Lanny Edwards passed away on Friday September 9th.

Lanny co-founded of one of the biggest and most important dirt races of our time, and probably of all time, The Chili Bowl. You would see Lanny all over the Tulsa Expo Center during Chili Bowl week on his golf cart BSing with fans and giving directions to track workers, etc.

Lanny Edwards and Emmett Hahn founding, and nurturing The Chili Bowl into one of, if not the biggest dirt track race in the world is right up there with the most significant accomplishments in dirt track racing promotion.

RIP Mr. Edwards, you will be missed by all of dirt track racing.





CHILI BOWL CO-FOUNDER LANNY EDWARDS DIES


LAWTON, Okla. – Lanny Edwards, the co-founder of the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals with Emmett Hahn and a seasoned racing promoter, died Friday. He was 76 years old.
Edwards became active in motorsports in 1956, racing stock cars around Oklahoma. He promoted his first race in 1962 on Labor Day and two years later purchased his first race track, Wichita Falls Speedway, in partnership with Weldon Smith. He later purchased Smith’s stake in the track before selling it in 1969.
He continued his involvement in motorsports by purchasing Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas, in 1972. That was the start of a busy stretch in his life as Edwards came to own as many as five race tracks in Oklahoma and Texas at one time.
In 1971 Edwards helped co-found the National Championship Racing Ass’n, an organization that is still in operation to this day. In 1978 his Devil’s Bowl track played host to the first World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series event.
Edwards is best known for his involvement in the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals, which was first held in Tulsa, Okla., in 1987 when Rich Vogler won the inaugural event. The race has grown to be the biggest race for midget cars held annually in the United States every January.
At the time of his passing Edwards still owned three race tracks, including Devil’s Bowl, RPM Speedway in Crandall, Texas, and Oklahoma’s Lawton Speedway. He was the 2002 Racing Promotion Monthly Promoter of the Year and was inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2006.
Services for Edwards will be announced at a later date.