Saxton: Interest igniting for indoor season
A pair of dirt track-racing brothers from Pipersville, Pa., Michael and Brian Carber have each filed entries for the inaugural East Coast Indoor Dirt Nationals Fueled By VP Racing Fuels which will be held at CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton, N.J., on Friday and Saturday, December 1st and 2nd.
The event, the only indoor dirt oval track race in the northeast, has drawn tremendous competitor and race fan interest.
Rich black clay has been ordered and the track crew is preparing to make it banked, smooth, tacky and fast. Race teams have responded by entering their 600cc Micro Sprints for top drivers in big numbers making this a must see event.
The Carber brothers, Michael, 30 and Brian, 23, come into the event with considerable Dirt Track Micro Sprint racing on their side, an advantage that could be huge.
Michael Carber will be driving a car owned by Jason Higdalski.
“This actually started out as kind of a gag between me and Ryan Flores,” Carber said. “He said he was trying to hook up a Micro ride so I decided to find one too. I got mine, he had to back out on his, but I’m going ahead with it.”
Flores has entered the three TQ Midget Indoor Auto Racing Series events held on the concrete floors at Allentown (Pa.), Atlantic City (N.J.) and Albany (N.Y.). Flores is the defending Series champion in those events.
Both Carber and Flores are involved as crewmen on NASCAR’s top tier series teams owned by Roger Penske and live near one another in Mooresville, N.C.
Carber has won races in every type of racing he has competed in, including Quarter Midgets, Micro Sprints, and 305, 360 and 410 Sprint Cars.
When Brian Carber learned of his older brother’s intentions, the Micro Sprint and URC Sprint ace decided to put together a deal for himself too. The younger Carber will strap into a Hyper Chassis owned by Eric Gable. The younger Carber has been racing Micros and Sprint Cars.
Ability and experience aside, the Carber brothers will be facing some formidable competition at the inaugural East Coast Indoor Dirt Nationals Weekend.
Four ARDC Midget car driving champions, Alex Bright, Trevor Kobylarz, and the Buckwalter cousins, Steve and Tim, all have eyes on contending for the $5,000 first place prize. Each could be expected to have an edge over the competitors who do not have their background.
Entries have already been received from competitors in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, Colorado, Connecticut, North Carolina, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
The field includes the best of Micro Sprint racing, plus top drivers from many other forms or racing that have landed rides for the event. The list includes three top Sprint Car drivers.
Ryan Smith of Kunkletown, Pa., who finished second in Tony Stewart’s All Star 410 Sprint Car series this year, has announced his attentions to compete. So has New York state 360 Sprint car drivers Scott Kreutter and Joe Trenca.
In response to the allnew nature of the event and the wide array of drivers who have entered, Sammons has added a Thursday night practice session to the schedule. The session will take place on Thursday, November 30.
Though the East Coast Indoor Nationals is a brand new event, the CURE Insurance Arena (formerly Sun National Bank Center), has hosted TQ Midget racing for the past four years on the arena’s concrete floor.
The racing schedule will tentatively call for heat races with passing points and four A-qualifier feature races on Friday night. On Saturday it will be “alphabet mains,” with racers having the opportunity to advance from F, E, D, C and B-mains to the 40 lap “A” feature.
The agenda calls for racing to start at 7 p.m. on Friday and 5 p.m. on Saturday.
Oliver Communication Group (OCG) of Bordentown, N.J. has signed on as an associate sponsor of the event. Other sponsorship packages remain.
Tickets for both days of the event are available at the CURE Insurance Arena Box Office or by phone at 800-298-4200. Further information is available at indoorautoracing.com, email to motorsports@aarn.com or by calling 609-888-3618.
For more information visit indoorautoracing. com, e-mail motorsports@ aarn.com or call 609-8883618 during normal business hours. *** Considered by many in the industry as one of the very best crew chiefs in the long history of NASCAR racing, Larry McReynolds will be appearing on Saturday, January 20th at the Pioneer Pole Buildings Motorsports 2018 Racecar and Trade Show Presented by Sunoco and Fueled by Insinger Performance. McReynolds will be appearing at the Jeff Hammond Store display located at the front entrance to the show.
Now a popular FOX Sports personality, McReynolds guided the late Dale Earnhardt Sr. to his only Daytona 500 victory back in 1998. His teams also finished in the Top 10 close to 50% of the races in which they competed. Included were 23 Cup victories with two Daytona 500 wins along with 21 poles.
Over the years Larry has worked with such standout Cup talents as Earnhardt, Sr., Davey Allison, and Ernie Irvan.
McReynolds will be able to share stories of his career accomplishments, answer questions from the audience and sign autographs.
With the 33rd edition of the popular race car and trade show set to take place January 19-21, 2018, less than two months away, there will be much happening in regards to show activities and the new website (www.motorsportstradeshow.com), designed for easy use will be jam packed with the latest information as the show dates come closer.
The show again takes place at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, PA and all 250,000 square feet show display space will be filled with just about everything imaginable in motorsports including over 200 race cars of all kinds.
“Exhibitors are encouraged to share their show plans, specials, and announcements with us beforehand so we can build some buzz leading into the event,” said show promoter Len Sammons.
With the Tony Stewart announcement that the thre- time NASCAR Cup Series champion will be meeting with fans and signing autographs on January 20th (12 noon to 2 p.m.), and now McReynolds, interest is running high and will continue to grow during the weeks leading up to the show.
Many area speedways and sanctioning organizations will be exhibiting and will feature top drivers along with announcements regarding their 2018 season.