With the sprint car thing getting as serious as it is right now, I don’t know if I will have a whole lot of time to race a midget on the West Coast.” I can definitely see making that a yearly deal. Honestly, it will probably be just for the Chili Bowl. "To see a midget in the Inland Rigging stable is not too far-fetched anymore. “Racing a midget was a lot different (from racing a sprint car) but I will tell you, I am hooked,” Dunkel enthused about the experience. In fact, he is already making plans to be a part of the show in the upcoming years. The exhilaration of being a part of such a high-profile race and being on the track with superstar drivers bit him hard and he now has the itch to get back to Tulsa. While he exited the event early, it does not mean Dunkel is done with midget racing. I really wanted to run but for some safety reasons and just not really getting the car to work for me, I decided to bow out.” After Thursday I just decided to sit out Saturday’s alphabet soup. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t in the best of equipment. “Our prelim was Thursday and we kind of really struggled with the car,” Dunkel said. Being a rookie along with some car issues, Dunkel knew his chances of that happening were impossible. That put him in one of the very early Saturday preliminary main events and meant he would have to make more transfers than anyone in the history of the Chili Bowl to make the A main. The midget rookie started 14 th in the rough-and-tumble affair and came home 12 th. The heat race outcome placed Dunkel in one of the night’s two C mains. Forced wide on the start, he ended up with a seventh-place finish. Dunkel’s first race was an eight-lap heat against a tough field of drivers. Getting to race the Dunkel Farms/Inland Rigging/Osborn Speed and Machine/United Asset Sales/Southside Mowers sponsored Boss Chassis/Esslinger, Dunkel finally flew into action on night four of the six evening event (all drivers compete once in the first five days and come back for Saturday’s finale). He was over the moon to be a part of the program that was staged in the massive SageNet Center and was shown around the world on Flo Racing and MAVTV. For most, including Dunkel, it is a dream to be a part of the show. Widely known as the biggest midget race in the world, it matches drivers from a variety of different disciplines of racing including NASCAR, Indy Cars, NHRA, USAC Sprint Cars & Midgets, and World of Outlaws Sprint Cars. The Chili Bowl, which drew over 350 cars, marked Dunkel’s initial time racing a midget. The new owner/driver combo swept to victory in two races in Arizona at the end of the month. If that wasn’t enough, he became the car owner of the USAC/CRA Sprint Car team that features star driver Brody Roa. To start the year, the Menifee, California racer took part in the world-famous Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma for the very first time. For Southern California racing aficionado Tommy Dunkel, the month of January was an extension of Christmas.
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