Maryeve Dufault To Make ARCA Racing Series Debut On Saturday At Daytona

Maryeve Dufault To Make ARCA Racing Series Debut On Saturday At Daytona

Topics: Maryeve Dufault, Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200

Maryeve Dufault To Make ARCA Racing Series Debut On Saturday At Daytona

Chris Knight
Knight Motorsports Management
Tony Marks Racing
February 11, 2011

DAYTONA BEACH, Florida (February 11, 2011) - - Maryeve (pronounced Mary-EV) Dufault (pronounced DU-FAU), the Sorel, Quebec Canada native will make her ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards debut Saturday afternoon after she qualified a solid 24th on Friday afternoon at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.

Dufault, driver of the No. 12 Tony Marks Racing Dodge Charger maneuvered her automobile around the newly re-paved 2.5-mile superspeedway in a time of 49.726 seconds at 180.992 miles per hour.

The ARCA Racing Series Rookie of the Year candidate out-qualified some of ARCA’s finest including nine time ARCA champion Frank Kimmel, Cunningham Motorsports’ Joey Licata Jr., NASCAR star Chad McCumbee and Grant Enfinger who is driving for 2008 ARCA Racing Series championship team Allgaier Motorsports.

Saturday’s Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 will also mark the inaugural ARCA debut of Tony Marks Racing (TMR), one of the newest multi-car teams within the ARCA Racing Series.

“I am very happy to be in the show and race tomorrow,” said Dufault, a resident of Redondo Beach, California. “After practice yesterday, I was thinking about all of what could go wrong or whether or not we would have the speed to make it in. It's an amazing accomplishment being a new team, having no points and overcoming those pressures and fears to get in the race. I am just so happy to be a part of the Tony Marks Racing (TMR) program. Thankfully, we found the speed we were looking for from practice yesterday. The TMR team did an amazing job with our Dodge and I’m very proud of each and everyone one of them!”

She added, “I also have to thank all of our sponsors including Dodge and Victory Water H20. It's just very special to be in this race tomorrow. Our goal is to finish the race as high as we can and give our team some momentum heading into the next race at Talladega in April.”

Now that she is solidly in the show, Dufault and her Larry Moore-led crew will turn their attention to tomorrow morning’s “Happy Hour” drafting session, which will allow the avid open-wheeler to get a jump-start on drafting in preparation for her inaugural superspeedway debut.

Immediately after “Happy Hour” but before Dufault straps in her No. 12 Tony Marks Racing Dodge Charger Saturday afternoon for the first of 19 events of the year, she will be joined by car owner Tony Marks and a special guest in the Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway Press Conference room on Saturday morning at 10:45 a.m. for an announcement concerning full primary sponsorship of her No. 12 Dodge for the remainder of the 2011 ARCA Racing Series season.

To coincide with their announcement and to help develop a new fan-base and center some attentiveness on their new marketing partner, Tony Marks Racing will carry an on-board camera for Saturday’s anticipated thriller.

The Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 at Daytona (80 laps / 200 miles) is the first of 19 events on the 2011 ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards schedule. The 48th ARCA race held at Daytona is a three-day show. A forty-five minute final practice session is etched in on Saturday, February 12th from 10:00 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. The event will take the green flag later that day shortly after 4:30 p.m. The race will be televised live on SPEED with additional race coverage including live timing and scoring and radio broadcast through the ARCA Racing Network (ARN) online at arcaracing.com. All times are local.

About Tony Marks Racing (TMR):

Tony Marks Racing was founded in 2009 through the passion for racing of team owner and former driver Tony Marks. Marks is the successful owner of TMT, Inc., a logistics, warehousing and packaging company with over 400 employees whose customers are mainly comprised of Fortune 100 companies.

Marks began his racing career in 1985 getting behind the wheel of everything from drag racers, Dirt Late Models, SCCA Formula Fords, USAC F2000 Open Wheel and ARCA cars. Tony personally raced until 2005 amassing numerous wins, championships and track records along the way until he then changed his focus from driver to owner and began building racing programs for his children Jared (16 years old) and Rachel (13 years old). Under the auspices of TMR, Jared began his racing career in 2002 in quarter midgets and now competes in late model, CRA, ASA and ARCA Series events while Rachel continues her development program racing quarter midgets and Bandoleros.

TMR has been at the forefront of charitable giving through its’ “Driving Against Hunger” and “Million Meal Challenge” race programs which have raised over $200,000 for Forgotten Harvest in 2010 at the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series events at Michigan International Speedway.

For the NASCAR events TMR along with TMT, Inc. partnered with Forgotten Harvest for the “Million Meal Challenge For Our Kids” which helps to bridge the hunger gap while schools are out of session and feeds 20,000 children per day in the Detroit metro area. Forgotten Harvest was significantly displayed on the entry of Chase Austin during both the Truck and Nationwide events at Michigan International Speedway along with logos of “Million Meal Challenge” sponsors Walgreen’s, United Race Group, Holyfield’s Choice Alka-Power Water and Vitamin Spice. Evander Holyfield was also instrumental in the challenge, acting as Grand Marshall for the August race and announcing his “Fight Against Hunger” on behalf of Forgotten Harvest.

As the first race team to “Drive Against Hunger” through their partnership with Forgotten Harvest, TMR plans to continue their alliance with Forgotten Harvest and once again “Drive Against Hunger” during the 2011 season.

For additional information on TMT, Inc. please visit; tmtcompanies.net.

For more on Maryeve Dufault, please log onto Maryeveracing.com

To learn more about Tony Marks Racing, please click over to Tmr-racing.com

PHOTO CAPTION: 1) ARCA Racing Series Rookie of the Year candidate Maryeve Dufault.

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TEAM COMMUNICATIONS CONTACT:

NAME: Chris Knight / Angela Starke, Knight Motorsports Management
PHONE: 239.834.9797 / 704.500.7384
EMAIL: chris@chrisknightpr.com / angela@chrisknightpr.com