After 20 Years, Indoor Racing Returns To Atlantic City: Three-Quarter Midget racing is returning to Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall on Sat., Jan. 18, 2003, event organizer Lenny Sammons announced. The Atlantic City Indoor Race will bring competition back to the famed seaside venue for the first time since January 1981. A 40-lap TQ Midget feature will headline the racing card, which will also include Legends Cars. Neptune Research and the Green Flag Driving Experience are presenting sponsors. TQ Midget action was once a wintertime tradition in Atlantic City. A series for the division was run at the Boardwalk Hall from 1965 to ’81 [Jayski used to go in the 1970’s]. A total of 53 racing programs were presented inside the building–then called Convention Hall–during that 17-year period. The current Boardwalk Hall isn’t quite the same place it was for the last TQ Midget event, however. A multi-million-dollar reconstruction of the Boardwalk Hall was recently completed. While maintaining the 73-year-old structure’s classic appeal, architects modernized the Hall to accomodate the Miss America pagaent held each September on its stage as well as a variety of major sporting, performance and special events. Some changes in the Hall’s seating configuration during the refurbishing will force race officials to make the track size smaller than it was in the past, but it will still be significantly larger than most indoor layouts. The track will run completely around the outside of the Hall’s hockey rink and extend an additional 20 feet at one end to lengthen the straightaways. The track’s concrete surface will be treated with brake fluid and rosin to create maximum traction for the cars. Tickets will be go on sale on Mon., Nov. 25, at all Ticketmaster outlets and the Boardwalk Hall box office from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.(Area Auto Racing News Site)(11-23-2002)
