ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Versatile may be an understatement when describing Tim Buckwalter.
The Douglassville, Pa., driver has won races in dirt modifieds, sprint cars, midgets, SpeedSTRs, micro sprints and has been a winner on the Indoor Auto Racing TQ Midget Series. His sole victory on the Indoor circuit came in a Friday night event in Atlantic City in 2011, a main event victory has thus far eluded him.
Buckwalter heads to the Ironton Global Allentown Indoor Race on Jan. 7-8 inside the PPL Center in downtown Allentown, Pa., in a prime position to score that main event victory and become the series champion. Buckwalter will drive the same No. 74 Mark Lafler built, Dave Pippard-powered TQ Midget he has driven in the last two seasons.
Buckwalter said the No. 74 Lafler-Pippard TQ Indoor entry has been unraced since its last Indoor race in 2020.
“I don’t think anything has changed with the car, but with Mark you never know what he may have up his sleeve,” Buckwalter noted.
Buckwalter and Lafler got together with Indoor racing through Paul Lotier Jr., for whom Buckwalter had been driving indoors.
“We had some good runs with Paul’s car, and when Paul decided he was getting out, he talked to Mark about me and it just kind of came about,” Buckwalter explained. “It’s been great, that’s the golden car for Indoor racing, Lafler and Pippard.”
Buckwalter, 33, has spent a lifetime in racing, first turning a wheel in competition at the age of seven in a quarter midget. He considers Indoor Auto Racing to be among the most strenuous of all the racing he does.
“It’s all work when you’re driving around the outside of a hockey rink in eight seconds. I never had driven anything in my whole career that had an independent suspension like this car has in the front. I was always used to a beam axle. Between the two suspensions, it takes a different driving style,” Buckwalter asserts.
Buckwalter’s recent confirmed entry was joined by those received from Kyle Hutchinson and Shawn Nye. More than 40 TQ Midget entries are expected by race time.
The Lafler-Pippard TQ was formerly driven indoors by Ryan Susice, Susice returns to the Indoor Auto Racng Series driving a car owned by Derrick Borkenhagen.
The biggest Indoor Auto Racing Series PPL Center TQ Midget race winner is Ryan Flores. Flores, who works for Roger Penske’s NASCAR Cup Series organization, and will be seeking his fifth victory in January, with his eyes set on becoming the winningest TQ driver in series history.
Team cars entered by Trey Hoddick will be driven by Mike Christopher Jr. and past Indoor feature winner Scott Kreutter.