Author: Chris Murphy

ALLENTOWN, PA –

By DEAN REYNOLDS

You can say Ransomville, NY’s Erick Rudolph picked up where he left off from 2015. The defending Lenny Sammons Promotions Indoor Series Champion started on the pole by luck of the draw and led every lap to win the very first Allentown Indoor Race at the immaculate PPL Center, home of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

The first auto racing event held in the Allentown since 1989 and was so well received that it was a complete sell out. Tickets stopped being sold before the 7:00pm start time and then a few hundred were let in to watch from three standing room only areas that were designated.

Rudolph was debuting a new chassis from Mark Lafler and won his heat earlier in the night. With the redraw he picked the pole and was immediately dubbed the favorite.

“Picking the pole is key indoors, but you still have to run the race and get through the slower cars to get the win,” said the quiet Rudolph.

During the 40 lap feature event, no less that 12 restarts pitted some of the indoor’s best drivers trying to get by Rudolph’s #22. Justin Bonsignore, Ryan Susice and Jimmy Blewett all had their shots but just didn’t get enough of a run to get by.

As the laps went on the challengers dropped by the wayside as well, Susice was a victim of contact with Blewett and he showed his displeasure with the New Jersey runner. Bonsignore drifted high early and lost several valuable spots. Then before he could make a charge, he hopped a wheel on a lap eight caution and damaged his mount ending his chances. Blewett started to fade and fell back to fourth at race end.

“The double file restarts can make a difference but I never really had to much of a problem. Every time the car just took off,” Rudolph went on. “Even the lapped cars weren’t too much of an issue so it was a good race.”

With Rudolph’s domination, the race was indeed for second. Blewett was holding ground, but fellow Blewett chassis runner Ryan Flores was giving the man known as “Show Time” all he could handle.

Finally, seven laps from the end, Flores ducked under. While he was clearly faster than Blewett, he didn’t have enough to challenge the leader. At the checkered it was Rudolph about 12 car lengths ahead of Flores. It was Rudolph’s fourth career indoor series win.

Canadian Super Modified standout Mick Lichty also got by Blewett late to take third, Blewett did come home forth with Tim Buckwalter rounding out the top five.

The win for the former Mr. DirtCar 358 Series champion was worth $2,000 plus over $200 in lap money and other prizes. But, more importantly he now as a chance at the Vahlco Wheel $10,000 bonus awarded to a driver if he/she can complete the three race indoor sweep.

In the companion Slingshot 20 lap feature, Phillipsburg, NJ’s Eddie Reeder also went flag to flag to collect his $2,000 prize as well. He beat sprint car talent Joe Kata and third generation Cody Kline to the checkers.

Andy Jankowiak was the fastest in time trials earlier in the day blitzing the oval in 7.514. Jokingly he said it was a new track record, of course this is the first event.

ALLENTOWN NOTES – Of the 80 pre-entries, 71 TQ midgets did fill the pit area with 34 Slingshots making up their pit log…While Mark Lafler had the dominating chassis on this night, the new Cicconi design TQ’s for Alex Bright, Russ Gamester and Jeff Strunk drew a lot of attention. Only Bright made the feature and was an early drop out…Cicconi himself was a non challenger after looping his mount causing the first caution of the 40 lap feature…Joey Payne was a surprise DNQ, he missed by one spot…Former TQ indoor champion Ted Christopher had a quiet night and was an early drop out from the feature…Will Cagle did enter the event but had issues getting up to speed and was out of his drivers uniform before the heats start…Jimmy Zacharias was a last minute addition to the event and he picked up the last qualifying spot for the feature…NY sprint car star Scott Kreutter showed lots of speed but not much for luck. Problems in time trials saw him start scratch in his heat, he came through to finish one spot out of qualifying. In the B-Main he was leading when his chain then came off ending the hard luck night…For Geoff Quackenbush, his night lasted one hot lap session when he blew his clutch… The diverse field saw drivers from, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Vermont, Indiana, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Ontario Canada.

Ironton Telephone TQ Midget Feature (40 Laps): 1. Erick Rudolph, 2. Ryan Flores, 3. Mike Lichty, 4. Jimmy Blewett, 5. Tim Buckwalter, 6. Rob Neely, 7. Anthony Sesely, 8. Patrick Emerling, 9. Jonathan Reid, 10. Earl Paules, 11. Bobby Holmes, 12. Ryan Susice, 13. Jimmy Zacharias, 14. Lou Cicconi Jr., 15. Andy Jankowiak, 16. Dakota Kessler, 17. Pat VanVarick, 18. Sheldon Iudicello, 19. Neal Williams, 20. Ted Christopher, 21. Matt Janisch, 22. Justin Bonsignore, 23. Alex Bright, 24. Andrew Krause.
Slinger Warehouse Slingshot Feature (20 Laps): 1. Eddie Reeder, 2. Joe Kata III, 3. Cody Kline, 4. Frank Yankowski, 5. Danny Spellmon, 6. Kyle Herve, 7. Doug Maher, 8. Nick DelCampo, 9. AJ Gerhart 10. Anthony Raisner, 11. Nick Shaw, 12. Ed Stangle, 13. Matt Langbein, 14. Mike Glass, 15. Dave Carraghan, 16. Jim Housworth, 17. Kurt Bettler, 18. Tim Roeder, 19. Chris Kurtz, 20. Coby Kohl

http://www.dirttrackdigest.com/NewPress/?p=13878

The Northeast began their season a little earlier than usual and the fans came to show their support.  In front of a standing-room-only, capacity-crowd, Erick Rudolph had events fall his way to take another indoor racing trophy back home to Ransomville, New York.

