By Scott Daloisio
(Ventura, CA, December 14, 2021) Ventura, California racing legend Cory Kruseman is entering five cars in January’s 36th Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The annual event will take place on the same Tulsa Expo Center Raceway surface that Kruseman won the race on in 2000 and 2004.
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Kruseman Motorsports cars being prepped for January’s Chili Bowl in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Kruseman’s Chili Bowl lineup consists of Albuquerque, New Mexico’s Caleb Saiz, Jesse Denome of Escanaba, Michigan, Californians Dave Gasper of Goleta, and San Juan Capistrano’s Evan Garvy, and Kiwi midget racing star Travis Buckley of Auckland, New Zealand.
Twenty-six-year-old Saiz, who will be making his first foray into midget racing at the Chili Bowl, comes in as a highly decorated sprint car driver from “The Land of Enchantment.” This year he won his third (second in a row) Lucas Oil POWRi New Mexico Motor Racing Association non-wing sprint car championship. In addition, the affable driver also captured sprint car titles in 2017 and 2018 at the Sandia Speedway. He will come into the Chili Bowl off a win at the 305-winged sprint car Turkey Bowl at the Vado Speedway Park on November 27th. A few weeks earlier, the talented driver showed his durability by finishing second in the 305 feature at Sandia. Moments later he used the same 305 to finish second in a 19 car 360 sprint car main event.
Jesse Denome, a past resident of San Diego who moved back to his native Escanaba, Michigan in the beautiful Upper Peninsula, will be racing in his second Chili Bowl in January. The veteran driver first crossed paths with Kruseman when he helped the latter with his sprint cars at the Ventura Raceway. He then progressed to driving sprint cars in the VRA Series at Ventura and eventually ventured to the USAC/CRA and PAS Senior Sprint Car competitions at Perris Auto Speedway. Denome now races U.P. Super Vintage Modifieds at the Upper Peninsula International Raceway in Escanaba. In 2021, he racked up one win and eight top-five finishes. In addition, he never finished out of the top 10 in nine starts on the 1/5-mile red clay oval. Those stats netted him second place in the championship point standings, only 18-points out of first.
Sixteen-year-old Gasper made a career shift in 2021 when he went from racing in the Lucas Oil Off-Road Series to the California Lightning Sprint Cars. The teen achieved off-road success at an early age by winning titles in the Junior 1 and 2 classes. In 2020, he won the Rookie of the Year award in the Modified Karts, but when the off-road series folded, Gasper had to find something new. That is when he turned to Lightning Sprints. How did he do in his initial season going in circles? He won the 2021 CLS Rookie of the Year award and the annual Civil War Series title. Most importantly, he won the season-long California Lightning Sprint Car Series championship on his first try and became the youngest champ in the 27-year history of the club. After making his midget debut at the Chili Bowl, Gasper will defend his CLS title and will begin racing 360 sprint cars as well.
Garvy, who turned 21 in August, competed and won in both quarter midgets and bandoleros as a child. However, he stepped away from racing when he was 12 years old and did not compete again until 2021. He re-launched his career racing dwarf cars and it paid immediate dividends. In 37 appearances on the track in 2021, he scored 11 wins, 19 top three, and 29 top 10 finishes. Those lofty statistics netted him two championships in his first year back. One of the titles was in the legends car track championship at the Havasu 95 Speedway. The other came in the California State Asphalt Legends Series. In addition to his prowess in the legend cars, he also made his debut in the Nut Up To Late Model Series at the Madera Speedway. The Chili Bowl will be his first race in a midget.
Kiwi racer Buckley’s sojourn to the USA to drive for Kruseman at the Chili Bowl will be his third trip stateside this year. A regular in sprint car and midget races in his native New Zealand, Buckley’s finest stateside finish came when he placed second in the USAC Western Midget main event at the Ventura Raceway, on September 11th. In other prior visits to the USA this year, he competed in the grueling USAC National Midget Indiana Sprint Week, raced in the Lucas Oil POWRi National Midget League, Taco Bravo Sprints, and the Sprint Car Challenge Series.
Fielding five cars racing over six nights at the Chili Bowl requires a lot of behind-the-scenes work. Taking care of the cars in the pits will be team owner Kruseman, Mike Nigh, and Trevor & Jeremy Stout.
The Chili Bowl Midget Nationals is one of the premier open-wheel races in the world. More than 300 drivers from all disciplines of racing, including NASCAR, NHRA, and Indy Cars, take part in the six-day racing extravaganza. The race will take place from January 10-15 on the Tulsa Expo Raceway inside the massive SagNet Center, which is one of the largest free-spam buildings in the world.
For fans unable to make it to Tulsa for the race, they can watch live on www.floracing.com for the five preliminary nights and Saturday’s prelims before the coverage switches to MAVTV for the finals.
Kruseman Motorsports would like to thank the following team partners for making the 2021 Chili Bowl effort possible. Lucas Oil, Kwik Change Products, FK Rod Ends, Brown and Miller Racing Solutions, Sander Engineering, K-1 Race Gear, ARP Fasteners, Advance Shocks, WEM-West Evans, Circle Track Performance, K&N Filters, Kenny’s Components, PKP, and No Limit Powder Coating.
Gift certificates for the Cory Kruseman Sprint Car and Midget Driving School can make a great Christmas present for that special racing fan on your shopping list. From raw novices to pros trying to hone their skills, Cory has courses for everyone. For more details or to make a reservation, visit https://kruseman.com/ or call 805-649-1243.