Steve Arpin Scores ARCA RE/MAX Series Top-5 at Pocono |
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Topics: Steve Arpin, Pennsylvania ARCA 200
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Emily Teeter
Venturini Motorsports
August 2, 2009
POCONO, PA (Aug 2, 2009) Steve Arpin notched another top-five finish in ARCA RE/MAX Series action Saturday afternoon at Pocono Raceway as he took the Venturini Motorsports Toyota to a fourth-place run in the Pennsylvania 200. In his first outing for the team, the talented driver from Fort Frances, Ontario kept the Pinewood Sports Camry at the front of the pack throughout the day on the testy 2.5 mile superspeedway and would go on to eventually lead nine circuits of the event, pacing the field on laps 38-41 and 43-47. A late race battle between Arpin and series points leader Parker Kligerman would result in a crash ending the latter's day and leaving Arpin with the challenge of salvaging the fourth position when the checkered flag waved.
‘I'm excited about what's going to come in the near future with our new team,' said the enthusiastic Arpin after the Pocono run. ‘We had a great car today and got a good feel for the direction we are going to be heading as we move on. It took a few laps to get adjusted to the new feel today, but its only going to get better and better each week,' Arpin pointed out. ‘It was great working with Billy and we really understand each other about the car. I'm all smiles coming out of Pocono and looking forward to our next race together.'
Arpin's strong run began on the first green flag lap as he raced toward the front picking up a couple of spots on the first lap, then roared into third-place following the race's first caution period. Arpin used that restart in his debut pairing with Venturini Motorsports to move closer to a possible first career ARCA win for the twenty-five year old Candian racer and he would stay in contention for the win throughout the race as he would eventually find himself holding down the second spot from laps 48-80. Arpin was posed to again challenge for the top spot with less than 10 laps remaining when the caution flag waved for a car stalled in turn one and bunching up the field for a restart with four laps to go. It was shortly following this restart that Arpin and Kligerman would each have their sights set on leader Justin Loftin as they dueled in the closing laps. The battle between Arpin and Kligerman would come to an end when the two cars touched exiting the final turn with just three laps remaining, ending the day for Kligerman and leaving Arpin with just enough damage to his car to compromise its aerodynamics and put a bittersweet ending on the day.
‘We had an awesome car and it was a pleasure to drive,' Arpin said as he recapped the closing stages of the race and incident with Kligerman. ‘It''s a bad deal that we got together with Parker there at the end. He races all of us clean each and every week. I feel horrible for getting into him; we just got a little tight and got his left rear. He had a shot at winning that race and we were still in it to win it as well,' Arpin added. ‘All of us here at Venturini Motorsports are excited about the new partnership and we are going to win some races this year. It was an awesome first weekend with Venturini Motorsports,' Arpin concluded.
Arpin would still restart in second following the tangle with Kligerman for a two-lap overtime shootout and Arpin holding on to an extremely tight handling machine, but manage to bring the Pinewood Sports / SpeedShop backed entry home to a career best fourth-place ARCA finish position in the green-white-checkered flag conclusion. Arpin gained ground in the series points battle closing in on a top-five ranking on the tour as he continues to be shown in seventh place of the season-long driver championship.
SPEED TV will re-air the event on Tuesday (Aug 4th) @ 1:00 p.m. With eight of the 2009 championship battles remaining on the ARCA RE/MAX Series to decide the title, Arpin will find himself literally on familiar ground in several of the of the tour's upcoming stops on a barnstorming schedule across America's heartland. Although the Canadian racing Arpin hasn't competed on several of the tracks, he's hoping his strong and successful career on dirt aids his run for the win when the ARCA RE/MAX series returns to action on Sunday afternoon, August 23rd on the one-mile dirt oval at the Illinois State Fairgrounds and annual 100 mile event. For event info click onto http://www.arcaracing.com/tracks_detail.cfm?trackID=229
Also be sure to catch Steve Arpin LIVE on the “Venturini Motorsports Power Hour” this Thursday August 6th at 9:00PM EST exclusively on www.Racefanradio.com
This season marks Arpin's first full year of asphalt racing experience after several stellar seasons on dirt in which the young Canadian talent became a dominant force and earned numerous titles while racking up wins in his open wheel modified against the strongest competition in North America while attracting the attention of some of the sports biggest names. Last season Arpin claimed the USAC Silver Crown Rookie of the Year award and prior to moving into auto racing Arpin earned 7 world championships in snowmobile competition as lead pilot for Team Polaris. In Arpin's new role with Venturini Motorsports associates at Taylor Motorsports, Lo-N-Bro Enterprises and Pinewood Sports & Marine continue to play supporting roles in the team efforts. The official web site for Steve Arpin on the internet is http://www.stevearpin.net/.
