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Leading the way into this
weekend’s famed Atlantic City Gambler’s Classic will be none
other than ISMA supermodified young lion Mike Lichty. Lichty,
after a win at Providence, RI in the Leonard J. Sammon’s Jr.
Indoor Winter Series, now leads the points coming into Atlantic
City’s TQ event. A point system was set up in honor of the late
founder and publisher of Area Auto Racing News who passed away
in 1991.
Lichty is about to embark on a new career challenge running in
the NASCAR Camping World Truck series.
“I tested
at Chicagoland two years ago and put in 350 laps at Motor Mile
with Dennis Setzer’s help,” said Lichty about his budding plans.
Loudon, Martinsville Iowa and O’Reilly Motorsports Park are
definitely on Lichty’s schedule at present with more events,
perhaps totaling as many as a dozen, hopefully to follow. The
Truck he will compete with is part of Setzer’s organization.
Short
term, Mike is ready for another run at the Gamblers Classic this
weekend. He was third in both races indoors here last year and
might have won the Classic were it not for a penalty during the
race. And he won one of the December Providence, RI indoor
races, his first in a TQ.
The
yellow number 1 Lichty will race again this weekend is a ten
year old car with races under its wheel dating back to the
Niagara Falls, NY Series. It’s owned by Larry Turnbull of
upstate New York and Larry’s brother Colin is a past winner in
the car at Niagara Falls.
As
for the TQ Midget experience, Mike likes running the cars. “This
will be my fifth race at Atlantic City and I have qualified for
all of the A-Mains,” he says.
Technique is everything with
indoor TQ racing, Mike says. “There is a certain amount of luck
in it of course, but getting to the inside is important. It’s
hard to get a run off the corner on the outside unless the
inside guy has made a mistake.”
Supermodified veterans Lou
Cicconi and Joey Payne, both from the area, are indeed no
strangers to the Atlantic City event with both being past
winners at the New Jersey indoor event. Cicconi is fourth in
the Winter Indoor Racing series points.
Cicconi has a couple big reasons
to be excited about the Alantic City Indoor Race coming up on
Jan. 21-22 at Boardwalk Hall. For starters, Cicconi will chase
the checkered flag in the 40-lap "Gambler's Classic" finale for
TQ Midgets/600cc Micro-Sprints on Sat., Jan. 22, behind the
wheel of a car that he knows like the back of his hand.
In addition, Cicconi also plans to
field a TQ Midget for Chris Perley, a resident of Rowley, Mass.,
who won the 2004 International Supermodified Association points
championship.
"I'm excited about the Atlantic
City show," said Cicconi, who races against Perley on the ISMA
winged Supermodified circuit. "I think Chris and I should make a
pretty good team."
Cicconi, 40, of Aston, Pa., was
arguably the star of the last two installments of the A.C.
Indoor Race. In 2003 his thrilling charge from the rear of the
field in the feature was ended by an unfortunate tangle, and in
Œ04 he set a track record and won a preliminary feature before
engine problems sidelined him for Saturday's finale.
New Jersey’s Joey Payne won the
Boardwalk Hall TQ event in 2004 and 2007 with Cicconi sharing
the weekend in 2004, winning again in 2006 and 2008. Joining the
fray is also Indy 500 and supermodified great Davey Hamilton.
Hamilton is a late AC entrant as he thought previous commitments
would keep him away.
Hamilton, hailing from Idaho, has
run the gamut in racing but the nine-time Indy 50 starter was a
novice at his first indoor race. He was quoted as saying, “I
didn’t know what to expect when I first got in a TQ midget. I
couldn’t believe what it was like out there on the track.
Everything happens so fast.”
Log onto
www.aarn for information for the Jan. 29-30 Friday and
Saturday Indoor Racing events. A keepsake Atlantic City program
compiled by PDI and Flemington, NJ’s Steve Barrick, is on sale
at the venue with many stories, photos and statistics.
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