MOORESVILLE, N.C. — We enjoyed our annual trip to the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals.
This year’s 34th running of the prestigious event was even bigger than last year’s six-night affair with some 360 midgets in the pit area.
Based on what everybody within the industry is saying about the state of midget racing, there is every reason to believe next year’s 35th running at Tulsa (Okla.) Expo Raceway will be even bigger.
– NASCAR star Ricky Stenhouse Jr. returned to his roots, racing an open-wheel car on dirt at the Chili Bowl. While he was there, Stenhouse was reunited with his first midget — a car he hadn’t seen in at least 10 years. Stenhouse drove the car in 2005 or ’06, based on his memory of those days. He was 17 years old at the time.
It was a narrow-body Stealth chassis with an Ed Pink engine. There is a different engine in it now, the fuel tank has been changed and the new driver, Timmy Thrash, put his own seat in it. Ironically, Thrash and Stenhouse are both from Mississippi.
– Keith Kunz’s race cars have won nine Golden Drillers at the Chili Bowl. He told us he believed there were legitimately 75 cars entered in this year’s event with a chance of winning the 55-lap main event on Saturday night.
– Gary Stanton had one of his beautiful SR-11X engines on display at the Chili Bowl. There were 71 of Stanton’s power plants competing in the prestigious event.
Stanton designed nearly every piece and part that goes on the engine, including the studs. The only pieces that come from an outside supplier are the water pump from KSE and the rear seals.
Stanton design is conservatively producing 385 horsepower and he will sell you one for $41,500. While the engine is expensive, it is not the most expensive power plant in midget racing. Depending on whom you talk with, the Stanton engine is roughly $20,000 less than a Toyota midget engine.
The Stanton SR-11X is a winner as well, powering Tyler Courtney to the USAC National Midget title for Clauson-Marshall Racing last season. In fact, Stanton’s design was the power plant of choice for the drivers who finished first, third and fifth in the USAC title chase.
– James Davison has booked an extremely busy and diverse schedule this season, and it all began with his first Chili Bowl start.
Davison, who finished 11th in last year’s Indianapolis 500, plans to compete in the Daytona 500, Indy 500, the Historic GP at Monaco and the S5000 event during the Australian Grand Prix.
If the right deals come together, he might add more NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series races to the calendar.
Davison also is working on deals to drive a non-winged pavement sprint car at Anderson (Ind.) Speedway, compete in more midget races and run a handful of Silver Crown events.
– Circuit Hawaii, the new racing complex in the 50th state, is right on schedule. Organizers are working on completing biological and botanical studies, while seeking funding.
The group is looking to raise $1.2 million for the initial phase of development. They hope to generate this money through 24 founding members who would join Circuit Hawaii’s club at a cost of $50,000 each. The total cost of the project is estimated to run around $23 million. The folks behind Circuit Hawaii believe they can have investors paid off in eight years.
Driven International is designing the 1.5-mile FIA Grade 3 road course that makes up phase one. With at least 30 feet of elevation change, the track is situated on the west side of Oahu, less than a mile from where the old Hawaii Raceway Park was located.
It’s an industrial area near an airport, so noise won’t be an issue and the airport should make it easy for cars and teams to make the trip from the mainland. The layout will be built with the idea of running F-3, GT3, Trans-Am, SVRA and SRO events.
An eighth-mile drag strip is also planned and officials are considering a quarter-mile dirt track. If the project remains on schedule, the owners hope to have Circuit Hawaii open for racing by the end of 2022. If you are interested in finding out more details or becoming a founding member, visit circuithawaii.com.
– Justin Brayton and Ken Roczen are teammates at Team Honda HRC in the Monster Energy AMA Supercross series and it’s not unusual for teammates to share notes, tips or setups. However, Brayton and Roczen, who won twice early in the season, have shared a very special set of forks.
Brayton traveled to Australia over the winter and won a race in Melbourne and clinched his fourth Australian Supercross championship. He took the forks off of his bike and shipped them back to the U.S.
Those same forks were mounted on Roczen’s bike, which he rode to his first victory in three years during Monster Energy Supercross event in St. Louis.