Jade Avedisian is getting lots of attention at Chili Bowl -- and rightly so
TULSA, Okla. -- There’s been a lot of buzz during this week's Chili Bowl Nationals around Jade Avedisian, a 16-year-old racer from Clovis, Calif., and it’s all well deserved.
Tuesday night, Avedisian became the first female driver to finish on the podium of a Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals presented by General Tire preliminary night. She ran from ninth to third, fighting hard battles throughout the field.
But third place was not the plan for the Toyota-powered Avedisian and the Chad Boat Industries (CBI) team. The goal was a transfer spot and Jade knows the moments that cost her.
“I think the problem was just my mistakes, honestly, " Avedisian told AutoRacingDigest.com. “I was having a really good car thanks to everyone at CBI, but the mistakes cost me. I could have had a shot to win. So once I clean that up, I think we could win. But for now, we got third and we're gonna sit in front of the B Main.”
She’ll start near the front of Saturday’s B Main with the chance to try and correct her mistakes.
“I knew exactly in the moment what I did wrong,” Avedisian said. "But it's always good to go back on the video and see. You can never stop learning. You can learn from someone on the racetrack right now, or you can learn from something two years ago.
"So I think it's just taking the extra time to look at the video and figure it out because I definitely felt like I let one slip away.”
The young wheel woman splashed onto the scene last summer by becoming the first female to win a national midget race, leading all 30 laps of an Xtreme Midget Race at Jacksonville (Illinois) Speedway last June 26th. (Note: Just for clarification sake, due to a disqualification of the winner in an earlier event, Taylor Reimer inherited the distinction of being the first woman to win at Millbridge Speedway (in Salisbury, N.C.) a month earlier. But because Avedisian won from flag to flag, she earned the distinction of being the first female to win an entire race, as opposed to Reimer being awarded the win due to the DQ after finishing second in the race at Millbridge.)
After that win at Jacksonville, Avedisian was not done with firsts. She led flag to flag in the series finale at I-44 Riverside Speedway in Oklahoma City, Okla., to become the first driver to win multiple races in the Xtreme Midget Series.
The wins not only let fans and competitors know that Avedisian was a threat going into this Chili Bowl and midget season -- but also herself.
“It definitely is a confidence booster,” she said of the multiple wins, “knowing that we won twice and one at a place that we always struggled at, I-44. I think winning in anything and getting a good finish helps you get to the next week with momentum.
"So coming into the Chili Bowl with two wins is great. It’s one of the reasons I didn't run the Chili Bowl last year, I didn't have too many midget starts and I wasn't too comfortable.”
Avedisian’s name is continuing to be associated with firsts, and the next goal is simple: to be the first female to win a feature at the Chili Bowl.
“Definitely to be winning at the Chili Bowl, " Avedisian said. “I felt like I let that look slip away Tuesday, but I know exactly what I need to do Saturday and hopefully I can."
The main focus in Saturday's B Main is to lock into the coveted A Main later that night. If she does, she’ll be the second female in history to make the A Main after Kaylee Bryson transferred from the B Main last year to finish 18th in the main event.
Avedisian has her gameplan ready.
“Just drive as hard as I can and be smart,” she said. “It's a really long B Main. Usually B’s are 10 or 15 laps. They take the top seven. So I should be okay and we should start in the first few rows. I just have to be really smart and can’t put myself in bad situations to not get locked in. I feel really confident with my car, it's just gonna kind of be up to me in the B."
While this is Avedisian’s first time racing in the Chili Bowl, she has a driller under her belt with her 2020 Tulsa Shootout win. This year she decided to skip the Shootout and focus solely on the Chili Bowl, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t paying attention.
“I do think I improved from just watching that week at home as a whole because the micros are so different, and I have already had laps around this place,” Advedisian explained, “ I didn't feel like I needed to be at the Shootout (this year) as much as I just wanted to be. But by the time Saturday rolled around, I'm glad I wasn't. I think watching every single lap at the Shootout helped me.”
While the young racer doesn’t know the full details of her path forward, she’s carrying the confidence of a driver set to go far, albeit into the national dirt scene, NASCAR, or elsewhere.
For the time being she’s found a great home with CBI and Toyota Racing to reflect on the extremely bright future ahead of her.