Photo 1: Tom Harris, Photo 2: 357Studios
Pryor, Oklahoma (12/24/2020)... Micro Sprint legend, Frank Flud will be driving for Hayward Motorsports in the 35th Annual Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Flud will be competing in his seventh Chili Bowl Nationals January 11th-16th, 2021.
The Pryor, Oklahoma native had a typical year for one of the best micro sprint drivers ever, winning nearly every weekend. Flud traveled the Midwest with the Lucas Oil NOW600 National Micros picking up 22 wins across two classes. Not only did he win 22 races with the NOW600 Micros, but Flud also captured his 100th national win with the series in June.
During July in the "Month of Money", Flud was able to win his second Highbanks Hustle at Southern Illinois Raceway. For the remainder of the year when Flud was not with the NOW600 Micros, he was back at his home track of Port City Raceway picking up more wins. In 2020, Frank Flud was able to win an astounding 54 times.
Flud's success from 2020 will carry him into the Tulsa Shootout where he will look to add to his Golden Driller count. Flud currently has four Golden Drillers and hopes to add another four to the total. Frank will be entered into four classes, Winged Outlaw, Non-Wing Outlaw, Winged A-Class, and Stock Non-Wing. He will be looking to win his first Golden Driller since 2017 when he won the Stock Non-Wing class. Driving his own Driven Midwest #81, Frank Flud will be as dangerous as ever to get another win inside the Tulsa Expo Center.
After the Shootout, Flud will be back in the Tulsa Expo Center once again competing in the Chili Bowl Nationals for the first time since 2019. After competing in a Bobby Springer owned car in 2019, Flud will now be in the #19 for Hayward Motorsports. Last year, Tanner Thorson was in the car and he was able to win the Friday preliminary night feature. Flud will certainly be stepping into a fast car.
Having plenty of experience inside the Expo Center and being used to tight racing in micro sprints. Flud will look to use his experiences to help navigate the close and tough racing, "Laps help no matter what they are in. The more laps the better, even though they (micros and midgets) act nothing alike in driving style".
Since first entering the Chili Bowl Nationals in 2009, the farthest Flud has made it on Saturday is the C-Main, which was back in 2014 driving the #8K for Jon Kantor. Since then, he has reached the D-Main three times, 2015, 2017, and 2019. Flud sees this as a great opportunity to get back in the Saturday night show, "I hope we can make it as far as possible. The goal for all of us is to win when we show up and leave nothing on the table".
Frank Flud will be one to watch at the Tulsa Shootout and Chili Bowl Nationals as he looks to capitalize on momentum and a great opportunity.
-Lucas Halbert