ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Usually racers take the offseason to rebuild and regroup, getting ready for the long season ahead.
But not Tim Buckwalter.
When he arrives at Allentown’s PPL Center for the Ironton Global Cloud Phone on Jan. 5-6, he’ll have already started a busy off-season of racing. The Douglassville, Pa., native was back in the seat of a race car just days after Christmas at the Tulsa Shootout for dirt micro sprints, racing in three different classes.
After returning home after a long week of racing, he’ll be at the PPL Center on Friday night to drive the Bill Pippard owned No. 74 TQ Midget in hopes of winning features scheduled on Friday and Saturday. Thanks to a special Ironton Auto Body Challenge, should Buckwalter pull off the sweep, he will leave with $10,000 in earnings.
In 10 starts in 11 races at the PPL Center, Buckwalter has a best finish of fourth which came in the 2022 event.
He also has three top-five finishes and five top 10’s in those 10 starts, yet he’s not pulled off a win — something he has accomplished twice on the Indoor Auto Racing Series fueled by VP inside Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall.
As soon as the final checkered flag falls at the PPL Center, both Buckwalter and fellow TQ Midget competitor Briggs Danner of Allentown will catch a flight back to Tulsa, Okla., where they will practice on Sunday for the Chili Bowl Nationals.
Buckwalter will get a few weeks off before heading to Atlantic City for the two more features during NAPA Auto Parts weekend on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 26-27. Buckwalter’s attention will then turn to the East Coast Indoor Dirt Nationals at the CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton, N.J., where he is the defending winner of the event.
The eighth running of the Allentown event will feature three divisions of racing: TQ Midgets, Slingshots and Champ Karts with qualifying races and main events both nights.
To watch the event, pay-per-view will be available for both nights on the web at DirtTrackDigest.tv.