Travis Berryhill Chili Bowl Spike Midget
Dec 21, 2023 19:18:08 GMT -5
indy, racerbrown, and 1 more like this
Post by Art Laski on Dec 21, 2023 19:18:08 GMT -5
There's a bit of a story behind it, but a couple of years ago, my dad essentially inherited a current midget race car from a friend with whom he built the car. Racing is expensive, so he doesn't run it much, but last year an opportunity presented itself to collaborate with long-time open wheel driver Travis Berryhill to run a couple of races. They started off with an indoor race in Du Quoin, IL last year, coming close to winning until some bad luck struck. Then last January, they went to the Chili Bowl, one of the biggest races of the year anywhere, with over 350 entries vying for about 24 starting positions on A Main Saturday. They race all week long, and each competitor gets one night to attempt to transfer to the big show. If they don't make it, they get to go through what they call the "alphabet soup", where they race up though mains from O through to the A main, with two each or more transferring up from each race. No one has ever gotten from the O to the A main, but sometimes they do make a good climb. Because of that, it's important to do well on your opening night, and the first step is transferring into that night's main event. Last year, Travis transferred into the Wednesday night main, setting himself up for a decent shot at making the main. Unfortunately, a flip in the main, and a flip in the Saturday E main meant they didn't make the big show. But it was a good effort.
Not long after the race, Travis contacted me about doing a couple of models- one he wanted to give to his sponsor, Vanilla Cycles, and the other he wanted to give to my dad for letting them run his car. I wasn't sure how I was going to go about it, because I already have a midget WIP in progress going on about 7 years now! I couldn't do that with a project like this one. But I found out that a Kyle Larson die cast midget was issued recently, and it was the same chassis make as my dad's car, which is a Spike chassis. So I thought I would get some decals made up (I was given the original artwork) and paint it up a little and be on my way, right? Yeah, it never works that way for me...
The die cast is a good start, but it has a Toyota engine in it, versus the Ford in dad's car, and all the body panels are slightly different, and, actually, way too thick. So I went to work, one thing has led to another, and here we are...
While it's still going to have some obvious die cast traits, I have gone about adding a little more accuracy, and I think when it's done, it will be a pretty cool replica.
Here are a few shots of the actual car:
Not long after the race, Travis contacted me about doing a couple of models- one he wanted to give to his sponsor, Vanilla Cycles, and the other he wanted to give to my dad for letting them run his car. I wasn't sure how I was going to go about it, because I already have a midget WIP in progress going on about 7 years now! I couldn't do that with a project like this one. But I found out that a Kyle Larson die cast midget was issued recently, and it was the same chassis make as my dad's car, which is a Spike chassis. So I thought I would get some decals made up (I was given the original artwork) and paint it up a little and be on my way, right? Yeah, it never works that way for me...
The die cast is a good start, but it has a Toyota engine in it, versus the Ford in dad's car, and all the body panels are slightly different, and, actually, way too thick. So I went to work, one thing has led to another, and here we are...
While it's still going to have some obvious die cast traits, I have gone about adding a little more accuracy, and I think when it's done, it will be a pretty cool replica.
Here are a few shots of the actual car:
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