Home Columns Rudolph Rebounds from Mishap to Finish on Podium; Notes from Allentown Indoor...
Rudolph Rebounds from Mishap to Finish on Podium; Notes from Allentown Indoor Race – DTD Exclusive
By MIKE MALLETT
Erick Rudolph's whole night could have easily gone down the tubes, but the Ransomville, N.Y., driver rallied after an early race crash to complete the podium in Friday night's opening round of the Indoor Racing Series in the PPL Center in Allentown, Pa.
Rudolph was racing for the runner-up position when the leader broke coming off of turn two causing a chain reaction. Rudolph got into the back of Ryan Flores, hoping his right rear, which sent his car high into the air. He came down on all fours, fired the car up and rejoined the field.
Rudolph wasn't sure what happened in front of him that sent him into the air. One second he was on the throttle, the next he was flying through the air.
"We are all running hard coming out of the corner," mentioned Rudolph. "I was full on the gas figuring we were coming out of the corner. I don't know, someone got crossed up or they broke all of a sudden. I got the worst of it. I hopped a tire and looped it."
From there, Rudolph battled his way back to the front to finish right where he started in third.
"We had a few spots given to us by cars wrecking out, but a lot of them we had to pass on the way through whether it be in traffic, one-on-one or on the restarts," stated Rudolph. "We battled back."
He indicated there might be some damage to the front-end as a result of the contact. The team was going to look over the car to get it ready for Saturday night's action.
Allentown Artifacts
It was not a good night to be the leader of the feature event as numerous drivers experienced issues at the front of the field. Tommy Catalano started on the pole but dropped out before lap two. Holmes inherited the lead only to have mechanical issues sideline him on lap 10. Flores led some laps before a flat tire caused his car to push up the speedway. He watched Justin Bonsignore drive by for the lead…
Danny Bouc made his debut in the TQ Midget class on Friday night. Bouc, a Modified regular at New Egypt Speedway, had his fair share of experiences. Bouc was involved in numerous crashes during the night. Nearly all of them were not of his doing. He ended the night with a non-qualifying position finish in his B-Main…
North Country Modified driver Ryan Bartlett debuted a new homebuilt car on Friday night. Bartlett made the A-Main but experienced over heating issues which ended his night on lap 18…
New York drivers Mike Maresca, Tyler Thompson and Dane Lorenc all made their indoor series debut. Unfortunately none of them was able to qualify for Friday night's feature. Maresca was the closest coming up a couple spots short in his B-Main…
Andy Jankowiak was driving his home built creation and running strong during the early stages of the race. Eventually he brought out the caution late when it appeared something broke in the steering…
Scott Kreutter watched a top five go by the wayside on lap 33. Kreutter was racing with Jonathan Reid when the pair got hooked and spun in the second turn.
Racing resumes at the PPL Center in Allentown, Pa., on Saturday night at 7pm.
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