Kiwis chase Chili Bowl dreams
After the Americans invaded New Zealand's North Island earlier this month, two Kiwis will return the favor in the 2019 Chili Bowl Nationals.
Hayden Williams and Kaleb Currie have made the 20-hour trip to Tulsa to test their skills against the top midget racers in the world.
The ultimate prize? The Golden Driller, of course.
“It’s a tough challenge but I’m really looking forward to it,” Williams told RacinBoys.com. “There are guys like Zeb Wise, who are only 15, 16 years-old. Then you have Dave Darland and Sammy Swindell at the other end—and they’re all equally as good as each other. It’s good to see a wide range and variety of talent from the very young to an older age.
“I’m looking forward to the challenge. I’m qualifying the first night so there will be no easing into it. It’s going to be extremely tough. But I’ve got a good car and a good team around me. I have some goals set in my mind, and hopefully, we’ll achieve them. First, we’re going for the experience, but we’re not going there to run second either.”
Williams was pleasantly surprised when a former car owner presented him the chance to race in the Super Bowl of Midgets.
“I’ve raced for this really nice guy, Scott Wilson. One day he just texted me and asked, ‘Would you like to go to Chili Bowl?’ And I jumped at the opportunity,” Williams said. “I can’t thank him and Jade (Wilson) enough for giving me this opportunity, along with Tyler and Brian Thomas. They put together some really awesome looking cars and I’m really looking forward to racing over there.”
Currie is another Chili Bowl rookie from Auckland. Unlike Williams, who races midgets full-time, Currie competes in TQ (Three-Quarter) Midgets in New Zealand. During the International Series centered around Western Springs Speedway earlier this month, he posted three top fives in the five-race competition.
Currie got his first taste of U.S. midget competition when his mother Hayley provided him with a trip to Illinois Midget Week as a 21st birthday present last June.
“My mom got me the opportunity through John Godfrey from Spike (Products) to run with (car owner) Mark Bush,” Currie said. “And he asked me to come back for the Chili Bowl. I haven’t even been able to watch the Chili Bowl. But I expect it to be a real cool experience.”
Currie will pilot the No. 2T this week. His first exposure to the one-fifth-mile clay oval will be during hot laps on Monday. He’ll run in Session 26.
“Obviously we still run three-quarter midgets down here,” Currie said. “So the first time I drove a midget was up in Illinois. It went quite well, but we’re not expecting to go to Chili Bowl and run the A-Main on Saturday night. That would be nice. But if we make the C or B (main), it would be a dream come true.”
Williams, 27, will race the No. 91w Toyota in his Tulsa Expo Raceway debut. For years, he’s been glued to the Chili Bowl action via RacinBoys.com. Prior to leaving Auckland last Friday, Williams studied videos from previous races at the track to prepare for the event. Certainly, the opportunity to race against some of America’s top drivers—Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Tyler Courtney, Chris Windom and Logan Seavey—at Western Springs Speedway in the last month helped to sharpen his skills.
Williams has also raced in the States before. In 2015, he competed during Indiana Midget Week.
“We had a really good run, actually,” Williams said. “I was quite surprised. It was much tougher, obviously. We had one top-seven in Lawrenceburg. That was one of my highlights. It was just tough getting over there, going to these tracks a first time and not getting many laps on them.”
At 21, Currie still aspires to race full-time. He’s a fan of Larson and Bell, who raced for Currie’s uncle the first time the Oklahoman ran at Western Springs.
“I got to talk to Christopher four or five years ago when I was still quite young,” Currie said. “That was good. This is my third season on dirt, but I’ve been running go-karts since I was six or seven-years-old.
“Obviously, I’d like to turn it into a profession, but in New Zealand we can’t do that. I have to try and find an opportunity, get the money and go to America and see if I can get picked up.”
A few years ago, Williams gave up on his dream of becoming a full-time race car driver, given that it’s nearly impossible from a sponsorship standpoint for drivers to make a living running midgets in New Zealand and Australia. But that hasn’t diminished his passion for racing--or his desire to compete more frequently in the U.S.
“It’s more of a hobby down here,” Williams said. “We don’t have the sponsorship or the financial backing as they do in the States, where you see more sponsors and money around. But I think we do rather well down here.
“The fact that it is a hobby, I do have a day job as a workshop foreman at a BMW dealership. It’s hands-on automotive stuff, which I’ve been doing that pretty much my entire life. It’s helped me learn a lot about the race cars. I thoroughly enjoy it. But I hope to get back to the States and do a bit of semi-professional racing, too. I think if we went over there again, we’d do a lot better.”
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