Teen to drive souped-up car in Chili Bowl
TULSA, Okla. — Talk about stepping up.
Butler senior Brandon Spithaler, 17, entering his third season in the Limited Sprint car racing division at Sharon Speedway, is competing in the 23rd annual Chili Bowl Midget Nationals this week.
The Chili Bowl is a Midget wingless Sprint car event at Tulsa Expo Raceway. Spithaler is leasing a car and crew owned by Dave Ellis of Phoenix.
"I'm pretty excited about this,"Spithaler said. "It's a different experience for me, working with different people.
"I'm mainly doing it for the caliber of competition and it may produce some new leads for me in racing. Who knows?"
Spithaler has won two features in each of the past two years at Sharon Speedway, finishing third and second in points, respectively.
He is one of a record 293 drivers registered for the Chili Bowl, known as the Super Bowl of wingless Sprint racing. NASCAR and World of Outlaws Sprint racers are among those in the field.
Spithaler is one of 67 rookie Chili Bowl drivers in this year's event, which will hold qualifying races through Friday. The 50-lap feature event, taking the top 24 cars, runs Saturday.
"We're not sitting on the porch this week. We're racing with the big dogs," said Paula Jordan, Spithaler's mother.
Spithaler races at Sharon with his father, Frank Spithaler of Evans City, serving as his crew chief.
Recent winners of the Chili Bowl include NASCAR's Tony Stewart in 2007 and 2002, Outlaws legend Sammy Swindell in 1998, 1996, 1992 and 1989, Tim McCreadie in 2006, Andy Hillenburg in 1994 and Dave Blaney in 1993.
"Tony Stewart isn't racing in it this year, but there are a lot of big names out here,"Spithaler said. "This is what a lot of these guys do for a living."
Kevin Swindell, Sammy's son, is scheduled to be in Spithaler's heat race this week.
Also on tonight's qualifying card, which includes Spithaler, are Outlaws Sprinters Terry McCarl, Danny Lasoski and Paul McMahan.
"These (wingless) cars have the same horsepower as a Sprint, but with half the weight,"Spithaler said. "There's a lot of car to work with here."
His parents planned to head to Tulsa this morning to watch the races.
"This is a whole different ballgame for Brandon," his mother said. "It's a challenge and an opportunity he couldn't pass up."
