Tidaback, Others Star in A.C. Weekend
Atlantic City, NJ — 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 Boardwak 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 at Pine Brook Speedway 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 best 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 of Wall’s regular divison 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.
Sources: Walter Elliott/Elliott Enterprises PR