Flores Wrestles Lead Away Late To Win Thrilling Ironton Global Allentown Indoor Race Friday Night at the PPL Center

Allentown, PA (Friday, Jan. 3) – Ryan Flores sent an Allentown crowd into a frenzy Friday night when he carved his way to the front of the field and wrestled the lead away from Tommy Catalano in the closing laps to win Friday night’s Ironton Global Allentown Indoor Auto Series TQ Midget race.

The victory was the 37-year-old Huntersville, NC native’s seventh with the Indoor Auto Racing Series at Allentown.

“It was a really challenging race; the track was tricky,” Flores told an Indoor Auto Racing Series crowd. “We just worked on this thing all day and it definitely paid off.”

Flores methodically moved his way up the running order from a 12th-place starting spot by utilizing the high side of the speedway. He continued to stick with what worked best as he eventually found himself in the runner-up spot shortly after the halfway point.

Over the final ten laps, Flores began to breathe down race long leader Tommy Catalano’s neck and was just waiting for his opportunity to pounce. The chance came with five laps to go when Flores gave Catalano a shot in the rear in turn three and forced his No. 15 inside to the lead.

Catalano tried to muster one last run at the lead but Flores pulled away into the PA night for the score. Briggs Danner, who elected to start tenth in an attempt to cash in on a $4,500 bonus from Ironton Global finished third while Anthony Sesely and Shawn Nye completed the top five.

Flores said in victory lane that he will accept the Ironton Auto Body Perfect Weekend Challenge. He can earn a $10,000 total pot if he wins the feature from tenth, earning $1,000 on the spot.

The E. Schneider & Sons sponsored TQ Fast Time Award Friday was earned by Briggs Danner following a blistering session in which drivers had drivers had multiple opportunities to improve their times. Danner’s 7.795 narrowly beat Tanner VanDoren’s 7.820. Anthony Sesely (7.883), Matt Swanson (7.995) and Tommy Catalano (8.004) completed the top five.

West End Equipment sponsored the four TQ Midget heats. Kyle Lick, Billy Pauch Jr., Tommy Catalano and Shawn Nye took home the action-packed races by only a handful of car lengths each.

Aqua Duck Water Transport sponsored the TQ Friday night B Mains with Kyle Herve and Andrew Nye.

Missy Bootes of Carlisle, PA got the crowd on their feet as she passed Alex Smolders in turn one on the last lap to win the 20-lap Champ Kart feature from the fifth starting spot.'

13-year-old Paulie Hartwig of Galloway Township, NJ traded the lead multiple times with Dylan Hoch through heavy lapped traffic before rocketing away on a late race restart to take the checkers in the 20-lap Slingshot main event.

Pocono Raceway sponsored the Champ Kart Friday night heat races. Those races were claimed by TJ Reed, Todd Crenshaw and Brandon Tiezzi. The B-Main was won by Spencer Smolders.

S&S Speedways sponsored the Friday night Slingshot heat races which were won by Paulie Hartwig, Louden Reimert and Dylan Hoch. Justin House captured the night’s final preliminary, the Slingshot B-Main.

TQ Midgets, Champ Karts, and Slingshots return to the PPL Center in Allentown, PA tomorrow, Saturday night, January 4th. The Saturday night TQ Midget Allentown finale will be run over a 40-lap distance.

Great seats are available for Saturday’s event through Ticketmaster or they can be purchased at the PPL Center box office on Saturday.

For those who cannot attend, the event will be available on DirtTrackDigest.TV Pay-Per-View for $64.99 for the weekend or $39.99 for Friday and $39.99 for Saturday.

For more information about the Ironton Global Allentown Indoor Race and the Indoor Auto Racing Championship visit www.indoorautoracing.com

TQ Midgets (30 Laps): 1. Ryan Flores 2. Tommy Catalano 3. Briggs Danner 4. Anthony Sesely 5. Andy Jankowiak 6. Kyle Lick 7. Trevor Catalano 8. Jeremy Haudricourt 9. Kyle Herve 10. Tyler Catalano 11. Anthony Payne 12. Tyler Wagner 13. Billy Pauch Jr. 14. Andrew Nye 15. Tanner VanDoren 16. Matt Janisch 17. Shawn Nye 18. Timmy Catalano 19. Jonathan Reid 20. Scott Kreutter 21. Tim Buckwalter 22. Joey Bailey 23. Matt Swanson


Action Track USA Slingshots (20 Laps): 1. Paulie Hartwig 2. Dylan Hoch 3. Brett Bieber 4. Cody Kline 5. Scott Neary 6. Lounden Reimert 7. Tyler Ulsh 8. Lucas Pittenger 9. Justin House 10. Mark Mohr 11. Dennis Garl Jr. 12. Isaac Graby 13. Matthew Mertz 14. Alex Reinsmith 15. Chris Laureigh 16. Cody Kohler 17. Charlene Benz 18. John Redner 19. Brett Putnam 20. Cody Bleau


Hoosier Tire Champ Karts (20 Laps): 1. Missy Bootes, 2. Todd Crenshaw 3. Alex Smolders 4. Max Pfeifer 5. Brandon Tezzi 6. Ryan Borges 7. Dylan Dinsmoor 8. Joe Mingoia 9. Tanner Emmons 10. Spencer Smolders 11. Cale Ross 12. Oliver Quinney 13. Preston DeMello 14. Hailey Eroh 15. John Berger 16. TJ Reed 17. Quentin Graham Jr. 18. Chase Keister 19. JJ Pacovich 20. Shawn Conklin

Matt Roselli debuted a new ride on Friday. Does anyone know how it handled? It reminds me of a Super Modified. The picture is from Indoor Racing Champions.

Not too good.  Stuffed it in the wall. 

I have to give Matt credit for thinking out of the box. 

I know absolutely zero when it comes to setting up a racecar, but I do remember back in 90's that there was always talk about keeping the weight on the left rear for good drive coming out of the corner...  The Green Machine below of Jim Shampine from the 1970s's at Oswego (Rich Young Photo) looks like it has a lot of inside (left) weight:

40 years later, outside weight?

Any thoughts on what works, and what doesn't (dirt/asphalt... open wheel/modified?)

Some of the theory here is in this case the driver weighs more than the engine, so they put the heavier to the left instead of the engine. Not sure of the maximum width rule but I’m sure their at it. 

The width maybe an illusion. They’ll get it figured out as long as it doesn’t get outlawed. 

On Shampine's #6, the engine and the driver are both on left (inside).  Wonder how that thing looked on a 4 point scale?

Proving that everything old is new again, I see shades of Smokey Yunick! Back in 1964, Smokey brought the weirdest car to Indy. Looked like a typical rear engine Lotus, but with a “pod”, very similar in appearance to a motorcycle sidecar, hanging off the left side between the front and rear tires. Here is where the driver sat, in this case, NASCAR veteran Bobby Johns. Painted in Smokey’s familiar gold and black, it was sponsored as the “Hurst Floor Shift Special”. How did it do? Don’t ask. It bounced off the outside turn 1 wall during qualifying, never to be seen again.

This website (Link Below) posts some information and a picture of Smokey and the driver in the car. It claims the car ended upside down.  

Floor Hurst Special

Took some big stones to drive that thing at any track let alone Indy.  Has "Death Trap" written all over it.