Patrick Sheltra Solid In Michigan Practice

Topics:  Patrick Sheltra, Racing for Wildlife 200

Chris Knight
Sheltra Motorsports
June 12, 2009

“Sheltra Motorsports Team Debuts TOYOTA Camry”

BROOKLYN, Michigan (June 12, 2009) - - Mother Nature forced the postponement of yesterday’s ARCA RE/MAX Series practice for this afternoon’s Racing for Wildlife 200 at Michigan International Speedway (MIS) but Indiantown, Florida native Patrick Sheltra was ready to take advantage of the brief 50 minute practice this morning session to dial in the team’s No. 60 Buffalo Wings & Rings TOYOTA Camry for the eighth race of the 2009 ARCA season.

The team tested last month at MIS with a TOYOTA Camry and a Dodge Charger and after much thought the Whitesville, Kentucky team decided to bring back the team’s TOYOTA Camry as the vehicle of choice for Sheltra’s fourth start at the historic Irish Hills track.

In practice Friday morning, Sheltra mounted a lap of 39.634 seconds at 181.662 miles per hour which locked the veteran team 13th on the practice rundown. At the open test, Sheltra was only able to best a time of 40.965 seconds or 175.760 miles per hour in the same Japanese nameplate. The team picked up almost a second and a half between the two sessions.

“The Buffalo Wings & Rings TOYOTA is good but real tight,” said Sheltra. “I will tell you what though; the motor will haul the mail. We weren’t real good at the test, so we made a lot of changes and so far it has paid off. We’ll make a couple more (changes) before the race and we should be right on the mark.”

Sheltra added, “The car has excellent speed and it turns good but the nose plows in the center of the corner making it extremely tight. We played with some little changes this morning but we have a good idea of what we want to do between now and the race, so I think we’ll be even better car once the green flag drops.”

The team’s TOYOTA Camry came from Germain Racing who competes full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The Mooresville, North Carolina outfit has also participated in several ARCA RE/MAX Series events, including last year’s Racing for Wildlife 200 under their own banner. Mike Abner, a familiar face in both garages will be on-hand to assist crew chief John Hayden with the TOYOTA program today.

“This team is doing everything we can to try and win the ARCA RE/MAX series championship,” added Sheltra, who now sits fifth in the championship standings after his third place finish last weekend at Pocono. “We’ve had great success with our Dodge program this year but we had to test the TOYOTA waters for ourselves to see if it could speed our program along even further.”

Exiting Michigan, Sheltra has 53 ARCA RE/MAX Series starts to his credit with one career victory at Salem Speedway (April 2009). Sheltra also holds second place efforts at Rockingham Speedway (April 2009), Toledo Speedway (May 2008) and the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds (September 2008) with five additional top-five finishes, (third) at Pocono Raceway (June 2009), (fourth) at Toledo Speedway (October 2008), (fifth) at Talladega Superspeedway (October 2008), (third) at Illinois State Fairgrounds (August 2007) and (fourth) at Berlin Raceway (July 2007) while holding additional top-10s at Kentucky Speedway (May 2009), Nashville Superspeedway (August 2008), Michigan International Speedway (June 2008), Kentucky Speedway (May 2008), Kansas Speedway (April 2008), Iowa Speedway (April 2008), Kentucky Speedway (June 2007), DuQuoin State Fairgrounds (September 2007) and Toledo Speedway (October 2007). A third place qualifying effort at Rockingham Speedway (April 2009) is Sheltra’s best time trials efforts to date. He has controlled the ARCA field five times for 109 laps.

The Racing for Wildlife 200 (100 laps / 200 miles) is the eighth of 21 events on the 2009 ARCA RE/MAX Series schedule. The 28th ARCA race at Michigan International Speedway is a two-day show. The event will take the green flag on Friday, June 12 shortly after 5:15 p.m. The event will live on SPEED. The race will also be broadcasted live through the ARCA Racing Network (ARN) online at arcaracing.com. All times are local.

For more on Patrick Sheltra, please visit PatrickSheltra.com.

For additional input on Buffalo Wings & Rings, please connect to Buffalowingsandrings.com or call 513.831.WING.

About Sheltra Motorsports:

Sheltra Motorsports (sheltramotorsports.com) is a three-tier Motorsports operation consisting of dirt and asphalt competition. Patrick Sheltra, a 23-year old native of Indiantown, Florida competes in the UMP and WoO (Dirt) Series; while also running a full schedule in the ARCA RE/MAX Series (No. 60) and a limited schedule in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Sheltra Motorsports ownership is combined of Richard, Grace and Patrick Sheltra. The team is headquartered in Indiantown , Florida with additional operations in Richmond , Indiana and Whitesville , Kentucky .

About Buffalo Wings & Rings:

Buffalo Wings & Rings is the fastest-growing privately owned franchised chain of restaurants in the nation serving Buffalo-style chicken wings, onion rings, burgers, chicken and salads. Founded in 1988 in Cincinnati, OH, Buffalo Wings & Rings operates 44 franchised restaurants in the United States. Buffalo Wings & Rings was ranked the #1 fastest growing restaurant chain nationwide in the July 2008 issue of Restaurant Business, and ranked in the top 500 franchises in the January 2009 issue of Entrepreneur. For more information, visit www.buffalowingsandrings.com or call 513-831-WING.

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TEAM COMMUNICATIONS CONTACT:

NAME: Chris Knight, Sheltra Motorsports
PHONE: 239.834.9797 or 239.214.1083
EMAIL: chris@patricksheltra.com