How competitive was the Chili Bowl?

A snapshot of championship diversity

 

 

 

 

By now, most racing fans know that Christopher Bell a member of the powerful Keith Kunz Motorsports/Toyota Racing Development team successfully defended his title as the 2018 Chili Bowl Nationals champion. Bell took the victory after his teammate and fellow NASCAR star Kyle Larson suffered an engine failure midway through the 55-lap feature race.

KKM Toyota -powered Spike chassis entries won three of the four 2018 Chili Bowl preliminary night features and Bell’s win is KKM’s fourth consecutive Chili Bowl win since 2015. KKM was dominant on Saturday as in addition to claiming the feature win, all three steps of the podium went to KKM drivers – Rico Abreu was second and Spencer Bayston was third.

With such domination by one team, some may ask the question with 345 entries in 2018, how competitive and diverse is the Chili Bowl? Consider the starting field for the first of two C-Main 15 lap features which included Tanner Thorson the 2016 USAC (United States Auto Club) National Midget Champion and  2017 National Midget Driver of the Year, 2008 ARCA stock car champion Justin Allgaier who finished third in the 2017 NASCAR Xfinity series, and Steve Buckwalter, who has over 30 wins on the tough ARDC (American Racing Drivers Club) midget circuit and was their 2010 series champion.

That trio was joined by multi-time ASCS (American Sprint Car Series) Northwest division champion Roger Crockett, three-time POWRi midget series champion Zach Daum, World of Outlaws late model series champion and 2006 Chili Bowl champion Tim McCreadie, and multi-time USAC Southwest sprint car champion RJ Johnson.

As if that is not a tough enough field, it also included two-time USAC National Sprint Car champion Brady Bacon, Sprint Car Challenge Tour (SCCT) sprint car series star Colby Copeland, CJ Leary who won four USAC National sprint car features in 2017 USAC/CRA multi-time winner Jake Swanson, three-time King of West sprint car champion Kyle Hirst and USAC National Sprint car series star Thomas Meseraull who was the 2004 BCRA (Bay Cities Racing Association) Midget series champion.  

Of the twenty cars and drivers in the first C-Main race, only the top six advanced to the tail of the first B-main race – Thorson, Allgaier, local driver Ace McCarthy who races with the POWRi series, Daum, Bacon and Leary. Of those six drivers only one -Tanner Thorson-was able to advance to the night’s 55-lap feature where he finished fourth behind his three former teammates, as for 2018, Thorson drives for the Dooling-Hayward Motorsports/Richard Childress Racing team.  

 

 

Kilby Racing continues 2018 season prep

 

In the early weeks of 2018, Kilby Racing in Bealeton Virginia continued to prepare for Bradley Kilby’s inaugural season in a limited late model race car.

 

Racers know that you can’t win unless you get to the track, so recently the Kilby team purchased a new 41-foot triple-axle race trailer and Chevrolet dually pickup which the fun-loving family team immediately nicknamed the “white freight train.”

 

 

With this rig, from Phillip Morris Trailer Town, the 2017 Dominion Speedway Bandelero track champion’s team will have plenty of room to work.

 

Bradley will begin testing his limited late model racer during March in preparation for his first 2018 race on April 7 at Dominion Raceway in Thornburg Virginia. C

Check out the full 2018 Dominion schedule at http://ovaltrack.dominionraceway.com/2108-oval-track-schedule/ and follow Bradley’s accomplishments on this site and be sure to “like” Kilby Racing on Facebook.   

Photos courtesy of Kilby Racing

Justin Grant wins Chili Bowl night four

 

Friday night was Vacuworx night at the 32nd annual Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa Oklahoma. Coming into the night the Keith Kunz Motorsports (KKM) team was undefeated with three straight preliminary night wins for Kyle Larson, Rico Abreu and Christopher Bell.

