TULSA, Okla. – There wasn’t a car in the building that had as much pace as Tanner Thorson’s No. 88.
The defending Chili Bowl Nationals winner showed that in a dominant victory that saw him repeatedly drive away from the rest of the pack with ease.
“I feel good,” Thorson said. “It’s hard to tell in this place. This place – you can take (something) for granted and it can bite you. We’ve got to get through that king of the hill deal and go from there.”
Thorson moves on to Saturday’s A-Main, which will see him and Emerson Axsom both compete in the king of the hill event that sets the first portion of the starting lineup.
Axsom is eager to drive in it.
“It was the first night in my car,” Axsom said. “It’s just new. I honestly wasn’t mad about (lapped traffic), I thought when we were in the open, I could tell where we needed to be better.”
On terms of the advantages of starting out front, Axsom summed it up well.
“The quality of car is some of the best in the country, so if you can not race some of them, it helps,” Axsom said.
The event resumes Friday with a fifth and final prelim night to lock the final two drivers into Saturday’s main event.
2022 Chili Bowl Nationals Results
Thursday Night prelim
SageNet Center
1. Tanner Thorson
2. Emerson Axsom
3. Brady Bacon
4. Tim Buckwalter
5. Tanner Carrick
6. Karter Sarff
7. Chase Johnson
8. Ryan Bernal
9. Dominic Gorden
10. Joe B. Miller
11. Cody Jessop
12. Landon Crawley
13. J.J. Yeley
14. Matt Sherrell
15. R.J. Johnson
16. Anton Hernandez
17. Joe Wirth
18. Dylan Westbrook
19. Chance Morton
20. Max Adams
21. Daniel Robinson
22. Casey Shuman
23. Jake Neuman
24. Andrew Deal
