Dexter Bean Turns To Gateway To Continue Impressive Runs

Topics:  Dexter Bean, Gateway ARCA 150

Chris Knight
BlackJack Racing
August 29, 2007

MADISON, Illinois (Wednesday, August 29, 2007) - - On the stretch of four consecutive top-10 finishes in a row including an impressive eighth place finish last Sunday at The Milwaukee Mile, sophomore ARCA RE/MAX Series driver Dexter Bean turns to Gateway International Raceway (GIR) to continue his streak of consistent runs while hoping to reel in his first career victory on Friday night.

Bean, the 20-year old phenomenon has proven several times this year that the second year he approaches a track that he has prior experience at he is able to cap off the weekend with a vast improvement. Bean is hoping to bring that stat to life again this weekend at GIR.

“I’m looking forward to going back to Gateway,” said Bean, who sits third in ARCA RE/MAX Series drivers points heading into the Gateway ARCA 150. “We had a pretty good run there last year, but we’re running much better this year and I think we can come out of Gateway with a good finish.”

Gateway International Raceway has been described as a tricky track, but Bean is up to the challenges and different characteristics the Illinois track offers.

“There isn’t a track on the ARCA schedule that resembles Gateway,” continued Bean. “It’s a fun place to race, but it’s a track where momentum and concentration is everything. We’re going to shift at Gateway, so another key piece of the puzzle is making sure you have the very best equipment. We’ve spent a lot of time preparing for this race and I know we have what it takes to deliver a good run.”

Heading into Gateway, Bean maintains the third position in the championship standings behind Michael McDowell (-150) and reigning ARCA RE/MAX Series champion Frank Kimmel (-245). Knowing a good finish is crucial on Friday night, the Westby, Wisconsin native plans to hold nothing back.

“We’ve had a great season, we can’t complain,” sounded Bean. “We can’t go out and just expect our competition may fall into misfortune. We have to unload strong, be competitive in practice and try to be dominating during the race. We’ve been able to do that a couple times this year. Gateway is a race I think we can impress a lot of people. We have a good car, a great motor from Tesar Engineering and my guys are the best, the rest is up to me and I’m ready.”

Crew Chief Chris Bires has elected to bring the same Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS the team recently competed with at Nashville Superspeedway and Pocono Raceway earlier this year. In those two events, the piece awarded the organization with two seventh place finishes respectively and Bires is confident the car has a lot more.

“It’s a good piece,” said Bires, a former racecar driver himself. “We spent all week inspecting the car and making sure everything is in order and working properly. This car has a lot of history with this team and we plan to make some additional history with it on Friday night.”

For Bean, the red and white machine has been strong all year and he doesn’t expect anything less on Friday.

“It doesn’t matter where we go or what we do, the car is able to respond to changes,” added Bean. “As a driver, that’s a good characteristic. We nearly won with this car earlier this year at Pocono (June 2007) and with a great setup and a little luck, we think we can pull off a victory on Friday night.”

While BlackJack Racing is still searching for additional sponsorship of Bean's No. 6 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, the team is glad to have local longtime supporter Five Star Telecom on board as an associate sponsor.

Since their beginning in 1973, FST (Five Star Telecom), a long-time supporter of Bean's racing career has become one of the largest interconnect companies in the Upper Midwest , with multiple locations serving the tri-state area.

Rolling into Gateway, Dexter Bean has 45 ARCA RE/MAX Series starts to his credit with five-top five finishes and 15 top-10 efforts. He holds a career best finish of second at Salem Speedway and Pocono Raceway (April 2007 and June 2007). He owns the 2006 ARCA SIM Factory pole award at Salem Speedway (September 2006) while hoisting a career-best speedway time trials effort of fourth at Pocono Raceway (June 2006). Bean also has controlled the ARCA field for 138 laps in six races.

BlackJack Racing is still seeking additional primary and associate sponsors for the remainder of the 2007 ARCA RE/MAX Series season. For sponsorship inquiries, please contact BlackJack Racing at 608.634.4242.

The Gateway ARCA 150 (120 laps/150 miles) is the 18th of 23 races on the 2007 ARCA RE/MAX Series schedule. The sixth ARCA race held at Gateway International Raceway is a one day show. Practice begins Friday, August 31 with a two hour practice session planned from 10:30am-12:30pm. ARCA SIM Factory pole qualifying is set for later in the day at 4:30pm Local Time. The event will take the green flag shortly after 8:00pm Local Time. The race will be televised live on SPEED with additional race coverage online at arcaracing.com.

For more on Dexter Bean and BlackJack Racing, please visit DexterBean.net

Dexter Bean, BlackJack Racing, Gateway International Raceway

Notes of Interest:

· Dexter Bean will make his second career start at Gateway International Raceway this weekend. Last July, Bean finished 13th after starting 18th.

· Crew Chief Chris Bires is the brother of NASCAR Busch Series driver Kelly Bires and the brother in-law to NASCAR Nextel Cup Series driver Johnny Sauter and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Tim Sauter.

· Dexter Bean continued to set a new personal record last weekend excelling past his 2006 ARCA RE/MAX Series stats after posting his ninth top-10 finish of the 2007 season in only the 17th race of the year. Last year, Bean had recorded two top-fives and five top-10s. Thus far, Bean has notched three top-fives (second places finishes at Salem Speedway and Pocono Raceway and a fifth at Illinois State Fairgrounds) and nine top-10 efforts.

· From Gateway International Raceway, BlackJack Racing will head back to the dirt at DuQuoin State Fairgrounds on Monday, September 3, 2007 (Labor Day) looking to better their fifth place finish in the first dirt race of the season at Illinois State Fairgrounds (Springfield).

MEDIA CONTACT:
NAME: Chris Knight, BlackJack Racing
PHONE: 239.834.9797
EMAIL: Knight849@aol.com