Patrick Sheltra Seeks Pocono Magic

Topics:  Patrick Sheltra, Pennsylvania 200

Chris Knight
BlackJack Racing
August 1, 2007

POCONO, Pennsylvania (Wednesday, August 1, 2007) - - Sitting comfortably in the top-10 in the ARCA RE/MAX Series (ARS) championship standings, Patrick Sheltra returns to Pocono Raceway looking for his third top-10 finish of the season and score a personal Pocono best.

Sheltra is a fan of the 2.5-mile speedway, but his finishes haven’t justified his liking. Good runs spoiled by unforeseeable circumstances have taken the Florida driver from the hunt, but he’s hoping that his dues have been paid. Now, Sheltra turns to Saturday’s Pennsylvania 200 as a chance to put his Sheltra Motorsports team in the spotlight and have a shot at joining his name on the growing list of first-time winners this season.

“I’m looking forward to Pocono this weekend,” said Sheltra. “Our Sheltra Motorsports team needs to pick up some momentum and what a better place to do it than a place like Pocono Raceway. I ran well there in 2005 and we had a good run going in June but we had some tire problems. Hopefully we can avoid the bad luck this weekend and have a good run.”

With the ARCA RE/MAX Series just past the halfway mark, Sheltra has had the last two weeks to reflect on the first half.

“We’ve had some bumps in the road this season. We had our problems at Daytona, but bounced back nicely at Lakeland. Since then, we’ve had some good runs and we made our mark at Berlin. This second half of the season offers us a chance to really exit on a high note. I’m excited about some of the races coming up and I think everyone will see our No. 60 Chevrolet much closer to the front as the season winds down.”

Despite competing in only 12 of a possible 13 races this season, Sheltra is ahead of seven fellow colleagues who have competed in all the events this season. Entering Pocono, the Florida native sits eighth in the championship standings comfortably ahead of ninth place runner Jason Hedlesky and 160 markers behind seventh place runner Justin South.

“All things considered, I think we’ve done a pretty fair job this season. Our primary goal this season is to finish in the top-10 in the standings, we’re well on our to making that goal a reality.”

Continuing their sponsorship of Sheltra's No. 60 entry this weekend is CP Concrete Products, US Construction, SawHorse Outfitters, Brady Ranch and FloraGanics.

“Our Sheltra Motorsports team has a nice flow of sponsors who have been very supportive of our racing program this season. We’ve made some significant headway this year and they’ve been pleased by it. Our first career top-five wasn’t televised, so we hope to make noise of our own as we plan to score our second top-five on Saturday.”

The Pennsylvania 200 (80 laps/200 miles) is the 14 of 23 races on the 2007 ARCA RE/MAX Series schedule. The 45th ARCA race held at Pocono Raceway is a two-day show. Practice begins Friday, August 3 with an hour and 45 minute (10:15am-11:55am) session planned. ARCA SIM Factory pole qualifying is set for later in the day at 1:45pm Local Time. The event will take the green flag on Saturday, August 4 shortly after 1:00pm Local Time with live coverage on SPEED. Additional race coverage can be found online at arcaracing.com

For more on Patrick Sheltra, please visit PatrickSheltra.com

Patrick Sheltra, Sheltra Motorsports Pocono Raceway Notes of Interest:

· Patrick Sheltra will make his 15th career ARCA RE/MAX Series start on Saturday. In his previous 14 starts, Sheltra has collected one top-five at Berlin Raceway (July 2007), while holding an additional top-10 at Kentucky Speedway in June.

· Patrick Sheltra is a native of Indiantown, Florida

· Before entering his first full season of ARCA competition this season, Patrick Sheltra only had competed in three ARS races (one 2005, two 2006) with a best finish of 22nd ironically occurring at Pocono Raceway in June 2006.

MEDIA CONTACTS:
NAME: Chris Knight, Sheltra Motorsports
PHONE: 239.834.9797
EMAIL: knight849@aol.com
NAME: Steve Howell, Sheltra Motorsports
PHONE: 912.674.1000
EMAIL: sheltramotorsports@hotmail.com