By Lou Modestino
Three Quarter (TQ) Midget driver Anthony Sesely has had the last weekend in January circled on his racing calendar – in red – ever since January 25 of 2014.
That’s the night Sesely, of Matawan. N.J., shocked the racing world by winning his third straight Indoor TQ race in Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall, and sweeping last year’s NAPA Know How weekend. “It’s hard enough to win one of these things,” an exhausted Sesely said in the winner’s circle. “Three is amazing.”
Four will be improbable even for Sesely, as 84 determined TQ teams have already entered the 13th annual NAPA Know How Atlantic City Indoor Race Weekend on January 30th – 31st.
Erick Rudolph of Ransomville, N.Y., Ted Christopher of Plainville, Ct., and Andy Jankowiak of Buffalo N.Y., winners in December inside Trenton’s Sun National Bank Center, are likely contenders to derail Sesely’s quest. Christopher is a four time Atlantic City Indoor feature race winner and Rudolph has won twice in Boardwalk Hall.
The Indoor events are produced and promoted by Len Sammons Motorsports Productions, whose success in promoting indoor races in Atlantic City, N.J. annually, has created intense interest in this phase of the sport.
Other top TQ Midget entrants include Jimmy Blewett of Howell, N.J., NEMA Champion Randy Cabral of Kingston, Ma., Can-Am TQ Midget champion Mack DeMan of Mississauga, Ont., and Ryan Flores of Davidson, N.C., who was a competitive runner-up in Trenton in December. The Joey Logano NASCAR Sprint Cup Series crew member, formerly a New Jersey resident, was making his debut in TQ racing in a brand new Lafler built car.
The climactic race is the NAPA Know How Atlantic City TQ Midget feature on Saturday night which is run, over a 40-lap distance and known as the Gambler’s Classic.
On Friday, TQs will race in a complete program while two support classes, the Lentini Auto Salvage Slingshots and Champ Karts, will complete their qualifying events in preparation for Saturday’s features.
Slingshot favorites include Matt Carman of Three Bridges, N.J., John Gilroy of Stroudsburg, Pa., Trenton Slingshot feature winner Gary Hieber of Langhorne, Pa. Joe Cata of Goshen, N.Y., brothers Jimmy and Dan Spellmon of Butler, N.J., and Ricky Yetter of Easton, Pa. A total of 48 entries are ready to hit the concrete.
Champ Karts, fifty-one in number and counting will be headed by recent Indoor Race winners Anthony Colandro and Trenton winners Chris Daley of Pleasant Valley, N.Y., and Justin Gumley of Howell, N.J..
The roar of racing engines was first heard inside cavernous Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J., in 1938 when an enterprising promoter thought bringing race cars, and fans, in from the cold in the dead of winter seemed like a good idea.
Sixty-five years later, in 2003, Len Sammons Motorsports Productions (LSMP) resurrected the concept and it has become the Mid-Winter Motorsports Happening in the racing world.