Chili Bowl Debut Ends Early for Brayton Lynch
 

Chili Bowl Debut Ends Early for Brayton Lynch
By Jessica Jenkins

Growing up in a racing family brings lots of experiences and trips to big races, including the Chili Bowl. This year Brayton Lynch, the grandson of Rusty Kunz, earned his first shot at the biggest midget race of the season in the 31st running of the Chili Bowl. With a couple seasons of POWRi and USAC racing under his belt, expectations were realistically high for the young driver.

Lynch's preliminary night was on the first of four during the week and he looked forward to getting on track in his #1k. Tuesday started off okay for the 17 year old as he picked up a fifth place start in the fourth heat race, giving opportunity to gain a good amount of passing points. Once the green flag flew, though, the lead car didn't get going and Lynch had nowhere to go but into his competitor, causing him to stall in turn 1. That sent him to the back and he began picking off cars, including barely diving to the inside of the competitor with motor issues when he once again slowed suddenly. While avoiding being collected again, Lynch sailed off to a fourth place finish. That one position gained was almost enough to send the Springfield, IL native into the qualifiers, but he barely missed it by one spot, starting him on the pole of the second C feature. As they took the green flag, he and second place raced hard for the lead into turn one and Lynch came out on top, pulling away with a big lead before a couple cars spun in turn four and brought out the yellow. This time the restart didn't go as well and the second place starter took over the lead as third place was all over him. He settled into third as the laps clicked off until some contact with another driver sent the #1k spinning in turn two. He restarted fourteenth and charged up to a pair of drivers racing hard side by side. He got stuck behind them for a few laps before being able to gain one more spot just before the checkered flag flew, leaving him with a 13th place finish in the C main of his qualifying night and sending him to a K Main in Saturday's "alphabet soup".

In the days between Tuesday and Saturday's full day of Chili Bowl racing, Lynch headed back home in Illinois to compete in some of his wrestling matches. News rolled back to Tulsa of his victories in that form of competition to provide a big pick up in what had been a tough Chili Bowl debut week so far. He braved the ice storm sweeping across the middle part of the country and returned early Saturday morning to get on track in the first K main. Based off his preliminary night finish, he started in 12th place and moved up to 10th by the first caution. One lap after the green flag, as the yellow was waving again, one of his fellow drivers made contact with him and the damage was enough that Lynch was towed off track and back to the pit area.

All in all it wasn't a very smooth Chili Bowl debut, but that's the kind of stuff that happens when nearly 400 midget drivers show up at the premiere event. The future star summed up the week saying it "Wasn't the best. Just bad luck. Maybe next year, [we] need to be a lot better." Still, he gained a little feel for how everyone races at the Chili Bowl and picked up on stuff to be better prepared for his follow-up shot at the big race.

Next up for the high school senior is the Shamrock Classic in Du Quoin, IL to kick off the USAC points season at the Southern Illinois Center. Look for his Brayton Lynch Racing fan page on Facebook to see videos and pictures of his Chili Bowl debut or follow this incredible kid on Twitter @BraytonLynch to get to know him better.