If you were to ask World of Outlaws sprint car driver Jacob Allen how many laps he’s recorded behind the wheel of a midget, his answer would’ve been “none” as of Thursday morning.
But after putting in five hours of seat time in Cruz Pedregon’s No. 1a midget entry later that afternoon at Port City Raceway, Allen’s nerves have settled and he’s feeling good about his rookie run at the 37th annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals.
While he’s used to the tendencies of a 410 winged sprint car — his usual ride at the race track — Allen has been using his know-how as a driver to help increase his comfortability in the cockpit of the midget.
“Every day of my life is racing, so I understand what it feels like to be tight or loose or use the gas or use the brakes,” Allen explained. “It’s just a matter of understanding how to get the right kind of momentum and speed in a midget to be fast and relatively competitive.”
His venture into the world of midget racing wasn’t pure happenstance.
Though nothing has changed career-wise and Allen is still charging full speed ahead toward his 10th season with the World of Outlaws, he decided he was tired of watching the Chili Bowl on his TV. He wanted to race.
So Allen shared the news on his Facebook page in the early winter to make it known he was interested in finding a Chili Bowl ride. Through a direct message from an acquaintance, Allen was thrown in the ring of drivers being considered to drive one of Pedregon’s two Chili Bowl entries.
A few days later, he received a call from Pedregon — NHRA Funny Car driver, past Chili Bowl wheelman and now Chili Bowl team owner — and the two made it official.
“Cruz understands that I haven’t raced a midget and things like that,” Allen said. “The vibe I got from Cruz was ‘do your best and have fun with it.’”
The notion of not having expectations for a race is unfamiliar to Allen, but even so, he doesn’t have much to base his Chili Bowl performance upon. The majority of competitors he’s racing against will be new to him, his history in a midget car spans less than a week and he has yet to see Tulsa Expo Raceway inside the SageNet Center.
All things considered, Allen has kept a lively pep in his step with the thought of racing two months after his season ended.
“When you race and your seatbelt’s tight, every once in a while you’ll get some bruises on your collarbone or your elbows when they run into the side panels. It felt very awesome to have bruises on my elbow again. I feel like I’m back where I need to be,” Allen said with a laugh.
Shaking out the cobwebs was step one and now Allen has focused on soaking up advice and studying the approach of certain drivers. He’s scheduled to run Thursday’s qualifying program, leaving him three days to learn from what transpires on the track. Though there’s a minor amount of pressure associated with this one-off event in comparison to races on the World of Outlaws circuit, Allen hasn’t let himself off the hook.
He’s hoping his performance is good enough to secure the Chili Bowl’s rookie-of-the-year award.
“When I first went on the World of Outlaw tour, I had no experience at all and there was absolutely no chance of me ever winning the rookie-of-the-year award,” Allen said.
Other than his history in go-karting and the odd sprint car event, the first points race and full season he ever competed in was with the Outlaws. Being one of this year’s 82 Chili Bowl rookies, the 28-year-old sees the opportunity to put the award on his shelf. However, at this point, Allen calls all of his expectations for the Chili Bowl just “thinking and talking.”
Until he wheels the No. 1a midget onto the Oklahoma dirt, realistically, he’s not quite sure what to expect.
“I don’t know what kind of speed I really have yet. I don’t know how to judge what I felt [on Thursday] to competing on the race track,” Allen said. “I don’t want to jump to conclusions or anything like that, but I’m hopeful for the best.”