About Pinewood Sports & Marine
http://www.pinewoodsports.com/
Since 1977 Pinewood Sports offers a complete line of products to help you enjoy the great outdoors. Our business is built on Service and continues to grow and propser due to our policy unequalled customer service and competitively priced product lines that represent the very best recreational products in the world. We also offer many services to seasonal residents such as boat pick-up and delivery along with storage.
Location: Fort Frances, Ontario
Phone: 807-274-7737
About Speed Shop (Rochester, Minnesota)
(507) 281 7976.
Owned by Jay Clark and located at 3856 65th Street, N.E. just north of Rochester, MN (just off of Hwy 63). Speed Shop serves competitors and teams with racing parts and components, specializing in items for dirt racers with parts, tires, fuel, and fabrication services for local and traveling racers in the Rochester, Kasson, and Lansing, Minnesota area.
About Venturini Motorsports
http://www.venturinimotorsports.com/
Racing has been a family sport for the Venturini's since 1951. Billy's grandfather, Tony, raced in the Chicagoland area through the 50's. Then came 2nd generation driver Bill Sr. He also began his career in the Chicago area. After winning 2 International Racing Association titles, which only competed in a 3 state venue, Bill moved to the highly competitive series of ARCA. Bill Sr. set the stage on what was to become a great career in ARCA by becoming Rookie Of The Year in 1983. By the time that his racing career ended in 1995, Bill had become ARCA National Champion twice. The first one came in 1987 and then again in 1991. Along the way, Bill Sr. set and still holds the qualifying records at Daytona and Talladega Speedways. The latter is still an all-time ARCA record of 205.634 mph!
In 14 years of competing in the ARCA series, qualifying records and championships were not his only accomplishments. Bill led 3 of every 10 races he competed in, was the leader in top 5 finishes when he retired, and had set an astounding record in 1991 of completing over 98% of all possible race laps. One of Bill's most prized accomplishments was putting together the first All-Female pit crew in racing. These women performed all race duty pit stops, which included changing tires, jacking up the car, and refueling. The amazing fact about this is that they did these jobs as well as any male crew at that time. This was very evident in that Bill Sr. won his first ARCA Championship using this crew exclusively. After Bill Sr. retired in 1995, his son Billy began his racing career, following in his father's footsteps. Some of Billy's stats include finishing a career-best 3rd in ARCA RE/MAX Series points in ‘06. He also finished 4th in points in ‘04, 5th in points ‘03 and 6th in ‘02. In 162 career starts since 1994, Billy had 28 top-5 finishes & 75 top-10s including 1 win at Salem in 2006. Other career-best finishes include a 2nd at Lake Erie ‘05, 2nd at Kentucky ‘04 and 2nd at Lake Erie & Talladega ‘03. As a team, Venturini Motorsports has competed in the ARCA Re/Max series for over 25 years. In those seasons, they have finished in the top 5 in the points 12 times with the others 2 seasons finishing 6th.
About Taylor Motorsports
http://www.jefftaylor5.com/
Located at 3501 E. Parker Road in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Jeff Taylor Motorsports manufactures and delivers Taylor Chassis racecars and quality performance.
Phone: 870-910-0555
About Lo-N-Bro Enterprises, Inc.
http://www.lonbro.com/ Paul and Jon Leach, brothers and Sun River, Montana Natives, started the business in 1998 while only 21 and 18 years old respectively. In that first stage, the entire staff was made up by the two of them. In 2001 they took their "baby" to the next step and transitioned from being an LLC to becoming a formal corporation. One of their first major projects was to build a 10,000 square foot shop on their property in Sun River that formed the base for their operations. Since that time, they have grown into a company that employs over 85 people and generates revenue of over $5,000,000.00 annually. Paul and Jon are always looking for ways to expand their business, while also filling a niche' within the respective areas of contracting. One of the prominent areas that they give their employees credit for is how they have helped to build Lo-N-Bro into what it is today. The quality of people that are hired, as well as retained, reaches far beyond the industry standard. Paul and Jon genuinely value each and every individual employee and want the best for them as well as the best out of them. Employees are dynamic members of the family, and thus are offered incredibly competitive wages and benefits, as well as opportunities to advance within the company.