ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Ryan Flores emerged as the winner of a thrilling TQ Midget feature Saturday night in the Indoor Auto Racing Series Fueled By VP Racing Fuels second and final night of Ironton Global Allentown Indoor Races.
This marked Flores’ seventh career Indoor Auto Racing win and his sixth inside the PPL Center.
Flores trailed Tommy Catalano and Andy Jankowiak for most of the race with the top three putting on some spectacular racing, often running three-wide and without running into one another. Flores set up his win with a decisive pass when it was all on the line.
“I knew I had to punch in there on the last restart, and that’s what I did,” Flores said. “The car stuck and I was able to hold on.”
Flores led only four laps, but they were the all-important last four.
Runner-up Catalano reflected in his best result yet, second in this series race. He led 20 laps of the main event.
“I’ve run in a lot of these races and finishing second tonight is nice but would really have liked to have been able to pull this off tonight,” Catalano said. “This was a good race, very competitive.”
“I ran out of brakes,” Jankowiak said of his third-place finish that came after leading 15 of the 40 laps. Jankowiak had engineered a new brake system for this weekend which yielded mixed results.
Friday night TQ feature winner Tanner VanDoren was eligible to win the $10,000 Ironton Auto Body Challenge Saturday after having won the TQ Midget feature the night before. He ended up fourth in the feature, missing the bonus by three spots. Trevor Catalano, the younger brother of the race runner-up, completed the top five.
Todd Crenshaw ompleted a weekend Indoor Auto Racing Series sweep Saturday by backing up his win the night before in the 20-lap Champ Kart feature. Preston DeMello, Doug Stearly, Dylan Dismoor and Brandon Tiezzi trailed Crenshaw across the line.
Paul Hartwig III and Matthew Mertz battled for supremacy in the 20-lap slingshot main event but off the final turn, their race took an ugly turn. Leader Hartwig was spun from behind by Mertz who crossed the finish line first. Hartwig crossed the line backward with Scott Neary and Alex Reinsmith both passing Hartwig in the frantic race to the checkered.
Mertz was disqualified by track officials, making Neary the race winner over Reinsmith and a disappointed Hartwig. Mason Pittenger and Lucas Pittenger completed the shuffled top-five finish.
Feature Finish (40 Laps)
1. Ryan Flores, 2. Tommy Catalano, 3. Andy Jankowiak, 4. Tanner VanDoren, 5. Trevor Catalano, 6. Matt Janisch, 7. Briggs Danner, 8. Kyle Lick, 9. Anthony Sesely, 10. Anthony Payne, 11. Billy Pauch Jr., 12. Tim Buckwalter, 13. Ryan Bartlett, 14. Ryan Smith, 15. Joey Bailey, 16.Ryan Tidman, 17. Tyler Thompson, 18. Derek Robbie, 19. Tyler Catalano, 20. Tyler Lindsay, 21. Bobby Holmes, 22. Shawn Nye, 23. Nick Ladyga, 24. Scott Kreutter, 25. Matt Caprara. Non-Qualifiers: John Barnett, Greg Martin, Chris Hirt, Jimmy Zacharias, Joe Toth, Chase Cabre, Andrew Nye, Kyle Herve, Matt Roselli, Matt Swanson, Chad Jones, Tyler Ferris, Jake Trainor, Stephen Kemery.