Opening night of the 24th Annual Chili Bowl at the Quik Trip Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, ended in dramatic fashion as unheralded Zach Daum of Pocahontas, Illinois, slipped past New Zealand's Michael Pickens on the final lap to take the feature win.
Sixty-three cars were on hand looking for the first three transfers into Saturday's championship main event and after eight heat races, two C-Mains, four qualifying events and two B-Mains the twenty-four car field was set for the twenty-five-lap preliminary night main event. Young Cale Conley from West Virginia outran the pole-sitter Zach Daum to lead lap one only to see Daum charge below him into the lead a lap later. With Daum working the low groove Michael Pickens set his sights up high and when lapped traffic started to come into play Pickens was able to grab the lead on lap fifteen. It was a short-lived advtange though as Pickens hesitated on the cushion in turn one and Daum regained the lead down the backstretch. A hard charging Tyler Walker now made it a three-car race for the lead and when Daum got pinned behind a lapped car down low, both Pickens and Walker blew by up top on lap twenty-one.
With two laps remaining Walker was right on the bumper of Pickens, but when the leader hesitated on the cushion in turn one his pursuer had no place to go and spun out. This put Daum back to second for the final restart and when the green flag waved it looked as though Pickens would cruise to the win with no traffic in front of him. But on the final lap, and in the final set of turns, Pickens once again hit the cushion wrong and had to pause to right the car allowing Daum to drive under him coming off of turn four to steal the checkers at the end. Pickens would have to settle for the runner-up honors as Californian Shane Golobic picked up the third transfer spot to Saturday's big show. Indiana driver Brent Beauchamp finished in the fourth position while Bobby East completed the top five.
The Vacuworx International Race of Champions was also on the card tonight as sixteen drivers drew for their starting spots just prior to the twenty-lap event. The fifteen drivers that went before him drew every number but the number one leaving it to St. Louis area youngster Brad Loyet who graciously accepted his inherited pole position. Much of the interest in the event was taken away on lap two when defending Chili Bowl champion Sammy Swindell went for a tumble after colliding with the spun car of Gary Taylor. On the restart Loyet pulled away to a big advantage until Brad Kuhn was able to move into the second spot. Kuhn did his best to run down the leader and had pulled to within a few car lengths when the white flag waved, but there was no catching Loyet on this night as he celebrated the victory over a talented field. Jay Drake followed Kuhn in for third while Cole Whitt and Garrett Hansen completed the top five. And by the way, the final driver to draw for position before Loyet was Kasey Kahne who picked up the Lucas Oil Products bottle with an eight written on the bottom instead the lucky bottle with the one on it.
Chili Bowl Tuesday Notes.....Besides Swindell, the following drivers also went for a tumble during the evening: Ricky Williams, Curtis Bailey, Zach Cougill, Cole Smith, Steve Buckwalter, Andrew Felker (both Buckwalter and Felker were able to come back and transfer to the A-Main from their B-Main events), Chad Frewaldt, Sean Mikael Dodendorff, Harris Brooks, Danny Burke and Kevin Ramey.....Non-wing sprint star Jon Stanbrough, who has a habit of making the feature here at the Chili Bowl as well, won a C-Main and then started at the back of a B-Main. He was up to third with two laps to go and with four cars to transfer it looked like he was going to be fun to watch from the back of the A-Main, but he hit the cone on the restart and had to go to the back. Keep an eye on his progress on Saturday.....Late Model star Rick Eckert earned the fourth and final transfer out of the second B-Main.....Danny Lasoski and Tim Crawley were also driving cars from the Loyet stable tonight. Crawley made the feature while Lasoski came up a few spots short......I had to come to town this past weekend to move my son Morgan into his apartment at the University of Tulsa so I stuck around for a couple of extra days in order to get my first taste of the Chili Bowl. Looks like I need to find tickets for the whole deal in 2011!
Don't forget that you can sign up for the live webcast of all remaining nights of the Chili Bowl at www.racinboys.com.
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