Patrick Sheltra Grabs Solid Starting Spot For Pennsylvania 200

Topics:  Patrick Sheltra, Pennsylvania 200

Chris Knight
Sheltra Motorsports
August 1, 2008

LONG POND, Pennsylvania (August 1, 2008) – - Sophomore ARCA RE/MAX Series (ARS) driver Patrick Sheltra will start 13th in Saturday’s Pennsylvania 200 at Pocono Raceway after mounting an impressive lap in Friday afternoon’s ARCA SIM Factory pole qualifying session.

Sheltra will make his fifth career start at the demanding 2.5-mile triangle while searching for his first top-10 effort at the Long Pond, Pennsylvania race track in the 13th event on the 2008 ARCA RE/MAX Series. In his previous four starts, Sheltra has landed a personal-best finish of 11th occurring in last year’s Pennsylvania 200.

Sheltra’s time trials lap of 55.071 seconds at 163.425 MPH was 0.812 (slightly over eight-tenths) seconds quicker than the team’s best practice lap early Friday morning when Sheltra clicked off a lap of 55.883 seconds or 161.051 MPH.

“We’re going to be fine Saturday,” said Sheltra. “In practice we were not able to get a good qualifying lap because there was so much traffic, so I wasn’t 100 percent sure where we would have landed in our qualifying run, but I’ll take that. The key is to rebound from our recent tough luck and put our No. 60 Ferguson Pipe-FloraGanics Dodge Charger up front and in contention for our first career win.”

Before Sheltra straps in behind the wheel of his Grace Sheltra-owned automobile, Sheltra can be heard on the airwaves Saturday morning on ESPN Radio 1370 as a guest on Racing Edge hosted by Kent Whitaker at approximately 9:10 a.m. local time.

Entering Pocono, Sheltra has 37 ARCA RE/MAX Series starts to his credit with a career best finish of second at Toledo Speedway (May 2008) with two additional top-five finishes (third) at Illinois State Fairgrounds (August 2007), (fourth) at Berlin Raceway (July 2007) while holding additional top-10s at 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). An eighth place qualifying effort at Kansas Speedway (April 2008) is Sheltra’s best time trials efforts to date. He has controlled the ARCA field twice for 15 laps.

The Pennsylvania 200 (200 miles/80 laps) is the 13th of 21 events on the 2008 ARCA RE/MAX Series schedule. The 47th ARCA event held at Pocono Raceway is a two-day show. Practice begins Friday, August 1 with an hour and forty minute practice session planned from 10:15 a.m.-11:55 a.m. ARCA SIM Factory pole qualifying is slated to begin at 1:45 p.m. The field will take the green flag on Saturday, August 2 shortly after 1:00 p.m. The event will not be televised but additional race coverage including live timing and scoring and radio coverage courtesy of the ARCA Radio Network will be available online at arcaracing.com. All times are local.

For more on Patrick Sheltra, please visit the newly re-launched PatrickSheltra.com.

About Sheltra Motorsports:

Sheltra Motorsports (sheltramotorsports.com) is a three-tier Motorsports operation consisting of dirt and asphalt competition. Patrick Sheltra, a 22-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 NASCAR. 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 .

Patrick Sheltra, Sheltra Motorsports, Pocono Raceway Notes of Interest:

· Sheltra Motorsports will run a mixture of Dodge Chargers and Chevrolet Monte Carlos Chevrolet during the 2008 ARCA RE/MAX Series season. For Pocono, Sheltra Motorsports will run a Dodge Charger that will make its second career ARCA start this weekend. Ironically, the team competed with this same automobile in the most recent ARCA event at Pocono Raceway in June. The piece was acquired from Penske Racing during the off-season. The car was previously driven by 2008 Daytona 500 champion Ryan Newman. RC Consultants will provide the horsepower for the sophomore ARCA team.

· Sheltra currently maintains a point’s position in the top-10 (10th) heading into Pocono Raceway this weekend. Sheltra moved into the top-10 in the series’ second race of the season at Salem Speedway and has remained locked in the top-10 since. The Indiantown, Florida native is just 370 markers from entering the top-five and 610 credits from the number one position held by SunTrust Rookie-of-the-Year candidate Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. Last year, the then 21-year old superstar finished seventh in the championship standings competing in 22 of the scheduled 23 events.

· Sheltra will make 320 left hand turns on Saturday afternoon, four hundred and eighty (480) less turns than the series last outing, the Berlin ARCA RE/MAX 200 at the .4-mile track of Berlin Raceway last Saturday night.

In addition to running a full 2008 ARCA RE/MAX Series schedule, Sheltra will also run a limited schedule in NASCAR and compete in selected dirt late model events (UMP and WoO Series) throughout the United States.

Sheltra Motorsports Quick Facts:

Team Name: Sheltra Motorsports, No. 60 Dodge Charger

Driver: Patrick Sheltra, Indiantown, Florida

Car Owner: Grace Sheltra, Indiantown, Florida

Marketing Partners: Groupe Beton Brunet, Ferguson Pipe Enterprises, Inc, FloraGanics, American Concrete Industries, Inc, The Casite Company, J&S Bulk Transportation, Inc., US Construction Supply Corp., CP Concrete Products of the Palm Beaches, Martin County Petroleum, Sheltra & Son Construction, Sheltra Cattle Company, Recycling Services, Aaron’s Outdoors, Boatwerks Waterfront Restaurant, Indiantown Marina, All About Flowers, Speed Media, Klotz Synthetic Lubricants, DMC Graphics and Purcell Tire & Rubber.

Crew Chief: John Hayden

Team Manager: Keith Strunk

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TEAM COMMUNICATIONS CONTACT:

NAME: Chris Knight, Sheltra Motorsports
PHONE: 239.834.9797 or 830.261.1215
EMAIL: knight849@aol.com