NEMA Well Represented at Atlantic City TQ Indoor Event
Atlantic City, N.J. -Several Drivers and crew from The Northeastern Midget Association headed south for a weekend of close, fast, wheel banging indoor racing action at the beach city’s Boardwalk Hall. Even though the weather on the boardwalk resembled a freezer, the weather inside was like a pressure cooker. An astounding 99 TQ racers were on hand to fill 26 slots for the A-main feature Saturday night.
Five of NEMA’s best, both past and present, took part in the action with three racing in the TQ division; Carl Medeiros Jr, Joey Payne and Randy Cabral. In the Champ Kart’s: cousins Bethany and Avery Stoehr dusted off their machines and took to the track.
An intense qualifying procedure dictated the racers go through a series of time trails, heats, and B-mains to advance to the A-mains.
Former NEMA Lites competitor and reigning champ, Carl Medeiros Jr., had a rough time of it from the beginning as he drew a early qualifying spot and turned in a time not of his liking. Plagued by handling problems in the consi, Carl’s machine spun a numbers of times in the ultra tight race and did not qualify. “I feel the weekend could have been a lot worse as this was the first time indoors with this car”, Carl explained. “Outside, the car is a rocket”.
“Thanks to my family and friends for a great effort, and we’re working on getting the car better for next time,” Carl said with confidence.
Racing in his home “Garden” state, “The Jersey Jet” Joey Payne had a weekend he would like to forget. His TQ ride, the Mike Pjatikin owned Laffler chassis was a new piece for the weekend. For the Friday race, Payne had a good second lap time trial going but spun coming down to the checkers. Riding in a qualified spot in his heat race, “I got run over and knocked the injectors off the motor”, he said. Joey was running 4th in the B-main and had the right front torn off by a spinning car and didn’t make the Friday A-main. Saturday, Joey was able to make the feature by “driving the hell out of the car”. He started 14th and advanced right away but got pushed into a wreck ending his night and weekend. Joey gives thanks to his crew for thrashed on the car and actually had it fixed, but was not allowed to re-enter the race due to being down too many laps.
Of all the NEMA drivers, multi feature winner Randy Cabral, turned in the best performance of the weekend. Wheeling the Dave Clarke owned TQ, Randy qualified for the Friday night A-main by finishing 6th in his heat race, and then won the B-main from his 5th place starting spot. Starting in the 21st spot in the A-main he advanced to a respectable 12th place finish.
Saturday, the former NEMA champ started on the front row in his heat race, finishing 2nd which placed him in the 16th slot to start the A-main. Randy survived a number of cautions in the main and got up to 10th by a lap 5. After a quick caution, he was forced to the outside and dropped back to 17th but raced hard to keep moving up. Unfortunately, he hit an inside tire barrier, spun and finished 14th.
On Champ Kart’s side of the program, the cousins Stoehr had a weekend with mixed results. Bethany, one time NEMA feature winner, was running well in her heat race but got caught up in a mishap damaging the front end and losing her brakes, failing to qualify.
Avery, a NEMA Lites stand out, drove a good B-main race, winning it going away. The young Stoehr would start his A-main in 22nd and moved up to 18th on lap 5. After a lap 7 caution Avery got up to 13th, but dropped to 15th on lap 10. After dropping off to the 17th spot, he survived a few more cautions and was able to bring the kart home 15th.
A number of other NEMA drivers, crew members, officials and family members also made the trek to Atlantic City to enjoy not only the acing but also the gaming tables and atmosphere that only the New Jersey beach city can provide.
Sources: William Vanslyke/NEMARacing.com