(Ventura, CA, January 12) Ventura, California’s Kruseman Motorsports has entered six cars in the 33rd Annual Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The six-day event will begin with preliminaries running from Monday, January 14th through Friday, January 18th. The finals will be on Saturday, January 19th.
Two-time Chili Bowl champion Cory Kruseman, owner of Kruseman Motorsports, is pleased to announce that Tristan Guardino, Josh Lakatos, Mike Mehl, Christopher Polvoorde, John Dyson and Gage Rucker will pilot the fleet of potent midget racecars in Tulsa.
Fremont, California’s Tristan Guardino, who finished second in the USAC West Coast Sprint Car championship standings in 2018, will be in the Lucas Oil/Kwik Change Products #16K. A rising star on the west coast, Guardino has five lifetime wins in the USAC West Coast Sprint Series. In 2018 he scored two wins and only missed out on winning the championship by a mere 17-points. He is no stranger to Cory Kruseman as they have competed against each other on the west coast.
Pasadena, California racing veteran Josh Lakatos will be in the Lucas Outdoor Line/Brown and Miller Racing Solutions #21K in Tulsa. A stuntman by trade, Lakatos is not only known in the sports world as a racecar driver. The 45-year-old won a silver medal in trap shooting in the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Four-years later, Lakatos again represented the USA in trap shooting in the Olympics in Australia. His combined love of racing and shooting makes him a natural to be in the Lucas Outdoor Line sponsored racecar.
Mike Mehl will be driving the #18K Parker Stores/Motion and Flow Control Products midget at the Chili Bowl. If the name “Mehl” sounds familiar to those in the racing world, it should. The Oregon residents’ father, Leo Mehl, was the racing director for Goodyear from 1974 through 1996. He was also executive director of the Indy Racing League and is enshrined in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. Kruseman Motorsports is excited to be a part of the road racers first foray into midget racing at its biggest race.
Hemet, California 18-year-old Christopher Polvoorde will be behind the wheel of the Palms Resort/FK Rod Ends/Lucas Oil Speedway #94K in Tulsa. The teenager is a regular in the Lucas Oil Off Road Series where he is coached by Kruseman. No stranger to the winner’s circle, Polvoorde finished on top of the podium two times in 2018 in the Pro Lites in the Lucas Oil Off Road series and ended up third in the year-long championship standings.
John Dyson is headed to Tulsa from his home in Buffalo, New York and he will be piloting the Lucas Oil/Sander Engineering #52K. A member of the famous New York Dyson racing family, John is following in the footsteps of cousin Chris, who has been a part of the Kruseman racing stable driving sprint cars in years gone by. After his debut in a midget at Tulsa, Dyson will head west 15 – 20 times this year to race for Kruseman in California in midgets and sprint cars.
Rounding out the six-car team will be Chili Bowl debutante Gage Rucker. The Bellflower, Missouri racer will have a relatively short drive to Tulsa for the January race. An accomplished kart racer, Rucker made a couple appearances in Kruseman cars in the USAC West Coast Midget Series in 2018. At the Chili Bowl, the young racer will be in the Lucas Oil/Margay Chassis #11K.
Kruseman Motorsports would like to thank the following team sponsors for making the 2019 Chili Bowl effort possible. Lucas Oil, Lucas Oil Outdoor Live, Lucas Oil Speedway, Protect the Harvest, 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, Kenny’s Components, Auto Meter Gauges, Margay Chassis, Palms Resort, Motion and Flow Control Products.
The 33rd Annual Chili Bowl Midget Nationals will take place on the Tulsa Expo Center Raceway inside the River Spirit Expo Center. Fans who cannot attend the Chili Bowl can watch all six nights via pay per view on the Racin Boys Network http://www.racinboys.com/). In addition, Saturday’s finale will be shown live on MAVTV.