Luck indeed played a factor at the inaugural Allentown Indoor Race at the recently built PPL Center located in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania.  Rudolph maneuvered his way to the front in his heat race and then drew the pole.  From there it appeared to be clear sailing, but like most top-performing cars, it took some tuning to get the Three-Quarter (TQ) Midget to be a winning one.

“Earlier on we were a so-so car, a top 10 car, and I knew it wasn’t going to be enough,” Rudolph told Speed51.com powered by JEGS.  “We thought about it, made some changes; the track came to us at the same time, I was able to go out and start right from the pole, and drive smooth the whole race.”

Near the conclusion of the 40-lap feature, a longer green flag run added the need for Rudolph to navigate slower traffic.  Nevertheless, it did not seem to hinder the soon to be 24-year-old driver who has been in the same situation several times now.

“Indoor racing there’s always going to be lapped cars,” Rudolph said.  “You try to do it quick so the guy in second doesn’t have a chance to catch up to you, but it is part of the game.”

The driver in second late in the going was Davidson, North Carolina’s, Ryan Flores, regularly a tire changer for Penske Racing during the racing season.  It appeared to be déjà vu from the most recent indoor race in Atlantic City last January.

Flores had to advance from eighth starting position and then contend with his longtime friend Jimmy Blewett to capture the runner-up spot before even setting his sights on the leader.

“I grew up, since I was 14, working for Jimmy and spotting for him,” Flores explained.  “I knew he wasn’t going to be easy to pass, but it’s a pleasure to race with him.  He’s my big brother.

“Once I realized he was all the way there I said ‘I’ve got to get up now; I can’t run him down’,” Blewett interjected regarding the ultimate pass for second, which involved Flores getting into the inside tires on the first couple attempts.  “He’s got a race to win,” added Blewett.

“He says it every time we’re in the shop,” Flores continued about the battle with his teammate.  “He sets them up; he does the work on it, and he says when we go to the track we’re there to race against each other.”

Mike Lichty was also able to get by Blewett in the closing laps and it was evident that he had one of the faster cars after some early race contact sent him toward the back of the field.  Despite the ongoing skill to be consistent and stay out of the major wrecks, he suggested an option for restarts similar to the style the Innerkip, Ontario driver is used to in the ISMA Supermodifieds.

“I think we were actually quite comparable to the leaders at the end there,” Lichty mentioned.  “It’s just tough with the way these guys drive and whatnot.  I would like to see at the beginning, start double file, and after that just go single file.  I think it would put on better racing.”

While the indoor track layout that most often serves as a hockey rink looks similar to others on the surface, Lichty went on to point out one unique trait that this newer surface had.

“Usually everybody prefers the inside at Atlantic City and Trenton, but here actually it seemed like the outside was an advantage, until you got single file and had to drive the track accordingly,” Lichty explained.  “I think we learned some things and we’ll be pretty decent for AC.”

The Indoor Racing Series moves to the Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall in New Jersey in a few weeks.  After one race in the books, drivers have been taking notes on what needs to be done to catch and pass Rudolph.  At the same time, it still can sometimes come down to the luck of the draw.

“Hopefully I can pick a better pill and Erick doesn’t pick the pole, because it’s getting too easy every time he picks the pole,” said Flores, who lost the indoor points title in a tiebreaker with Rudolph a year ago.  “We just have to figure out how to not get it tight at the end.  It picks up a little bit of a push at the end.  I probably could have went more; we’re going to figure it out and we’re going to keep running.  It’s good to be consistent, but when he’s consistently winning that sucks.”

Meanwhile, Rudolph hopes to continue his success at a track he has won at multiple times, including last year’s Gamblers Classic victory which netted him his second Indoor TQ Midget Series championship.

“I definitely feel like we’ve got the momentum,” Rudolph said.  “Honestly, I couldn’t say anything bad about the car right now.  It did exactly what I wanted it to do in the race.”

As for Allentown, many echoed Rudolph’s statements about the successful first event that was put together at the PPL Center.

“It was great to see the packed stands out there and it seemed like everyone had a good time.  Maybe we’ll be back.”

-By Aaron Creed, Speed51.com Central NY & PA Editor

-Photo credit: Speed51.com

Allentown Indoor Race Results

1 1 22 Erick Rudolph 40
2 8 15 Ryan Flores 40
3 9 1 Mike Lichty 40
4 3 76 Jimmy Blewett 40
5 16 7 Tim Buckwalter 40
6 12 74 Rob Neely 40
7 15 16 Anthony Sesely 40
8 21 07 Patrick Emerling 40
9 13 9 Jonathan Reid 40
10 22 8 Earl Paules 40
11 20 21 Bobby Holmes 40
12 14 38 Ryan Susice 39
13 23 9x Jimmy Zacharias 38
14 7 75 Lou Cicconi 27
15 4 49 Andy Jankowiak 27
16 17 449 Dakota Kessler 25
17 24 17 Patrick Van Varick 15
18 11 15i Sheldon Iudicello 15
19 6 323 Neal Williams 8
20 10 13 Ted Christopher 8
21 18 48 Matt Janisch 8
22 2 51 Justin Bonsignore 8
23 19 77 Alex Bright 6
24 5 27 Andrew Krause 1

http://speed51.com/rudolphs-shiny-new-year-performs-in-front-of-a-sellout-crowd/