{"id":11326,"date":"2015-01-19T13:38:23","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T21:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=11326"},"modified":"2015-01-29T15:32:32","modified_gmt":"2015-01-29T23:32:32","slug":"rico-abreu-kicks-off-2015-season-with-chili-bowl-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/rico-abreu-kicks-off-2015-season-with-chili-bowl-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Rico Abreu Kicks off 2015 Season With Chili Bowl Win"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Photo Courtesy: Dylan Duvall Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rico Abreu grew up about 50 miles north of San Francisco in Rutherford, CA, a region known for its wine and beautiful scenery.\u00a0 While his family is in vineyard management, Rico\u2019s interests were captured by something a bit less tied to the land.\u00a0 Watching friends race Go Karts, Rico knew he could do that.\u00a0 His small stature limited his option for other sports, and he loved to compete, so this opened up a whole avenue for adventure.\u00a0 In 2009, he got a Kart for his birthday and started racing on a track in his backyard.\u00a0 Soon, he was taking his skills and the Kart to the local tracks. It turned out that caged car racing was something he was very, very good at.\u00a0 Rico\u2019s career racing the Outlaw Sprint Kart kicked off at Lakeport Speedway in January 2009, and he won his first Outlaw Kart win at Cycleland Speedway in August of that year.<\/p>\n

He raced karts until 2011, competing every weekend. During that time, he became good friends with Kyle Larson. A family friend started sponsoring Larson, and introduced Rico to the Cading family, who offered to build him a sprint car that could fit his small stature. \u00a0Rico ran his first World of Outlaws race in 2011 at the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals.\u00a0 That same year he won the Taco Bravo 360 Winged Sprint Car Series Rookie of the Year award, and did the Australian Sprint Car Tour.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Courtesy Rico Abreu Racing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI was really fortunate,\u201d says Rico. \u201c I ran 40 sprint car races in 2011. In 2012, I raced with Keith Coontz for the USAC Midget championship, and the past two years I\u2019ve been racing more and pushing harder.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest difference between running a sprint car and a midget is the difference in horsepower and downforce.\u00a0 There\u2019s no wing on the midget.\u00a0 The 410 sprint car is much harder. \u00a0The big difference is momentum,\u201d Rico explains.\u00a0 \u201cMidgets are all about the momentum, and the same guys race every weekend. The sport has become so competitive that you have to race every weekend, and it\u2019s been very cool to race with the guys. I feel like they help me push myself to get better with every race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rico won 8 races in 2012, and ran 102 races with 12 wins and 46 top five finishes in 2013. In 2014, he won the Belleville Midget Nationals Championship,\u00a0 and was a World of Outlaws Feature Winner, USAC Indiana Midget Week Champion and is a Two-time Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial Champion for 2013 and 2014.\u00a0 Clearly, the sport agrees with him.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI love the excitement it brings to everyone. The speed of the sport, the way it\u2019s a new challenge every time. Overcoming those challenges is what it\u2019s all about.\u201d \u00a0For Rico, completing his goals are what he\u2019s all about.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to win a WoO race going in to this season,\u201d he said during our conversation, a feat he accomplished in March 2014, \u201cand finish the year strong.\u201d \u00a0His team ran the entire USAC midget championship this year, and at the time of the conversation, his goal was to win the Midget Championship.\u00a0 His phenomenal race in January\u2019s Chili Bowl handily clenched that.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Courtesy Bryan Lugo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rico\u2019s advice to beginning racers is sound, \u201cSet your goals high, and do what you love. You need to have so much heart for this sport, and it\u2019s such a cool sport to be in. Be patient with your success.\u201d He emphasizes the need for persistence. \u201cYou can\u2019t rely on success right out of the gate, there are so many young racers, but for newcomers, don\u2019t give up on your dreams.\u00a0 Success in the sport is the greatest feeling in the world. Stick with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Photo Courtesy Dylan Duvall Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In his free time, Rico likes to fish, swin, and spend time with family and friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family is so happy that I found something that I wanted to do, particularly when I couldn\u2019t play sports anymore. My dad comes to a lot of the races, and my Mom comes when she can.\u00a0 My Uncle comes with me to every race. It\u2019s so great to have bonding time with the people I love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Courtesy Rico Abreu Racing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So what else is on the docket for this newly minted champion? Possibly racing a stock car.\u00a0 \u201cThere\u2019s nothing in the works,\u201d he said, \u201cbut would it sure would be a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Congratulations to Rico on Saturday night’s win in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the 2015 29th Annual Chili Bowl Nationals<\/a>!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Burnout spoke to the 2015 Chili Bowl Midget champion Rico Abreu a few months ago. The racer was looking ahead to an already stellar season, with impressive goals made good with this Chili Bowl win.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,3470],"tags":[1843,1842,598,462,1606,1841,446],"class_list":["post-11326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dirt-track-racing","category-news","tag-29th-annual-chili-bowl-nationals","tag-dirt-racing","tag-lucas-oil","tag-lucas-oil-chili-bowl-nationals","tag-midget-racing","tag-rico-abreu","tag-sprint-car-racing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/23ca02_8934a837c797439ba27f2bf62ea102a6.jpg_srz_p_465_254_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-2WG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11340,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11326\/revisions\/11340"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}