ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Ryan Flores sent an Allentown crowd into a frenzy Friday night when he carved his way to the front of the field and wrestled the lead from Tommy Catalano in the closing laps to win Friday night’s Ironton Global Allentown Indoor Auto Series TQ Midget race.
The victory was the 37-year-old Huntersville, N.C., native’s seventh with the Indoor Auto Racing Series at Allentown.
“It was a really challenging race; the track was tricky,” Flores said. “We just worked on this thing all day and it definitely paid off.”
Flores methodically moved his way up the running order from a 12th-place starting spot by utilizing the high side of the speedway. He continued to stick with what worked best as he eventually found himself in the runner-up spot shortly after the halfway point.
Over the final 10 laps, Flores began to breathe down race long leader Tommy Catalano’s neck and was just waiting for his opportunity to pounce. The chance came with five laps to go when Flores gave Catalano a shot in the rear in turn three and forced his No. 15 inside to the lead.
Catalano tried to muster one last run at the lead but Flores pulled away into the PA night for the score. Briggs Danner, who elected to start tenth in an attempt to cash in on a $4,500 bonus from Ironton Global finished third while Anthony Sesely and Shawn Nye completed the top five.
Flores said in victory lane that he will accept the Ironton Auto Body Perfect Weekend Challenge. He can earn a $10,000 total pot if he wins the feature from 10th, earning $1,000 on the spot.
The E. Schneider & Sons sponsored TQ Fast Time Award Friday was earned by Briggs Danner following a blistering session in which drivers had drivers had multiple opportunities to improve their times. Danner’s 7.795 narrowly beat Tanner VanDoren’s 7.820.
West End Equipment sponsored the four TQ Midget heats. Kyle Lick, Billy Pauch Jr., Tommy Catalano and Shawn Nye took home the action-packed races.
Aqua Duck Water Transport sponsored the TQ Friday night B Mains with Kyle Herve and Andrew Nye.
Missy Bootes got the crowd on its feet as she passed Alex Smolders in turn one on the last lap to win the 20-lap Champ Kart feature from the fifth starting spot.
13-year-old Paulie Hartwig traded the lead multiple times with Dylan Hoch through heavy lapped traffic before rocketing away on a late race restart to take the checkers in the 20-lap Slingshot main event.
Watch a replay of Friday’s race or Saturday’s action live on SPEED SPORT affiliate DirtTrackDigest.tv.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. Ryan Flores 2. Tommy Catalano 3. Briggs Danner 4. Anthony Sesely 5. Andy Jankowiak 6. Kyle Lick 7. Trevor Catalano 8. Jeremy Haudricourt 9. Kyle Herve 10. Tyler Catalano 11. Anthony Payne 12. Tyler Wagner 13. Billy Pauch Jr. 14. Andrew Nye 15. Tanner VanDoren 16. Matt Janisch 17. Shawn Nye 18. Timmy Catalano 19. Jonathan Reid 20. Scott Kreutter 21. Tim Buckwalter 22. Joey Bailey 23. Matt Swanson
