Thomas “T-Mez” Meseraull has been telling people for the last 10 years that he plans to be a Chili Bowl champion.
As the opening day of the 37th annual Chili Bowl Nationals approaches, Meseraull believes it’s finally his year to turn his statement into reality.
“It’s one of the worst and best events of the year,” Meseraull said. “You have to be perfect at that place. And I just get caught up in ‘Chili Bowl luck.’”
Meseraull has made the trek to Tulsa’s Expo Raceway 17 times since 2001 and has started the A-main on nine occasions. But even after his self-proclaimed “breakthrough year” in 2017, T-Mez has yet to leave Oklahoma with a Golden Driller.
Why?
Pre-2017, Meseraull attributes his losing record to a lack of seat time behind the wheel of a midget. Post-2017, he mentions the ever-present threat of Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell —the two dirt track aficionados have won five of the last six Chili Bowls. But through it all, the common thread of the 41-year-old’s Chili Bowl career has purely been bad luck.
“It is absurd, the amount of just terrible luck that comes in that building,” Meseraull said.
He’s watched all the footage from years past in an attempt to find the missing puzzle piece for his next run, but the biggest takeaway came from his performance five years ago — the one he claims changed his Chili Bowl trajectory.
“They drop the green, and I’m like going through footage, and we’re not even off of the corner and the car that’s next to me … he gassed it, and that thing just turned right,” Meseraull recalled. “It hit me. I jump his right front with my left front and it plugs me in the fence before we even get to the line. I started outside second row and I’m running dead last on the first lap.”
Though he fought his way into the A-main, it was both circumstance and a lack of know-how that kept T-Mez from reaching his full Chili Bowl potential. He finished 23rd in the No. 1r Rusty Kunz Racing midget.
“That was the first really good car I had ever driven. Now, I’m in a brand-new car,” Meseraull said. “It’s full send all the time, and now I have midget race craft.”
Meseraull will wheel the No. 7x midget for RMS Racing at the upcoming Chili Bowl Midget Nationals, as he has since joining the team in 2018. With both Larson and Bell abstaining from this year’s event, Meseraull is tempted by the potential in front of him.
Not that the remaining 300-plus event entrants are to be underestimated, but over the last three years, Larson and Bell have repeatedly stolen preliminary night wins from Meseruall — and that just hasn’t sat well with the full-time midget driver.
The goal is to string together a strong week, beginning on day one.
“If you don’t start in the first three rows, you can’t win the Chili Bowl. There’s nobody driving from the back to the front because it’s just all the cream of the crop,” said Meseraull, who is scheduled for the Wednesday night (Jan. 11) preliminary program. “But I feel like it’s my year. I feel like I’m going to knock out a prelim win and that’s really going to set me off and put me where I need to be.”