For veteran open wheel drivers such as Ryan Bickett, flipping is just part of the game. Case in point, the Chili Bowl Nationals, where the sprint car racer went airborne with a midget for the first time.
“I’ve gone on wild rides in a sprint car,” Bickett, of Ramona, South Dakota, said. “You’d figure a bigger car, bigger track, higher speed would be worse — not! Flipping a midget hurts just as bad as flipping a sprint car.”
Bickett flipped his Chad Frewaldt-owned midget during his D-main on Friday.
“I tried to run the Kyle Larson line, and I did not succeed,” said Bickett. “I got into the wall, the car dug in, I tried to pull the left front back and went for a ride like I never expected. The car began twisting and going end over end. Then the car dug in and stopped abruptly.”
Bickett walked away from the crash without serious injury.
“I had no broken bones,” Bickett said. “Th G-forces of a sudden stop got me, though. All my safety gear kept me in there. I’m just sore.”
He sat in an Ultra Shield full-containment seat, with an Ultra Shield five-point harness. Bickett work a Zamp helmet paired with a Simpson Hybrid head-and-neck restraint. While he was okay, his car from Spike Chassis did not fair as well.
“The frame was tweaked, the front end was bent, and the impact pulled the studs out of the rear end,” said Bickett. “We had the parts to fix it at the Chili Bowl, but we would have had to work all night, and I knew I was too sore to drive the next day.”
Ryan Bickett is a champion driver, with titles at Huset’s Speedway and I-90 Speedway, as well as in MSTS competition. Frewaldt introduced Bickett to midgets in 2017, and he’s been a Chili Bowl regular ever since.
“I really enjoy racing midgets — they are so unique,” Bickett said. “If I have a chance, I will make time to drive a midget. The more racing you get in different cars, the better driver you are.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
