[JessicaJ]

Chili Bowl Leaves Walker Looking for More
By Jessica Jenkins

Gage Walker pulled into Tulsa with reasonably high expectations for his on track results at the Chili Bowl. However, everything doesn’t always goes exactly as planned, a lesson he got a taste of on his preliminary night. He was lined up 5th in the fourth heat race and ultimately finished where he started, leaving him mired in a C Main. While he gained 3 positions from his tenth place starting spot, it was not quite high enough to transfer to the B Main. Walker summed up his Tuesday evening run by stating, “Things didn't go as we expected. We went into the night with mindset that I was going to put it in the show, and we had the capability, but we were just a little off. I was moving forward in my heat race, was up to third and went to the outside trying to make up some more ground, but the car was just too loose and I lost 2 spots right then.”

As is typical for the 17 year old, he did not let it get him down and switched all of his attention over the next few days to Saturday, where he was slated to start 12th in the first I feature. “I spent most of my time up in the stands watching the races and trying to learn for Saturday. We would just do little things to the car here and there making sure it was ready for Saturday. I also caught up with some friends I only get to see a few times a year at races.” Along with that, Walker redefined his expectations for the big day, “I was hoping to be in at least the D main, but with our bad luck on Tuesday night, I missed my goal by a long shot. After I knew I was going to be in a lower main, my goal was just to transfer as much as I could and get seat time for next year.”

Despite being literally run over by a driver behind him on lap 1, it looked like things might turn out okay before disaster struck once more when they got nearly four wide on a late restart. Using his own words, Walker described what happened: “The races are only 10 laps, and on a small track when you're starting 12th, it's hard to make it into a top 4 transfer spot in that amount of time without pushing some people out of your way. I was up to 7th on the first lap, but we had a caution and I got moved back to 11th. I started making headway and was into 6th with 3 to go and I had to force the issue if I even wanted a shot at transferring. I ran it in on someone a little too aggressive and we hit and I got a flat right rear tire.” Thankfully the car was not damaged, but they hauled him off into the infield until the race finished. Still, Walker was as positive as he could be, explaining “They could have easily brought me back to the work area, and my crew could have changed the tire no problem. But with the tight schedule that the race directors are on, they're just trying to get through the races as fast as possible, so they left me in the infield.”

Ultimately it was another good learning experience for the young driver from Indiana and he took away some good lessons to build on for next year and over this upcoming season. “I realize how important my prelim night is and that we have to make sure we are 100% focused as a team and have everything as good as possible. As a team that has always raced pavement, and this is our second year on dirt, we need to do a better job at reading the track and know how it's going to be when we race.”

Now there is nearly a two month break before things really start to gear up for him with the start of the POWRi season on March 20 & 21 at Port City Raceway in Oklahoma.