Ashton Torgerson returns to the Chili Bowl, one year after a horrific crash in the Tulsa Expo Center, and he returns triumphantly with a Golden Driller trophy already in hand.
The 17-year-old made the feature in three of four divisions, scoring a top-10 in the Non-Wing Outlaw B division, and winning in the Winged A Division. It was the first time he had won a Golden Driller of any kind in the building.
But really, Torgerson is a winner just by virtue of walking into the building, and anyone who saw what happened last year can testify to the sentiment.
He was involved in one of the ugliest crashes imaginable in a dirt open-wheel car, coming unbuckled from his seat and was ejected from the car as it flipped across the backstretch. It was objectively graphic. At one point, his head stuck out of the cockpit as it tumbled upside down, before throwing him out of the car at the other end.
It happened right in front of Kaden Honeycutt who says he didn’t return for a second Chili Bowl as part of the wake-up call that seeing the incident unfold in front of him gave him.
Torgerson, who suffered some internal bleeding, was released from the hospital two days later and even made it to the Expo Center to watch the features that Saturday night. He has since made a full recovery and raced since the summer.
The wildest part of his recovery is that Torgerson actually flipped in his very first race back, in a Micro Sprint, and while he says its never ideal to roll over, it helps the nerves.
“We got it out of the way and I don’t have it in the back of my mind,” Torgerson told Sportsnaut on Thursday. “It’s never good to roll over. It’s a scary thing but I do think it was good to have it happen and move on from it.”
When returning to the Expo Center on Championship Saturday last year, Torgerson said he didn’t remember the crash at all, and those memories still haven’t returned.
“It’s still missing,” he said. “Only memory I have of the race is taking the green flag and then I remember some of the ambulance ride. Everything comes back starting the next day. During the wreck, I don’t remember how it happened and the only things I knew is what my guys told me.”
Torgerson, and his dad Danny, still aren’t entirely sure how he came unbuckled.
Their working theory is a new fire suit, one that became necessary when Ashton’s gear bag was stolen before the race, had D-rings on each arm for arm restraints and that the Velcro cover that went over the latch was not secured the night of the incident.
They tried to recreate the incident to see if the D-ring could unlatch the latch-and-link buckle but the experiments were not totally conclusive.
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Nevertheless, they’re back for Chili Bowl week, and the vibes are extremely positive given the win last week and everything that preceded it to get them back here.
“Obviously, that was a scary night for everyone but to come back and get a Driller was incredible,” the younger Torgerson said. “Headed back there, it would be pretty sweet to get another Driller.”
His dad, just as he was after leaving the hospital that night, is just happy that he gets to keep having moments like this.
“Just an emotional whirlwind,” the elder Torgerson said. “After last year, really the mindset I have, and I’ve told Ashton this, is that this is the worst that can happen. It’s just a sense of relief that this is probably the worst thing that will happen in his life and he came out the other end stronger.”
Torgerson qualifies on Thursday and his baseline expectation is a top-five in his prelim feature.
“I would love to win the feature, lock in that night, but I’m still trying to be realistic too,” he said. “I don’t have a ton of Midget experience. But I do have several starts in the Shootout and I feel like experience on that track is experience.”
It’s the start of a busy season for Torgerson, who will move out of the nest to Oklahoma as his dad puts it and race a full season on the Xtreme Outlaw Midget tour with select USAC starts as well. In addition, every he will race every World of Outlaws Sprint Car race that runs alongside the Xtreme Outlaw series.
It’s going to be a fun season, and one where he will learn a ton, but one that also wasn’t a certainty that Wednesday night when they were at the hospital. But even then, the memories from that Thursday are things the family will cherish.
They received phone calls from Kyle Busch and were visited by Rico Abreu and Kevin Thomas Jr. Busch’s son, Brexton, hand crafted a letter and drew a picture of Torgerson’s race car. The whole community lifted the family up
Those are things that are front and center as they return triumphantly to Tulsa for the biggest event of the year.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.