The Chili Bowl From A NASCAR Point Of View

[CIRF]

The time of year no doubt played a part in the popularity and excitement of The Chili Bowl. Especially in the early years up until about 12 to 15 years ago. At that point CB started to take on almost a mythical status with hundreds of cars entered, sold out grandstands and the national exposure.

Let's face it, Tulsa, Oklahoma in early January isn't a vacation destination but 85% of all the tickets sold for all 5 nights are purchased by people who live beyond the borders of Oklahoma.

I can remember very well back in the late 1990's The Chili Bowl was offered on closed circuit TV available to business's to purchase and sell admission for group viewing. An American Legion Post just outside of Joliet, Illinois sold tickets to fans who could watch on wide screen tv's. The place was sold out. The place was an hour and a half from us and 2 full car loads of mostly dirt late model fans cheerfully made the trip.

Also, it isn't like there is nothing going on in racing at that time. Du Quoin, Illinois' indoor show is just 3 weeks prior to CB and Ft. Wayne, Indiana runs a 3 night show just a week before CB starts.

It isn't a barren racing landscape and weather that puts 340+ cars in the pits or 11,000 people in the grandstand for 5 nights straight. It may have been at one time but not anymore. It's a World Class event and for whatever reason some dirt track fans resent that being the case.

[old fan]

No its a indoor event

[CIRF]

And it's one of the top 2 or 3 dirt events of the year, indoors or outdoors.

[old fan]

That's find an dandy . I guess in your mind racing season is over all other tracks need to close up shop correct https://www.facebook.com/40871509922...type=3&theater

[CIRF]

Nope, just pointing out the obvious.

[mudslinger47]

You said it mud but where are all the midgets during the rest of the year

I don't know where the migets race, they're all but dead out here...used to be a bout a billion of them... heck we used to have them as regular Sat Nite racers and have thirty of them, now I havn't even seen one since Canyon last year...

[CIRF]

There's gotta' be a few out there somewhere since there were 344 of them all in one spot at Tulsa 2 weeks ago.

I follow the West Coast racing scene as much as I can and it seems that the good midget drivers (and some of the best sprint car drivers, see Clauson, Larson, the Kaeding boys, Gardner and for a time Kruseman) move to the Midwest for at least some of their career, which may account to some degree for the decline of midget numbers out West.

The woes of all racing, money, or lack thereof both in sponsorship and purses has seemed to hit the Western racing scene harder than some other places. This is a subject that has been mulled over thousands of times and I surely can't add anything useful or insightful to the subject.

One thing that has some people excited in regards to midget racing is one of midget racing's Crown Jewel's will be held at one of the coolest venues in all of racing and certainly in dirt racing. The 76th annual Turkey Night Grand Prix will be held at Ventura Raceway. I've been to Ventura a couple of times and we are excitedly making plans to attend next Thanksgiving.

We went to Turkey Night at Perris in November of 2012 and had a blast but it seemed to go down hill from 2012 on. As has been suggested by many it is too long of a pull for a lot of the Midwestern teams, too long of a race on too long of a track and nothing else going on out West at that time of year to justify the long pull.

Hopefully Ventura, being and 1/4 mile track, will eliminate some of the apprehension of running 98 laps on a short 1/2 mile at Perris. We're very much looking forward to seeing the midgets at Ventura. WHAT A COOL (and sometimes cold) PLACE!