The KKM team fell one spot short on  Friday night as Justin Grant driving for the Clauson-Marshall team won the 25-lap with Spencer Bayston the reigning USAC midget driving champion finishing second ahead of POWRi regular Andrew Felker who started the race from eleventh place. NASCAR Monster Energy Cup series star Kasey Kahne finished fifth.

 

Felker has quite a comeback story at the 2018 Chili Bowl as he crashed his car in practice on Monday after less then a lap of practice and it required complete disassembly before the frame was straightened, then the car was rebuilt. 

Grant who reigned as the 2007 Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) season champion continued another trend for the week as he earlier won his heat race and qualifying race, along with other strong contenders Chad Boat, Alex Schutte, Dave Darland and Damion Gardner, who finished fourth in the night’s A feature. Boat led the first four laps of the feature yielding to Gardner who led until lap turn two of lap seventeen when Grant took the lead with an outside pass in turn two.

The Chili Bowl Nationals winds up tonight with the 55-lap feature race.

Keith Kunz Racing three for three!

 

 

With Christopher Bell's sweep of the Thursday night Chili Bowl Nationals preliminary night as he won his heat race, qualifying race and the 25-lap feature, Keith Kunz Racing (KKR) is for three for three with preliminary night feature wins so far this week at Tulsa Expo Raceway.

 

Bell built a lead of nearly five seconds at time during the John Christner Trucking feature race, but second place Shane Golobic closed to as close as one second in the closing laps, but got no closer. Third place was captured by Chase Johnson driving for Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) President Del Morris with veteran Tracy Hines fourth and Indiana's Caleb Armstrong fifth.

 

Ryan Bernal driving for Clauson-Marshall Racing started the featured 17th and finished sixth. Two other drivers started the A-Main after starting from the D-Main - both Tanner Thorsen and Michael Pickens both had trouble in their heat races and raced hard to make up for their earlier troubles.  

 

 

Rico Abreu wins the second night

of the 2108 Chili Bowl Nationals

 

 

Two-time Chili Bowl Nationals champion Rico Abreu made a triumphant return to racing last night as won the Hard Rock Casino qualifying night A-feature in thrilling fashion. Abreu who had been of a race car since a hard crash at the USAC Four Crown Nationals at Eldora battled Tyler Thomas as the two drivers battled slide jobs throughout the 25 lap feature.

 

Kevin Thomas Jr. finished third with Sammy Swindell fourth edging Chris Windom with whom Swindell battled most of the last half of the race. Abreu won his beat race and his qualifying race and started the feature from the front row.

 

The night's most serious accident occurred on the final lap of the second 10-lap qualifying race when leader Brady Bacon flipped and his car became stuck in the catch fence. The dedicated Chili Bowl track crew worked diligently to extract the car from its precarious position with minimal damage. Bacon was unhurt and returned for his B-feature and advanced into the night's A feature where he finished 13th.

 

Earnhardt Jr. won his 
15th consecutive
NASCAR  
Most Popular Driver Award

 

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who retired from full-time competition in the NASCAR (National Association of Stock Car Racing) Monster Energy Cup Series at the conclusion of the 2017 season, was named the National Motorsports Press Association's (NMPA) Most Popular Driver for the 15th consecutive year.

Earnhardt, 43, the driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, was named on nearly 68 percent of the votes cast by fans - the Most Popular Driver Award is the only major NASCAR award determined solely by fan vote. It has been presented annually since 1953 - the recipients were originally determined by a poll of the competitors but it became a fan-driven program in 1984 under the auspices of the NMPA.

Earnhardt is one of eight drivers to receive the award on multiple occasions. Other multiple-time Most Popular Driver award winners include Lee and Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, David Pearson, Fred Lorenzen, and Darrell Waltrip.  

Only one driver, Bill Elliott, has won the award more times than Earnhardt Jr.  Elliott was named the series’ most popular driver 16 times between 1984 and 2002. Dale Earnhardt Sr. broke Elliott’s stranglehold from 1991 to 2001, when he won the Most Popular Driver award for the only time in 2001.

