ROCK RAPIDS, Iowa -- The 33rd Annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals Presented by General Tire was an eventful week of action for the 3 entries from Jody Rosenboom Racing. Everyone involved with JRR would like to send a heartfelt thank you to all of those who make these events possible. Our sponsors include Ohsweken Speedway, Rosy's Raceland, Schure Built Suspensions, and Heitritter Graphix. Most notably, we'd like to thank the fans. Your words of encouragement and support both at the race track and off, mean so much to this team.
Our Chili Bowl started on Monday as all 3 entries took to the track for practice. Later that evening, Jody Rosenboom raced his way to a 4th place finish in his heat and a pole starting position in his qualifier. A 6th place finish in Qualifier #3 put Jody on the inside of row 3 in the 2nd B-Main, a race in which he finished 8th. This would set Jody up for an F-Main start on Saturday.
On Wednesday, Conor Daly began his qualifying night in the 9th Heat with some of the best talent the Chili Bowl had to offer. A 6th place finish would put him on the outside of the 4th row for the 1st C-Main. Conor made great strides throughout the race and was able to finish just outside of a transfer position in 6th place. Conor would start Saturday's event in the K-Main.
Thursday brought an eventful day for Ryan Bickett. Ryan was in a stacked Heat that included Maria Cofer, Karsyn Elledge, Shane Golobic, and Chili Bowl Legend Tracy Hines. Ryan's #17B machine would finish 3rd in his heat race and set him up for a 3rd place starting position in the 1st Qualifier. Ryan fell to an 8th place finish in his qualifier but rallied back to finish 5th in his B-Main, one spot short of transferring to Thursday's A-Main. Ryan would get to wait until the E-Main on Saturday to race.
A day off Friday would give JRR a day to prepare for a long Saturday of racing through the alphabet of feature events. In the 2nd K-Main, Conor Daly raced forward to a 7th place finish, one spot away from transferring. During the 2nd F-Main, Jody was caught up in a crash which left him with a DNF in the 15th position. As for Ryan, a star studded field would leave him with a 18th place finish in the 1st E-Main.
This would cap the teams wild week facing not only the best midget racers in the world, but some of the best racers of any type. Up next, the team hopes to compete in a couple midget events in Oklahoma in late March. Following that, the team will be in preparing for a full and exciting summer racing season in the Upper Midwest.