restrooms are relatively line free, at least on the outside anyway. They do a great job at keeping them clean for the week, and they have hot water.

If you get there well ahead of time you can stroll through the trade show, which was T-shirt city this year, check out the collectables, try out stockcar and sprint car race simulators, obtain free catalogs and trinkets, plus get to know the Hooters girls as you go through. Also, the Tulsa State Fair facility consists of many large buildings. The Ford Building holds a racing auction, which costs $10 to enter, and radio controlled cars are raced on dirt in a barn like building just west of the Ford Building.

When the races get started, be ready for action. Monday night through Friday night are taken up with qualifying heat races and features just to get three midgets a guaranteed starting spot for the A main on Saturday. But, rest assured, these are no ordinary qualifying races. Passing points are used for eight heat races in order to line up four qualifying races. Passing points are also used for those races with the top 16 in combined passing points going to the A main and the balance going to twin B mains. Through in twin C mains and it’s a full night of races, and they think NASCAR has a complicated points system. Not only that, but they also throw in a Race of Champions on Tuesday night.

You would think that coming in the top three in the A main of each night, which gets you a spot for Saturday night, is satisfying enough, but these guys know how important it is just to win on these nights. Wednesday’s A main was a fine example of the thrill of victory, and it will be talked about for years.

Donny Ray Crawford, Tulsa’s home town racing hero, started third and hung around the bottom as Damion Gardner and Cole Whitt battled it out at the front. Crawford began drifting back to about eighth place as cars zipped past him in the top groove. After a few well timed yellows, including one with a couple of laps left, Crawford had made it back up towards the top three, but Gardner and Whitt had been duking it out so much with each other that they had forgotten about Crawford.

Cole Whitt

On the last lap Gardner and Whitt were banging the mud off each other’s car so they’ll look pretty for the pictures in victory lane. Going into turn three Whitt hopped up on the cushion, Gardner jammed his car under him hard enough to make contact and they leaned on each other racing for glory. However, Crawford went for it and floored it down low, never lifting. As all three cars came out of the fourth they met at the same spot, squeezing Gardner in the middle. Rubber met rubber, Gardner went skywards and Whitt found the wall. Donny Ray Crawford shot past the mayhem for the win, Damion Gardner flipped across the line for second and Cole Whitt’s car stopped one foot short of a guaranteed starting spot for Saturday’s A main and allowing Thomas Meseraull to come in third. The crowd erupted like never before, it was chilling. They do not mess around on qualifying nights.

So, four nights of qualifying race probably means a few C or D mains for Saturday, right? Wrong. Everyone gets a chance again to make it into the A main, no matter how improbable. Talk about the “alphabet soup”, they start back with two K’s, two J’s, two I’s, and so forth until the final double B’s sets the lineup for the finally.

This years Chili Bowl will be talked about for some time too. For most of the 50 lap race it was a battle between Bryan Clauson, USAC National Midget and Overall Diver Champion for 2010, multi-Chili Bowl winner Sammy Swindell and New Zealander Michael Pickens at the front of the field. As they concentrated on what they were doing, the 2010 Chili Bowl winner Kevin Swindell started picking his way through the rest of the stars.

 

Chili Bowl 25th Anniversary Midget

As other drivers cut across turn four, K. Swindell caught a small spot high on the apron in four and would rocket past the car in front of him, especially on restarts. He finally made it to the point with his father on lap 34. By the time the last caution came out Sammy was in the also-ran spot while Kevin saw a clear track in front of him. Sammy made desperation slide job moves in both turns one and three, pulling up even if not slightly past the leader, but Kevin had the spot covered. It looked as though Sammy was going to get him coming out of turn four for the win. The 39 midget of Kevin Swindell jumped the cushion in four but found that magic spot of traction and roared back around to beat his father by fractions of a second. It was literally so close that replays and transponders were the only things they could use to determine the winner. This made it the first time in the 25 years of racing the Chili Bowl that someone won it two years in a row. Quite a race.

Buy your tickets early, reserve your motel room well ahead of time and mark your calendar for five wild nights of racing magic….The Chili Bowl!

http://www.chilibowl.com/
http://www.tulsashootout.com/