Surviving the Bowl.

I survived another Chili Bowl Midget Nationals. I look forward to the Tulsa trip for so long; it’s hard to believe that it’s over. It seems like I enjoy myself more every year I go, and this time was no exception.

A year ago, this site, or the idea for even working on a web page didn’t exist. Now, in 2008, I was lucky enough to have my site decals on Tadd Holliman’s and Don Droud Jr.’s entries. Not a bad start to my involvement with the Chili Bowl.

The players in this story are myself, Aaron Allgood, who wrenches on the Lovegrove 44 car, and Matt Stelzer, who drives the number 99 305 sprint car.

We arrived in Tulsa on Thursday afternoon in time to check in, eat, and head to the newly named Quick Trip Center. I don’t know how many times I’ve been to the Chili Bowl, but within the first five minutes I still experience an almost sensory overload. There’s just so much going on under one gigantic roof!

Eventually we found our way to Droud’s pit, but not before I ran into Terry Klatt and Bob East. It was nice being able to talk to those guys again, and I also finally meet Bob’s wife Janice in person. I have been talking to Janice for almost a year via e-mail, so it was nice to finally shake her hand. They also gave us some great looking Bobby East/Klatt Enterprises t-shirts!

Soon the races began and we were eatin’ dirt. We sat in the pit grandstands near turn two for the heats. In the second race, it was fun watching Critter Malone give Tony Stewart all he could handle. Stewart won the race, but had to work hard for it.

Nine heats, four last chance races, four qualifiers, two B Mains, and one A Feature later Thursday night at the Chili Bowl was in the books.

Avon, Indiana’s Brad Kuhn looked impressive in the Nebraska-based Dr. Kenneth Love midget.

The three of us had planned on going out, but after a full day of driving and the races, we instead went back to the room and went to bed. We’re quite the party animals!

We spent Friday afternoon visiting some Tulsa tourist attractions and then arrived at the track around 4 p.m. It was on this night that Don Droud Jr. would attempt to qualify his Indy Race Parts 71D entry.

I’ve found that if you take Aaron Allgood to a race, and place him around a sprint car or midget, he’ll soon start working on it. Such was the case on Friday. No sooner had we arrived than he was mixing it up with Jr., Rodney and Bernie Stuebgen the car owner.

The night started well for Jr. He finished third in his heat, which put him in A Main Qualifier number one. Once again, Jr. looked strong and beat Jason Leffler on his way to winning the Qualifier. The win would place Jr. on the second row outside for the A Feature, one of three black 71 cars in the first four spots!

The feature began, and Jr. was right in the thick of it. He was third, fighting it out with Cory Kruseman, Jason Leffler, Damion Gardner, and Dave Darland. The evening’s good luck ended when Kruseman spun, and collected Jr.

With only six laps remaining, Jr. was able to climb to 16th. What could have been! Jr. was in a top five car, which would have locked him into Saturday’s A Feature. Because of the bad luck, he was forced to start towards the front of one Saturday’s C Mains. Such is life at the Chili Bowl…

I know we had a fun night helping with the car, and being a small part of the show, but the ending was a disappointment. However we didn’t let that put too much of a damper on our post race plans, and after a quick stop at the hotel to clean up, we made our way to the famous Tulsa bar, the Elephant Run.

Perhaps I’m getting too old, but I really didn’t enjoy my time there. The place was packed, you couldn’t move around, and we had to endure listening the worst cover band I’ve ever heard. Definitely not my idea of a good time!

After putting up with that crowd for a while, we went to the “Fuck Last Call” after hours party and took in the “sights” there. At least now I can say I’ve been to both, but I’m not sure if I’ll make it out to either event next year. It’s hell getting old.

Saturday we were up and at the track by 11:30. We were ready for the big time, pushing that car around with our matching Don Droud Jr. t-shirts and NOS Energy Drink hats. In a way, we had become the crew for Jr.

I have to mention how great it was that Bernie and Jr. let us help with the car. Granted, Allgood and Stelzer did most of the work, but I did contribute a little bit. Mostly I chatted up Rodney. Someday our conversations will lead us to taking over the race world, just wait!

The racing started a little after noon, and we weren’t scheduled to run until 8 p.m. It made for a long day, but a lot of fun. It was so cool to be part of a team, working on a car in the pits. It’s the first time I’ve been involved like that at the Chili Bowl, and the next time, I hope I’ll be a little more educated on how to work on a racecar, so I can help out more!

As the time drew near, the mood got a little more serious. We helped Jr. strap in the car, and pushed him to the staging area. Again, it takes little to impress me, but I felt pretty important, pushing that car down Broadway to the staging area.

He looked good in hot laps, and I felt pretty confident that he would race his way out of the C into the B. We watched from the ramp and then quickly chased Jr. down to help push the car back to the pits.

I swear, Jr. was the first one off the track every time, and let the car coast a ways back to the pit area. This meant for us, a nice little sprint through crowds and around other moving cars to catch up.

It was on that dash that I pulled off perhaps the most athletic move I’ve ever done in my life. I’m running down the pit lane following Jr.’s car, trying to avoid running up the back of people walking along, not paying attention. I also had other fast moving cars to avoid. At one point I looked down to my right to see Cory Krusemen idling by right next to me. I was literally running alongside his car, racing him on foot!

The best part of this came when I jumped to my right to avoid running into someone, but in doing so, it put me directly in the path of an oncoming car. I managed to avoid tripping over the left rear tire, I jumped and landed between the left rear and left front tires, and then jumped again over the left front tire, and then back to my left to get out of the way of the car and the people. Nine times out of ten I would have fallen onto the car and gotten run over, but I was lucky that night!

Winded, I returned to Jr.’s pit, happy to be alive and in one piece. Some adjustments were made, I helped clean the car and we again had to wait our turn. Another push to the staging area, but this time I had to bring up the cart with the spares on it.

During this race, my duty was to stand near the Hoosier Tire vendor, and purchase the correct left rear tire to use in the B Main. Watching the race on the big TV screen, I felt very nervous, but Jr. put on a great run, missing a first lap spin in which both of the leaders took themselves out.

On the restart, Jr. was on the pole, and ran away with the C Main win, placing himself in the B. I got the tire, and lugged it back to the pits. As it turns out, we didn’t even need it! Hey, I still felt sort of important though.

After a few quick adjustments, we pushed the car back to the staging area. Sort of a “hurry up and wait” situation, because we made it there in time to stand around for 15 minutes.

It was fun though, being in the middle of the storm, with Tony Stewart’s bright yellow car sitting two feet directly behind where we were standing. I’d like to think that the last thing Smoke saw before he went out to run the B Main was my backside.

Jr. gave it a good run, and ended up 9th. Not too bad considering the competition! The night ended and we pushed the car back to the pits. I’m sure Jr. was disappointed that he didn’t make the A, but qualifying for the B feature at the Chili Bowl is not an easy task!

The rest of the night, we sat around the pits and watched the A Feature on one of the big screens. It was fun watching the race with the Droud brothers, joking around, but also getting their point of view on the racing itself.
Saturday night at the Chili Bowl is bittersweet, because it marks the end to a great weekend, and signals the start of a long wait until the next race. We left about an hour after the race, finally made it back to the hotel a little after midnight. I was asleep in five minutes.

All in all, I had a fantastic time with the guys, and I’m lucky I was able to be a part of such fun trip.

I’m ready to do it all again! Phoenix, here I come!