By Mark Hann
Ellington, CT: With the 2016 Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Midget Nationals only a few months away, many of the USAC Dirt Midget Association teams have begun preparing to compete in what has become the must attend event for any racer. Each team has hopes of coming away with the coveted Golden Driller trophy and forever etch their name in the history books.
Skip Matczak, who along with help from racing legend Ray Miller, have prepared a special purpose built midget for the race that will be piloted by driver Kevin Chaffee with support from Bear Ridge Speedway and Seals-it. Chief mechanic for the team is Tom Rodzen who has been preparing racecars for many years including both dirt and pavement midgets. Chaffee, who drives for Matczak during the regular season at Bear Ridge Speedway, recently took the racecar out for a test session and noted that the power is twice what the DMA cars normally run. The team members have a long history in racing which they hope will carry them deep into the event.
Kenny Johnson, the young hot shoe from Connecticut, will be racing in his familiar New England Tractor sponsored midget with the help of his family and Andy Barrows. Johnson, who has had much success in racing at a young age, will be seeing the Chili Bowl as a competitor for the first time and is ready to take on the tough competition. Johnson’s team will be running one of the few Autocraft engines in the event but feel the powertrain set up will be competitive.
Bobby Seymour, who is no stranger to midget racing, will have his driver Anthony Nocella behind the wheel of the Seymour Enterprises/Race Depot/Nocella Paving midget for the big event. Seymour has been fielding midgets for years all over the New England area on both pavement and dirt along with having Nocella driving for him much of this year. The team has been getting ready for the Chili Bowl by racing in events around the country against many of the competitors that they will face at the Tulsa Expo Raceway inside the River Spirit Expo Center.
Frank Manafort will be looking to score the big win with his driver Brady Bacon in the FMR/Black Watch Farms midget. Manafort has enlisted the help of Bob East in building the chassis for the race and well known midget driver/car builder Brad Noffsinger is preparing the racecar. Bacon has already run in the new car during the 3rd Annual Jason Leffler Memorial Race where he finished third overall.
To learn more about the USAC Dirt Midget Association, please visit the series website at www.usacdma.com or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/DirtMidgetAssociation