TULSA, Okla. — Five years had passed since 1991 Chili Bowl Nationals winner Lealand McSpadden had returned to Tulsa, but the “Tempe Tornado” was back where he belongs this week.
“Everybody around the world knows about this race now,” he said. “With streaming there are a lot of new people involved. You have a lot of drivers who go from one genre to another genre, and it is bringing in new people all the time. I think that is a really big deal.”
It may be a surprise to some but by the time McSpadden took the checkered flag in the fifth running of the race he was a clear fan favorite. There was a good reason for that. When the California Racing Ass’n toured the heartland in the 1980s many were captivated by McSpadden’s rim-riding style. In 1987, in an eight-day period McSpadden notched three consecutive victories at Wichita (Kan.), Lawton, (Okla.) and Oklahoma City, then tacked on another victory in Tulsa for good measure. His gregarious personality further tipped the scales in his favor.
From an historical point of view McSpadden’s Chili Bowl win was the first of three for car owner Andy Bondio. Few owners contributed to the uniqueness of this event quite like Bondio. One never knew what new creation would emerge from his fertile mind, and what rolled out of his trailer could produce both cheers and jeers. It was McSpadden who got the ball rolling for him.
McSpadden moved through the supermodified wars in his native Arizona to become one of the greatest sprint car drivers of his age. In 1975 he was the Arizona Racing Ass’n champion and two years later he won 25 times in five different divisions at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix. He was the 1992 CRA champion and when the books closed on that historic club his 69 wins tied him with Ron Shuman for the third spot on the all-time list.
In 1995, he was the SCRA sprint car champion capably handling Ron Chaffin’s car. With a wing he was equally proficient, scoring wins with the World of Outlaws, Northern Auto Racing Club, National Championship Racing Ass’n and United Sprint Car Ass’n.
His first taste of midget racing came five years deep into his career. Behind the wheel of a Chevy II powered craft, he scored close to home and also took the midget portion of the Pacific Coast Open at Ascot. It was during a trip to Ascot that he first became acquainted with Bondio.
Looking back, he says, “We just hit it off. They had a little car out there and they were having trouble with it. I started helping them out a bunch, then I ended up driving the car. Andy was driving at first, but I got in and started making changes. It just got better and better.”
While Bondio would be known for his innovative designs, McSpadden proclaims his Chili Bowl winning mount was more conventional. “It was ahead of its time,” he said. “But it was a pretty standard car. There wasn’t anything extreme with Andy’s cars until the (Cory) Kruseman era. The biggest thing is that Andy just knows how to make cars lighter.”
As more became aware of Bondio’s ability to strip unnecessary weight in his finished products, some protested that the cars were unsafe. Not so says McSpadden.
“The cars were as safe as can be. I mean I tipped that car over at Belleville (Kan.) and didn’t even hurt it. That’s hard to do.”
The ultimate test of Bondio’s work came in 1996 when Cory Kruseman experienced a sickening series of snap rolls at the one-mile track in Sacramento. “There wasn’t one broken weld on that entire car,” McSpadden said. “It is still sitting out behind Andy’s shop.”
The 1991 Chili Bowl Nationals is still fresh in McSpadden’s mind.
“It was a pretty cool deal,” he said. “Everything just clicked. At that time, I could drive that car anywhere. I was running four feet off the fence all the way round and most people could not imagine doing that in this little bullring.”
Then adding a postscript that comes as little surprise to those who watched him on a regular basis, he said, “I just loved running the top.”
If anything could have made this win sweeter it was this. Sammy Swindell was the runner-up and Steve Kinser finished third. The tables were turned in 1992.
Picking up the story, McSpadden said, “Then the next year Sammy bumped me out of the way and I ran second. I would have done the same thing.”
With slight prodding he admits there was frustration at the time, but he says, “You get over it.”
Whatever disappointment he harbored about the Chili Bowl experience was mitigated when he carried Bondio’s car to a win in the Belleville Midget Nationals that summer. While he loved the Chili Bowl experience, he began traveling to Australia to race sprint cars in the winter.
To this day he has nothing but admiration for his former owner.
“If I wanted something changed on the car, Andy did it. There was no argument. He was so methodical it is unbelievable, and he runs his operation like a NASCAR team. Everything is spotless. His dad was an Indy car mechanic and Andy has been into race cars his whole life. He is probably the finest welder you will ever see.”
For McSpadden, Bondio represents a different era and spirit in the sport. He realizes that his former owner somehow turns out innovative products with an old-school approach.
“Now you can buy anything,” he said. “In the past you built a competitive car in the garage because you did most of the stuff yourself. Now you can buy any motor, any chassis and you have set up sheets. Because if this more people are fast now than there used to be.”
Near the end of his career McSpadden had an opportunity to race in the NASCAR Truck Series. As things developed, he told his team they should extend the offer to the late Kenny Irwin Jr. instead. That’s Lealand McSpadden. Given that he had largely stepped away from the sport, it was time to honor a promise to his wife.
“She told me that she would support me as long as I raced,” he said, “But she said if I stepped away for a year, I don’t want you to go back.”
He didn’t.
It was hard. Why? It was simple, He just loved to race. To make a clean break he stayed away from the race track for 10 years. Now he’s back and strives to stay current and understand new developments in the sport. When he put a bow on his career his legacy was secure.
McSpadden is an inductee in the Arizona Auto Racing Hall of Fame as well as the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame. In 2000, the Arizona Republic selected McSpadden as the state’s fifth greatest driver over the past 100 years.