Though not coming home with a coveted Golden Driller trophy at the Super Bowl of racing, the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals, rising racing star Trey Marcham of Oklahoma competed bumper-to-bumper with over 280 of the best racers from the World last week and proved he’s one the fastest rising stars in racing, holding his own with some racing’s greatest drivers.
Manning the Josh Ford Motorsports #73x Pinnacle Energy Services/ R. D. Marcham Energy/Best Western Tulsa Airport/ Metal Supermarkets OKC, TCR/Esslinger, Marcham competed in Wednesday, January 13th’s River Spirit Casino Qualifying night. Competing against the best of racing’s veterans and rising young stars, all on a tight, quarter-mile bullring inside the QuikTrip Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Marcham started strong, fighting his way from seventh to claim fourth in his Heat race in Wednesday’s River Spirit Casino qualifying night, despite fighting an issue with the steering gear. (Note – with so many entries, the racing at the Chili Bowl is spread out over five nights, with each racer competing in one of four preliminary nights before Saturday’s finale where all entries compete).
Marcham then started on the pole and claimed a decisive win in his 10-lap A-Qualifier race over such racing luminaries as multiple-time Chili Bowl champion Sammy Swindell. Lining up tenth in the A-Main grid, Marcham passed several cars, but unfortunately was involved in an incident, and had to start at the rear of the star-studded field and was only able to race back to 16th in the 25-lap feature.
Among those Marcham competed with on Wednesday’s preliminary feature included Sammy Swindell, NASCAR Nationwide veteran J.J. Yeley, and open-wheel standouts such as Jerry Coons, Jr. (Chili Bowl Saturday main event starter 12 consecutive years), Brad Loyet and Brad Kuhn. Marcham was among just 24 drivers of 70 competing to make the preliminary A-main.
Marcham and teammate Nick Faas both started deep in Saturday night’s incident-marred C-Main 2 and could not get through traffic in the 15-lap race to transfer to the B-Main in the annual “alphabet soup.” Marcham finished 11th, still placing him among the top fourth of the entire field overall.
“We all had a blast,” exclaimed Marcham. “The guys at JFM were awesome all week and the car was fast every time we went out on the track. I feel bad that we didn’t make the big show because I know we had a car capable of it but I did a lot better than I did last year so hopefully the trend carries on to next year. Hopefully we can get to do some more races together next season so we can make the car even better for next Chili Bowl,” concluded Marcham.
During his initial Midget campaign in 2013, Marcham claimed the USAC-Western States Midget Rookie-of-the-Year title despite running a partial schedule. Throughout his maiden Midget campaign, Marcham claimed five top 10s, three top fives, one main event win and one Heat race win en route to ninth place in the USAC-WS overall Midget standings and tenth in the USAC-WS Dirt standings.
In addition to his success on dirt bullrings in open-wheel action in the Midget, Marcham performed a clean sweep on pavement, sweeping a pair of Late Model features at Myrtle Beach Speedway in July 2013 where he scored his first and second career Late Model Stock Car wins. Marcham is one of few drivers to excel on both dirt and pavement race surfaces, in an array of vehicles ranging from super-light 850-pound open-wheel Midget race cars to 3,000-plus pound Late Model Stock cars.
A senior Engineering student at Oklahoma University, with over 11 years of experience in Micro Sprints, Midgets, 360 Non-Wing Sprint Cars and asphalt Late Models, Marcham has shown amazing poise and talent en route to amassing six Championships at I-44 Riverside Speedway in Newcastle, Oklahoma, as well as having claimed both the A-Class and Non-wing A-Mains at the Inaugural Donnie Ray Crawford Memorial/Race4Life in Tulsa in 2012. Marcham compiled several wins and podium finishes in 2013 in a wide array of race classes and hopes to continue that success into 2014.
Select Coatings, RD Marcham Energy, Inc., Simpson Race Products, Pinnacle Energy Services, Best Western Tulsa Airport, Metals Supermarket Oklahoma City, J & B Digital Graphics, Madden Steel Buildings, and Mud-X support Marcham.
For up to date information on all of Marcham’s race activities, “like” him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter, or visit www.marchamracing.com.
Marcham Racing is always looking for companies to partner with in the late model, midget and/or minisprint venues. Contact Marcham Racing at marchamracing@yahoo.com to put your business in the fast lane!
- Admin Account on Feb 26, 2014
- Article Date: 1/26/2014 by Robert Haugh