ALLENTOWN, PA – Four time Indoor Auto Racing Series TQ Midget season champion Erick Rudolph of Ransomville, NY ducked under Shawn Nye with 25 laps complete in Friday’s 40-lap TQ Midget Indoor Auto Racing Series feature and kept Nye at bay for the remaining laps to win.
Rudolph won in a car built by Mark Lafler that was fielded with ten inch tires as opposed to the thirteen inch tires all of Lafler’s cars have used previously.
“The smaller tire took a little getting used to,” Rudolph admitted. In fact Rudolph spun on his first lap of time trails, but brushed it off to post a sixth fastest time on his second lap.
“The car really didn’t drive that much differently. I was able to make the same kind of passes I was making before,” Rudolph added. Rudolph started fifth
Nye was driving an all new car completed just days earlier by his brother Tim and that TQ was also on ten inch tires.
“I really thought I might win the race,” Nye said. “The problem I was having was with brakes going away. But finishing second to Erick (Rudolph) in an Indoor TQ race with a totally new car is like a win for us.”
Matt Janisch, who had won the Friday Allentown race a year ago, was a solid third at the checkered, ahead of Andy Jankowiak and Jon Reid.
Tim Buckwalter, who started 22nd, Ryan Bartlett, Briggs Danner, Matt Roselli, from 24th and last, and first time Series starter Michael Barnes, from 21st were sixth through tenth. Potential race contenders who were taken out in crashes included Scott Kreutter, Ryan Flores, and Timmy Solomito.
Jankowiak out-qualified 44 other TQ Midget drivers in time trials posting a 7.425 clocking, just ahead of Anthony Sesely at 7.462 and Ryan Flores at 7.512.
Ryan Tidman, Rudolph, Ryan Flores, and Scott Kreutter won the four the lap TQ Midget heat races. Ryan Bartlett and Timmy Solomito won the two ten lap Midget B-Mains.
TQ Midget A-Main (40 Laps): 1. Erick Rudolph, 2. Shawn Nye, 3. Matt Janisch, 4. Andy Jankowiak, 5. Jon Reid, 6. Tim Buckwalter, 7. Ryan Bartlett, 8. Briggs Danner, 9. Matt Roselli, 10. Michael Barnes, 11. Tommy Catalano, 12. Tyler Thompson, 13. Timmy Catalano, 14. Jeremy Haudricourt, 15. Earl Paules, 16. Anthony Payne, 17. Pat Bealer, 18. Kyle Lick, 19. Mike Bednar, 20. Anthony Sesely, 21. Timmy Solomito, 22. Ryan Tidman, 23. Ryan Flores, 24. Scott Kreutter.