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[/media-credit](TOLEDO, Ohio – May 15, 2012) – Any organization that has lasted and succeeded for 60 years has a place it calls home, a place where humble beginnings and a vision for the future paved the way for the decades to come. For the Automobile Racing Club of America, that place is Toledo, Ohio.
This week, the celebration of ARCA’s 60th Anniversary Season will take place at Toledo Speedway, which since 1963 has hosted the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards 70 times, and will do so again in Sunday’s Menards 200 presented by Federated Car Care.
The national stock car series has crowned 29 different champions in 59 previous seasons, and several of those drivers will appear in special pre-race ceremonies Sunday as part of the 60-year celebration. Bobby Bowsher (1992 and 1994), Frank Kimmel (1998 and 2000-07), Moose Myers (1977), Scott Stovall (1982), and Bill Venturini (1987 and 1991) will be recognized at a track where all five have won before. Kimmel has nine Toledo wins to match his nine series titles, and Bowsher won five times between 1991 and 1994. Myers won twice at Toledo in his championship season; Stovall won in 1986 and Venturini won the next year.
In fact, numerous ARCA greats have won at the half-mile oval long known as ARCA’s home track. Iggy Katona, the series’ all-time leading winner, scored the first victory at Toledo in 1963. Jack Bowsher won twice in 1965, and Benny Parsons won three times in 1968 and 1969. Ramo Stott and Joy Fair earned Toledo wins in the early 1970s, and are followed later in the track’s history by Dave Dayton, Bob Keselowski, Bob Strait, Ken Schrader, Justin Allgaier, Parker Kligerman, and last year’s ARCA champion, Ty Dillon, who booted Kimmel from the lead with under 10 laps remaining in last May’s Menards 200.
Racing history at Toledo does not end with the ARCA Racing Series, though, and neither does Sunday’s planned celebration. ARCA track champions will be honored, including three-time Flat Rock Speedway late model champion Steve Bunge (right), Figure 8 track champions Chuck Hall and Dick Huston, ARCA midget champion Jerry Nemire, and many more.
The celebratory occasion – and the only ARCA Racing Series event at Toledo this season – starts Friday with a live appearance from Nashville’s CJ Solar Band at the Toledo Speedway Bar and Grille. The band, described as “edgy country rock,” will take the stage at 9 p.m., highlighting a big-screen watch party for that evening’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race from Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The ARCA Fan Fest will be live and open at 10 a.m. Saturday, featuring interactive displays fit for all ages just outside the Toledo Speedway gates. Soon after, the ARCA Racing Series will hold two practices and then Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell. The action will culminate with the Grogan’s Towne 50, the ARCA Truck Series season opener, at 5 p.m.
On Sunday, ARCA Fan Fest continues, and every driver in the Menards 200 starting field will participate in an on-track autograph session at noon. Pre-race ceremonies will start at 1:15 with the honoring of the past champions and winners, and driver introductions will begin at 1:30 to set up the 2 p.m. race. SPEED will air the race broadcast at 5 p.m., on a same-day delay. ARCARacing.com will feature live timing and scoring coverage of the Menards 200 presented by Federated Car Care. As always, the coverage will be free to ARCARacing.com visitors.
Drivers entered for the Menards 200 presented by Federated Car Care include: Kimmel, searching for his 10th Toledo win and his first at any track since 2008; NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Joey Coulter, who will make a special ARCA appearance; points leader Brennan Poole, who led late in last October’s race at Toledo; 2011 ARCA Rookie of the Year Chris Buescher, a winner in three of the last four races at Toledo; Erik Jones, ARCA’s first 15-year-old competitor; Alex Bowman, a short track winner this season at Salem (Ind.) Speedway; Tom Hessert, the Menards Pole Award winner at Toledo last fall; past ARCA winners Bobby Gerhart and Mikey Kile; and experienced Ohio drivers Chad Hackenbracht, Jared Marks, Levi Youster, Tim Cowen, and Tommy O’Leary IV.
2012 is the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards’ 60th Anniversary Season, featuring 20 races at 18 tracks. The complete 2012 event schedule is available at ARCARacing.com.
The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards has crowned an ARCA national champion each year since its inaugural season in 1953, and has toured over 200 race tracks in 28 states since its inception. The series has tested the abilities of drivers and race teams over the most diverse schedule of stock car racing events in the world, visiting tracks ranging from 0.4 mile to 2.66 miles in length, on both paved and dirt surfaces as well as a left- and right-turn road course in its most recent season. This year, the series visited Alabama’s Mobile International Speedway for the first time. In June, the first event at Minnesota’s Elko Speedway will give ARCA a race in a 29th state.
Founded by John and Mildred Marcum in 1953 in Toledo, Ohio, the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) is recognized among the leading sanctioning bodies in the country. Closing in on completing its sixth decade after hundreds of thousands of miles of racing, ARCA administers over 100 race events each season in three professional touring series and local weekly events.
