Maryeve Dufault Finishes 13th In Salem Speedway Debut

Topics:  Maryeve Dufault, Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200

Angela Starke/Chris Knight
Knight Motorsports Management/Tony Marks Racing
3 May 2011

SALEM, Indiana (May 3, 2011) - - ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards Rookie of the Year candidate Maryeve Dufault made her Salem (Ind.) Speedway debut Sunday afternoon in the Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200, marking his first ever short track in a stock car.

For Dufault, driver of the No. 12 VR-12 / Dodge Motorsports / Victory Water Dodge Charger and her TMR team, the plan for the weekend was to utilize the event as a test session, since they did not become acquainted with the Southern Indiana short track before race weekend. With a new plan, the rookie team focused on learning the ways of one of the most brutal short tracks on the ARCA circuit – so that her second tango with the half-mile oval in September would be a more favorable one.

With crew chief Darren Wolfe calling the shoots, Dufault would take the track Saturday afternoon for the only practice session scheduled for the weekend. During the hour and a half session, Dufault was patiently learning the high banked oval while showing improvement on the speed charts as well.

It was when Dufault tucked in behind the No. 44 of Frank Kimmel that she clicked off her fastest lap around the track despite making slapping the turn four wall as her machine broke loose trying to follow the nine-time champion through the corner.

Bringing her machine to the attention of her crew, the damage was determined to be mainly cosmetic with the crew quickly repairing the No. 12 VR-12 / Dodge Motorsports / Victory Water Dodge Charger and sending the Sorel, Quebec, Canada native back onto the race track.

All said and done, Dufault claimed the 23rd fastest lap in practicing. With some adjustments made to the No. 12 VR-12 / Dodge Motorsports / Victory Water Dodge Charger for qualifying, Dufault and the Tony Marks Racing team had hopes for a solid qualifying run.

In time trials, Dufault nearly ran an identical lap to her fastest practice lap inching her Dodge Charger up to 22nd on the starting grid.

Mother Nature though drenched the track Sunday morning forcing ARCA officials to tediously dry the race track right up until race time. The field would rev their engines at 2:15 p.m. and assist in the track drying process by running 20 green flag laps at caution speed.

By lap 21 the field was under racing conditions with the No. 12 VR-12 / Dodge Motorsports / Victory Water Dodge Charger climbing into the top-20 by lap 25.

Dufault, despite battling a tight race car would use her short track debut to learn the unique characteristics of short track racing which included car control, throttle control and handling.

While not having a race-winning car by half-way, Dufault had begun to patiently move herself up the running order – utilizing the long green flag run to develop a line that she was comfortable with for having a tight handling machine. The progressive line worked and she began to show massive improvement from the day prior with her lap times.

While hovering in the top-15 closing on the end of the race, Dufault and another machine made contract in turn four inside 15 laps remaining, sending the two machines down to the apron of the race track with the No. 82 no where to go and plowing into the rear of the No. 12 VR-12 / Dodge Motorsports / Victory Water Dodge Charger.

The damage was enough to sideline the Tony Marks Racing (TMR) racing entry for the remainder of the event but Dufault would finish in the 13th position completing 180 of the race’s 206 laps.

“Salem was a very intense and hard race,” Dufault said. “I feel like we were going to come out of their relatively clean but another car and I got together and it unfortunately beat up the race car pretty good. I have to thank Tony (Marks), Darren, the team, VR-12, Dodge, Victory Water and all of our supporters for standing behind us. I know we didn’t have the outcome that we necessarily wanted, but if there’s anything to take away from this, we at least had an okay point’s day.”

Tony Marks, owner of Tony Marks Racing offered his thoughts on the team’s Salem-debut. “Start to finish, the team made some big gains. While it’s a shame that we couldn’t finish the race, we can take the finish and forge ahead to Toledo and hope that the finish will be an indicator of our performance.”

Round four for the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards treks to the Toledo (Oh.) Speedway for the running of the Menards 200 on Sunday, May 15th. Like Salem, Dufault and Tony Marks Racing will make their inaugural ARCA debut at the half-mile oval in the first of two Toledo Speedway races this season. Dufault will have a teammate for the event as development driver Jared Marks is scheduled to compete in the No. 8 VR-12 / Dodge Motorsports Dodge Charger.

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

See the buzz that VR-12 is creating by clicking over to their website at VR-12.com.

Quench yourself with Victory Water, see how at Victoryh20.com.

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.

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