In addition to hosting the voting platform for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Most Popular Driver award, fans voted to determine the Most Popular Driver in the NASCAR XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series also hosted on NASCAR.com.

 Elliott Sadler, who finished second in the XFINITY Series championship battle won the NASCAR XFINITY Series Most Popular Driver award and Sunoco Rookie of the Year Chase Briscoe was voted the Camping World Truck Series Most Popular Driver by fans.

 

Information for this article was provided by NMPA, of which the author is a member.

deTomaso Pantera by Ghia

 imported by Lincoln-Mercury

 

In September 1969 Ford Motor Company signed an agreement with Italian auto manufacturer Alejandro deTomaso to build a high-volume wedge shaped mid-engine budget supercar, the Pantera (panther in Italian) for the United States market.

Ford knew there would be a limited window of sales for this car as the Tom Tjaarda design would not meet 1975 United States crash standards, but Ford anticipated selling 5000 Panteras a year in the United States at $10,925.00 each through Lincoln-Mercury dealers. At that time a Ferrari sold for $25,000, so Ford was selling a supercar at a bargain price.  

The first Pantera, a yellow car shown at the 1970 Los Angeles Auto Show was actually a European market car with push button doors and was later photographed for the initial Pantera brochures. The Pantera was powered by a Ford 351 cubic inch V-8 fitted with a four barrel carburetor that produced 310 horsepower.

 

click to enlarge

 

The mid-mounted engine fed the power to the independently suspended rear end through a ZF five-speed transmission. With a curb weight of 3123 pounds the Pantera accelerated from a standing start to 60 miles per hour (MPH) in 5.5 seconds and covered the quarter mile in 14 seconds.
 

The Pantera was a hand-built Italian supercar with four wheel power disc brakes and four-wheel independent suspension and cast magnesium  wheels  but being hand built, the cars had some problems. The author recalls making a trip with his father in 1971 as a thirteen year old to a Lincoln-Mercury dealer in Fort Wayne Indiana to look at a Pantera.
 

Upon arrival, the dealer’s salesman was unfamiliar with the car and had no brochures. The dealership’s single medium blue example was not on the showroom floor, but rather was in the service department. The salesman admitted the car wouldn’t run and was in the shop to diagnosis an apparent electrical problem.

My father and I were left alone to wander back into the empty dealership service area to look at the car and were shocked at the poor build quality in the interior and exterior panel fitment. Panteras were notoriously unreliable, with engine cooling issues as well as an inadequate cockpit ventilation system. My father bought a Lincoln Mark III instead (as if he was going to buy anything else).   

Several celebrities owned Panteras. Elvis Presley bought a yellow Pantera for one of his girlfriends, and when it wouldn’t start the enraged star shot the steering wheel, after which the car reportedly started. Playboy Enterprises bought a white 1972 Pantera, had it stripped and painted pink and gave the car to 1972 Playmate of the year Liv Lindeland. In 1974 Canadian hockey star and restaurateur Tim Horton died after he crashed his 1972 white Pantera at over 110 MPH and  was ejected. A later investigation revealed that Horton's blood alcohol was twice the legal limit.   

 

 

click to enlarge

 

The early Panteras were equipped with attractive thin chrome bumperettes, but by 1973 to meet the new US crash standards, the Pantera Lusso (“L”)  as the example seen at the “Autos of Alamo” car show was equipped with energy-absorbing reinforced steel rubber bumpers which were certainly more attractive than some cars’ added safety bumpers.   

 

At the end of the 1974 model year, as planned Lincoln-Mercury dropped the Pantera line with a  documented total of only 5262 cars sold, far short of the planned 5,000 a year. Many of the surviving Panteras have been modified as the one seen at Alamo which has a non-original pant color and  is fitted larger diameter wheels which are similar to the original Campagnolo design in addition to obvious engine upgrades.

 

The 1973 Pantera had a redesigned instrument cluster with optional wood grain – the original Pantera featured a “twin pod” design

 

All photographs by the author