ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The most prolific championship winning driver in the history of the Indoor Auto Racing Series Fueled By VP Race Fuels, Erick Rudolph, will begin his quest for a fifth TQ Midget Series title on Jan. 3-4 inside the PPL Center.
Rudolph, also one of the winningest dirt modified drivers during the 2019 outdoor season, is the defending Indoor Series champion. Rudolph clinched the title by winning the 2019 series finale in Syracuse, N.Y.
Rudolph, who will turn 28 during the month of January, also won the series title in 2016, 2015 and 2012 and is the only driver to win more than two titles.
“I’ll be driving the same car as last year,” Rudolph said. “Mark Lafler will be with me.”
Rudolph will be using the two race Allentown Indoor race meet as a springboard toward his quest for a second straight title. Rudolph won each of his four titles driving Lafler-built cars. Lafler has built nearly two dozen of the rugged, fast, remarkably simple cars but he has chosen not to build any more for new customers.
“His cars haven’t changed very much at all over the years,” Rudolph said. “Subtle differences, but very little. Same with the Dave Pippard’s engines we run.”
Rudolph is coming off a very successful 2019 season. In addition to winning the Indoor Auto Racing Series title in March, he was the 358 Modified season champion at his home track, Ransomville Speedway and at New York’s Utica-Rome Speedway. He also won the prestigious DIRTcar 358-Modified Series title, giving him four titles in one season.
Matt Janisch and Ryan Flores, who won the Friday and Saturday Allentown TQ Midget features in 2019 will both be in competition on Jan. 3-4 hoping to keep Rudolph out of victory lane.
After the two-race event opener in Allentown, the series moves to Atlantic City, New Jersey’s Boardwalk Hall on Jan. 31-Feb. 1 for the 18th annual NAPA Auto Parts Classic.
The season finale is on March 13-14 in a second year return to the brand new Exposition Center located on the grounds of the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse, N.Y.
Rudolph ended the 2018 season with an Indoor victory in December at a special non-point event held on a banked clay oval. The third annual East Coast Indoor Dirt Nationals will return to CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton, N.J., with a new date. This race meet, held the last two years in December, has been moved to Friday and Saturday, Feb. 21-22.
Rudolph will be back to defend the $5,000 to win race honors again driving a dirt wingless 600 Sprint owned by Pennsylvania car owner Tom Fraschetta.
“I kind of like Atlantic City more than the other tracks but only because of where it is and what there is to do there after the races,” said Rudolph.
“Syracuse was nice because there were a lot more people I know personally who were there watching me race, the dirt race was really cool too.”
Though Rudolph missed out on also winning the Super DIRTcar Series big-block modified title – he was a contender until late in the season – he was pleased with his overall results from 2019 which included 24 wins, third among northeast drivers.
Rudolph admits that he will campaign vigorously, as he has in the past three years, for the Super DIRT Series Big Block title, which is a 30-race grind that stretches into November.
Short term, he’s fully focused on the four Indoor Auto Racing Series events.