STEVE ARPIN TAKES TOP-5 ARCA FINISH AT THE SPRINGFIELD MILE

Topics:  Steve Arpin, Allen Crowe 100

Emily Teeter
Venturini Motorsports
August 23, 2009

SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS (August 23, 2009) Steve Arpin turned in another strong performance in ARCA RE/MAX Series action Sunday afternoon at the historic Springfield Mile on the Illinois State Fairgrounds ending the day with a 5th place finish in the ‘Allen Crowe 100’. Aboard the Pinewood Sports & Marine Chevrolet Arpin overcame early race trouble to rally into the top-five in the closing laps and use the run to move into fourth-place in the national championship standings on the ARCA tour. As the checkered flag waved, Arpin and Venturini Motorsports had captured their second consecutive top-five finish in just two starts together.

‘That was a fun race with a good result for the team,’ said Arpin after finishing fifth. ‘Our Pinewood Sports, Jeff Taylor Motorsports Chevy was pretty good from the get go today in the race. We gave up a bunch in qualifying as we were the second car out and didn't know how much grip came into the track, but we made up for a lot of it in the race,’ Arpin pointed out with a smile. ‘This race team is on the move and we’re not done yet.’

Arpin started the event from the ninth position and gained ground in the early running to join a four-car battle for third until the Fort Frances, Ontario racer spun in turn two on lap twenty. Arpin did a complete three-hundred sixty degree spin, but was able to keep the Venturini Motorsports Chevy Impala off the wall and drive away while still running in the tenth spot when the caution flag waved. On the restart, Arpin started in fourteenth position but the talented pilot took the number twenty-five Chevrolet back into the top-ten by lap 48. When the green flag waved on lap 77 following the fifth caution period of the day Arpin restarted in the 19th position following a second visit of the day down pit-road and he immediately picked up two positions. But the yellow flag would wave quickly on three more occasions and Arpin was scored in 11th spot with twelve laps remaining in the car backed by Pinewood Sports & Marine and Jeff Taylor Motorsports.

‘We freed up the car before the race and knew the track would come to us,’ Arpin stated. ‘We were starting to get real good and then I just rolled into turn one a little too high in lapped traffic and lost it. Fortunately I didn't hit anything and only lost a couple of spots but it killed my right rear tire,’ Arpin noted on the early race spin. ‘We chased the car a little after that but Billy (Venturini) made some awesome decisions to get us back to where we needed to be. It’s just too bad we had so many late cautions, it took me a lap to get going good and I think we might have finished even better with a longer green flag run at the end,’ Arpin concluded.

Streaking toward the front of the pack again Arpin challenged Ken Schrader for sixth position with just five laps to go before yet another caution period interrupted the action; then, with ARCA RE/MAX Series rules calling for all events to finish under green flag conditions, a final restart on lap 101 set the stage for the run to the checkered flag. Arpin battled past Justin Lofton for fifth at the finish line, scoring his second career top-five win on the 2009 ARCA tour and vaulting past three other competitors in the title chase standings.

With seven of the 2009 championship battles remaining on the ARCA RE/MAX Series to decide the driver’s title, Arpin will again find himself on familiar ground in several of the of the tour’s events on the barnstorming schedule across America’s heartland. Following this Friday’s ‘Ansell Cut Protection 150’ at Chicagoland Speedway Arpin and the Venturini Motorsports team will head to Toledo, Ohio for a second series visit of the season to Toledo Speedway in a Friday night ARCA battle on September 4th. Then the team heads to another dirt track event on Labor Day at DuQuoin, Illinois on Monday, September 7th. With the impressive performance at the Springfield Mile under his belt Arpin is looking forward to the next few events on the championship season, as well as another run on dirt when the ARCA RE/MAX series visits the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds. But right now Arpin is focused on delivering another strong run this coming Friday in Chicago, the hometown of the Venturini family, his team owners.

‘Our Chicago test was great,’ said Arpin looking toward this week’s action. ‘We tested a lot of different things Billy and the guys wanted to try and we left there with a real good driving, fast car. I have a couple things to improve on for me, and a little in the car too, so we should be in good shape next week and hope to bring the home team a great run for all of the Venturini fans in Chicago,’ Arpin concluded.

This week’s ARCA visit to Chicagoland Speedway will be telecast on SPEED TV on Friday at 6:30 p.m. (Eastern Time). Tickets and event information for each remaining ARCA event of the season can be found at www.arcaracing.com and specific details for the upcoming DuQuoin, IL event info can also be obtained by visiting www.trackenterprises.com or by calling Track Enterprises at (217) 764-3200. 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 sport’s 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 and Arpin’s associates at Pinewood Sports & Marine, Taylor Motorsports, Lo-N-Bro Enterprises and SpeedShop continue to play supporting roles in the team efforts. The official web site for Steve Arpin on the internet is www.stevearpin.net

About Pinewood Sports & Marine

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

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 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. 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