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Chili Bowl Grand Marshal named

BALTES NAMED CHILI BOWL GRAND MARSHAL TULSA, Okla. (November 1, 2005) - Legendary auto racing promoter and track operator Earl Baltes has been named Grand Marshal of the 20th Annual O'Reilly Chili Bowl Midget Nationals at the Tulsa Expo ...

Published: Nov 2, 2005, 11:06 PM

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BALTES NAMED CHILI BOWL GRAND MARSHAL

TULSA, Okla. (November 1, 2005) - Legendary auto racing promoter and track operator Earl Baltes has been named Grand Marshal of the 20th Annual O'Reilly Chili Bowl Midget Nationals at the Tulsa Expo Center on January 11-14, 2006.

Baltes, 84, remains an icon in the sport, following a career as one of the most colorful and accomplished personalities in all of auto racing. He built the famous Eldora Speedway near Rossburg, Ohio in 1954, and along with wife Berneice built it into one of the most successful racing facilities in the world. Earl and Berneice retired in late 2004 with the sale of the track to Nextel Cup star Tony Stewart.

Earl is a past recipient of the Auto Racing Promoter of the Year award, and is a member of both the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame.

In addition to his involvement at Eldora Speedway, Baltes also through the years owned or operated a host of racing venues that included Salem Speedway, Limaland, New Bremen, Dayton Speedway, Millstream, and Mansfield, Ohio.

Earl is also the architect of the two largest short track events in history. The Eldora Million for dirt late models, paying $1 million to race winner Donnie Moran, was held in 2001, and the Mopar Million offered a $1 million purse for traditional sprint cars in 2003, with $200,000 going to race winner Jac Haudenschild.

Many major events introduced by Baltes continue to influence the course of the sport, including the World 100, the Late Model Dream, the Kings Royal, the Mopar Thunder, and the 4-Crown Nationals.

Earl will be present at the Tulsa Expo Center throughout the running of this year's O'Reilly Chili Bowl Nationals, meeting and greeting the multitudes of loyal short track fans who make the January event one of the most important racing events of the year. It is also expected that Baltes will participate in a public book signing of his autobiography EARL!, published in early 2005.

For Chili Bowl ticket information, call (918) 838-3777 or visit www.chilibowl.com.

-lw-

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