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Tim McCreadie’s ‘Surreal’ Chili Bowl
By Doc Lehman

It was all Tim McCreadie last Saturday evening at the famed Tulsa Expo Raceway's 20th Annual O'Reilly Chili Bowl Midget Nationals as the Watertown, NY World of Outlaws Late Model Series star stunned the masses assembled by winning the world’s most famous Midget race against one of motorsports’ most comprehensive groupings of talent from around the motorsports world. McCreadie took the lead on lap 35 from front-runner Jay Drake and took the checkered flag and the Golden Driller trophy. McCreadie won over Drake, Cory Kruseman, Brad Kuhn and Josh Wise. McCreadie won in car owner Steve Smith’s Hawk Engine Development #1A Spike Chassis.

“I’ll tell you, its surreal,” stated McCreadie. “It’s hard to describe. The way this whole race shakes out and the people that are here and the talent in this building is second to none. We were very fortunate to have a great car and everything went our way. It was a beautifully prepared racetrack and these guys out here do it right. (Laughs) It hasn’t sunk in yet!”

McCreadie, known in the dirt Late Models as a rim-rider, chuckled when asked about where and how he took command. “I got up to the top a little bit but it was a little too tight to run the cushion and believe it or not, and you’ve seen the Late Model races I run and stuff, but out there I did all my passing on the bottom (laughs)! Usually that’s not my style but the car was so good and rotated the center so good. You just tried to stay in the brown and not make any mistakes and that’s kind of what we did. I couldn’t ask for a better night. It was a great night.”

McCreadie was asked what winning the Chili Bowl means to him to conquer such a prestigious race. “We haven’t driven these cars that much, this is the second time I ever drove one, but to come out here, like they said last night, no matter what happens they can’t take this one away from here on out,” explained McCreadie. “This is the biggest win of my career in anything I have done and if I ever get lucky enough to win something like the World 100 or the Dirt Track World Championship or the Dream or Knoxville Nationals it will probably rank right up here with this. It’s a unique event. They bring in talent from all over the world into this one little place and because it’s not familiar that make sit more special.”

“And the entire team behind me, Steve Smith and the entire race team, they’ve only known me for three weeks. So they took a chance on a guy they didn’t know and who wasn’t familiar with these cars and it’s amazing how it worked out for all of us.”

McCreadie also was adamant about the quality of car that was prepared each night by car-owner Smith and the crew. “Yeah, I was comfortable from the first set of hotlaps on Tuesday,” commented McCreadie. “We had speed right then and we were real good right then. On race night, Wednesday we were real good. I started mid-pack and it took me a little while to get to the front and we ended up getting fourth and getting qualified on the last lap.”

“When we unloaded for hotlaps on Saturday night it was same thing, a real good car. We made a few changes before the feature because they changed the track but it rolled around there real nice and then it’s just a matter of trying not to be inpatient. When you have a car that good you don’t want to run into people or take a chance and I almost did a couple times but you have to just sit back and be patient. It’s a long race and if the car is as good as it was last night you’ll have an opportunity to get to the front if you don’t mess it up.”

“Like I said this whole deal is surreal!”