1/21/2015
Boyles Notches Solid Chili Bowl Nationals Result
(Photo by Dylan Duvall Photography)
TULSA, Okla. – After two and a half years away from the seat of a midget, and only a handful of races of any kind in 2014, Greenwood, Missouri’s Clinton Boyles returned to the site of his midget debut in January 2012: the River Spirit Expo Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 325 other drivers would join him in the quest that is the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals.
Starting his week on Monday’s practice day, Boyles described the car’s handling as “tight” in the first session, but got a much better feel for the car in the second session. He’d begin racing action the following day from the pole of heat four of eleven; 85 entries signed in to compete on the Tuesday qualifying night. When the original green flew on heat four, Boyles shot to turn one first, but the start was disallowed and the race was restarted. On the second attempt, the outside polesitter instead took to the point, with Boyles falling in behind. It wasn’t long before Auckland, New Zealand’s Michael Pickens, who started in the eighth and final spot, was to Boyles’ rear bumper with the ten-lap race about half complete. Pickens fought hard to get around the solid black #98d, but Boyles fended off relentless charges from the Kiwi driver and kept him at bay for the remainder of the heat race, finishing second.
The finish put Boyles 33rd in points, making it into one of four ten-lap qualifiers, where he’d start ninth in the second race. Soon after the green dropped, Boyles fell to tenth, and it looked as if he’d finish there, but he mounted a late-race rally to recapture the ninth spot off turn four on the last lap.
After heat and qualifier points were tallied and the top 16 were taken to the feature, Boyles would go to a B-main to try to race his way into the night’s main from the tenth starting spot, with the top four transferring. Boyles, like in his qualifier, fell back a position early, then fell back two more to 13th soon after. Just when it looked like his Stealth/Esslinger was down for the count, the machine roared back by all three cars that had passed him, and getting by another to nab the ninth spot. When the white flag was shown, it looked as if Boyles would finish ninth, but a costly mistake entering turn three on the final lap lost him two positions and forced him to settle for eleventh in the B-main to close out preliminary action.
Had he finished ninth, he would have began Saturday’s “Alphabet Soup” action near the front of an F-main, but instead, Boyles would have to transfer from a G-main to get back to that point. Set to start in the fourth and final transfer position in the first of two G-mains, the Blue River CC freshman fell back to fifth at the drop of the green, but would soon pick up two positions when the third- and fourth-running cars got together and flipped in turn three with two laps in the books. It looked as if Boyles would finish third in the race. However, a charging Matt Westfall, who had already transferred from an I-main and then drove from the back of an H-main to transfer from it, had other plans. Westfall had already moved into fourth, then made the pass for third late in the event, with Boyles falling to fourth but still picking up the final transfer.
Starting from the tail of an F-main would mean a long haul to the front of the field in attempt to move on to an E. Boyles would waste no time moving forward in the event, sitting 14th with two laps complete, then using the aid of a caution with four laps down to restart 11th. Moving to tenth on the restart, then ninth a couple laps later, made transferring seem realistic if Boyles could catch a yellow at some point, but when the battle between he and a competitor got a little too close with two laps left, he was forced above the cushion in turn four and encountered steering and suspension issues as a result. He gathered the handling on the car back up and got to turn one, but wisely decided to take the car to the infield, bringing his weekend to a close with being scored 13th in the first of two F-mains. Though the results were less than the team had hoped for, they relished in the fact that they had beaten over half of the teams in attendance, and that they could roll the car in the trailer with relatively little damage.
Boyles would like to thank Hinchman Racing Uniforms for their continued support, as well as Western Country Diner for coming onboard for the Chili Bowl.
Quick Results
January 13 – Tulsa, OK– Midget – Heat: 2 (1); Qualifier: 9 (9); B-Main: 11 (10)
January 17 – Tulsa, OK –Midget – G-Main: 4 (4); F-Main: 13 (16)
Social Media
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cbtheenforcer
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