Anthony Sesely, Timmy Catalano & Andy Jankowiak Win Indoor Auto Racing Series TQ Midget Triple 20 Qualifiers At AC Friday Night; 19th Annual NAPA KNOW HOW Gambler’s Classic Goes Saturday On Schedule
Atlantic City, NJ (Fri.) – Anthony Sesely, of Matawan, NJ, Timmy Catalano of Ontario, NY, and Andy Jankowiak of Tonawanda, NY were the winners of the Triple 20 TQ Midget Qualifiers that helped set the field for Saturday night’s NAPA KNOW Gambler’s Classic inside Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ. The three winners drove three completely different race cars, Sesely a car built by Ricky Kluth that had never raced before, Catalano in a Mark Lafler chassis that has been the standard of Indoor racing, and Jankowiak in the same homebuilt car that has won the two previous Gambler’s Classics.
Three TQ Midget 10-lap heat races that led off the Friday night racing program. Matt Janisch, who had a subpar time trial Friday afternoon owing to a one-lap penalty for having been identified as having a technical violation in pre-qualifying inspection, won the first heat over Justin Bonsignore, Andrew Nye outran Tim Iulg in heat two and Briggs Danner outran Tyler Lindsay to win heat three.
The top 12 from Friday afternoon time trials re-qualified to determine the seeding order for the Triple 20 Qualifiers. Tim Buckwalter, Ryan Flores, Andy Jankowiak, Anthony Sesely and Erick Rudolph were the top five.
Brett Bieber, Jared Silfee, and Scott Neary won the three Slingshot heats, while Dan Marsden, Missy Bootes, and Eric Zeh won the three Champ Kart prelims.
All systems are go for tomorrow as racing continues Saturday, January 29. On Saturday afternoon, a B-Main for Slingshots will qualify the final five into their 20-lap feature. A pair of B-Mains for Champ Karts will qualify the top two finishers from each into the Saturday night 20-lap A Main.
Saturday night events begin at 5:00 when arena gates swing open. Fans with grandstand tickets in the lower level seating areas are invited to attend FAN FEST, a gathering on the speedway surface of all of the TQ Midget, Champ Kart and Slingshot drivers with their cars. Drivers will pose for pictures, sign autographs, answer fan questions.
At 7:00 PM sharp, racing begins with four 10-lap TQ heat races, the 20-lap Champ Kart feature, a TQ Midget 5-lap Dash, two TQ B Mains which will send the event winners to the final row of the TQ feature, and the 20-lap Slingshot main.
The busy night of racing is culminated by the 19th running of the NAPA KNOW HOW Gambler’s Classic for TQ Midgets, which will compete over a 40-lap distance with 26 starters.
Plenty of choice race day tickets are available from the Boardwalk Hall box office on Saturday, race day. First TQ Qualifier (20 Laps): 1. Anthony Sesely, 2. Joey Bailey, 3. Scott Kreutter, 4. Justin Bonsignore, 5. Andrew Molleur, 6. Kyle Hutchinson, 7. Tyler Thompson, 8. Ryan Tidman, 9. Grant Valker, 10. Trevor Catalano, 11. Derek Robbie, 12, Jonathan Reid, 13. Matt Janisch, 14. Doug Stearly, 15. Matt Galko, 16. Tim Buckwalter.
S econd TQ Qualifier (20 Laps): 1. Timmy Catalano, 2. Erick Rudolph, 3. Kyle Lick, 4. Ryan Bartlett, 5. Andrew Nye, 6. Matt Roselli, 7. Ryan Flores, 8. Cory DiMatteo, 9. Tyler Wagner, 10. Tim Iulg, 11. Pat Bealer, 12. Bruce Leote, 13. Ron Mullen, 14. Kyle Inman, 15. Tyler Ferris, 16. Max McLaughlin.
Third TQ Qualifier (20 Laps): 1. Andy Jankowiak, 2. Briggs Danner, 3. Mike Christopher Jr., 4. Tommy Catalano, 5. Shawn Nye, 6. Ryan Susice, 7. Shea Wills, 8. Cory Grenzy, 9. Dylan Woodling, 10. Christopher Hirt, 11. Earl Paules, 12. Stephen Kemery, 13. Tyler Lindsay, 14. Rob Schultz, 15. Mike Bednar.