TIDABACK, OTHERS STAR IN A.C. WEEKEND
Former Wall Township Speedway three-quarter midget champion Mike
Tidaback, of Little Falls, N.J., were among those Jersey Shore speedway
drivers who starred here in Boardwalk Hall Friday and Saturday.
Tidaback came from fifth starting spot to narrowly win the
Fourth Annual Atlantic City Indoor Racing Gamblers Classic headliner
Saturday night. The FedEx No. 43 Lindblad Badger-Suzuki GSXR driver
grabbed second from Can-Am Midget Racing Club star and poleman James
Friesen by lap five. Tidaback used lapped traffic in turn three on the
one-10th-mile indoor concrete oval to oust Adams by lap 20.
Tidaback endured five cautions the remaining 20 laps to win
his first ACIR M&R Midget main. Adams, of Hamilton, in a last-lap lead
pass bid, spun to third. International Super Modified Association racer
Joey Payne, Sr., of Fair Lawn, snared second from Adams. Tidaback, who
started his racing career in micro stocks in the
mid 1980s, also captured $5,000 winners and Gamblers Classic bonus.
The 2006 American Micro Stock Racing Association Co-Champion with Tim
Adams of Hamilton, and Wall TQ
track titlist has won at least one feature in the last 16 years,
including indoor victories in the Niagara Falls (N.Y.) Convention Center
and New Haven, Conn.'s Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Tidaback, who has
also raced INEX Legends Cars at Wall last year and previously 270cc
micro sprints at Delaware's Airport Speedway, thanked his crew -
including engine builder/competitor Rudy Boetticher, of Totowa - for his
triumph. He also called father Bob Tidaback, Sr., while in victory lane.
"We're a small team with me, Dad, and a couple of guys," said
Tidaback, who is a local Fed Ex delivery driver between races. "Dad's
recovering from gall bladder surgery since September. This is like our
Super Bowl but with 100 of the bust guys from the Northeast going for 26
feature spots."
Tidaback's emotional victory and record-setting, however,
almost did not happen. He was running fifth to Adams in the first of the
Roaring 20s qualifiers Friday night when another driver dropped out in
the late laps. Tidaback finished fourth, making the ACIR feature for the
first time in his four years of entering.
Although the M&R division were open to TQ midgets and 600cc
micro sprints from the Northeast and Canada, six of the top 10 feature
finishers are American Three Quarter Midget Racing Association Wall
Township Speedway runners. Indeed, drivers with Wall ties were entered
among some 200 TQ/600cc micro, champ kart and Slingshot drivers.
Reigning World Karting Association class champ Chris Daley,
of Pleasant Valley, N.Y., won the the 25-lap champ kart feature
Saturday. Wall Sunday Series racers George Bark, Jr., of W. Milford, and
Mark Lawshe, Jr., of Westampton, finished 10th and 11th. Modified micro
stock king Tom Ervin, of Ewing, finished 14th in his champ kart debut.
WSS Senior Champ Kart titlist Jon Stewart, of Ringoes, was placed 16th
after crashing out while bidding for the lead. Wall Sportsman Champion
Kevin Eyres, of Colts Neck, was entered.
The Wall Sunday Series features Legends, Bandolero, kart and
kart-based racing on the inner fifth-mile oval on selected Sunday
afternoons. "Big Wall," the historic banked paved one-third-mile oval,
is for Wall's NASCAR Whelen All-American Series modifieds, RMP Modified
Affordable Division, sportsmen, street stock, factory stock, Legends and
the ATQMRA on most April through October Saturday nights.
Wall factory stock champion Vernon McLaughlin, Jr., of White
House Station, and car owner Tom Cannola, of Pt. Monmouth, tried to be a
Slingshot feature factor. McLaughlin, in his first run aboard the
Tobias-Briggs and Startton Vanguard No. 21, started 16th but was placed
19th after a collision early in the 20-lap race. Cannola usually fields
cars at Cuddybackvile, N.Y.'s Oakland Valley speedway, one of several
area dirt tracks that the half-sized modified stock cars compete on.
Second-generation driver and Slingshot maven Rich Tobias,
Jr., of Annville, Pa., won the division's feature.
A Wall Township Speedway display was found in the nearby VP
Racing Fuels Motorsports 2008 public and racing trade show in the nearby
new Atlantic City Convention Center. Five ofWall's regular division cars
were on display plus a tentative 2008 schedule was distributed between
noon Friday and 5 p.m. Sunday. WTS won the show's "Best Appearing
Speedway Display" last year.
Len Sammons Productions have moved their annual Motorsports
show to the new ACCC last year. The Trenton-based promoter and "Area
Auto Racing News" publisher also revived racing at Boardwalk Hall - the
original ACCC - in 2005 after a 24-year absence.
