Let’s Make a Deal; Entries Already In for 50th Annual Daytona Race; Tidbits From the Early Days

[media-credit name=”ARCARacing.com” align=”alignright” width=”345″][/media-credit](TOLEDO, Ohio – December 21, 2012) – So who wants to put their name in the record books as the winner of the 50th annual Daytona ARCA 200? Apparently, lots of people do. Just a week after the annual three-day ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards open test from Daytona Int’l Speedway, series officials have assembled the first look at the official entry list.

Already ARCA’s biggest prize, this year’s Daytona event will carry even more meaning as the 50th anniversary race for the ARCA Racing Series at Daytona.

ARCA’s history at Daytona reaches back to 1964 when Bill France, Sr. invited John Marcum’s Midwest Association for Race Cars (MARC) to race on the 2.5-mile superspeedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. The event would mark the very first superspeedway race for the expanding Midwestern-based tour.

France also made a suggestion to Marcum regarding his MARC tour now that the “World Center of Racing” would be on the schedule. It was France’s opinion that Marcum should consider changing the name from MARC to something that would reflect a series more national scope. Together, they came up with, ‘Automobile Racing Club of America’ (ARCA), and the rest is history.

Daytona, as history would show, would pave the way for many more superspeedway events, including one at Charlotte Motor Speedway (Curtis Turner/winner) that served as the season finale for the ’64 season.

Nelson Stacy won the inaugural Daytona ARCA race, which debuted as a 250-miler. However, Stacy was not officially the first ARCA winner at Daytona. That distinction would go to Earl Balmer, who won a 50-mile qualifying race the day before the big show.

There were actually two 50-mile qualifying races that led to the ultimate 250-mile big prize event, won by Balmer and Jack Bowsher. Much like NASCAR utilizes the 125-mile qualifiers to help determine the starting grid for the Daytona 500, ARCA, back then, staged twin qualifers to set the starting line-up.

So, technically, Balmer won the first ARCA race at Daytona on February 7, 1964, and Bowsher won the second 50-mile qualifier that immediately followed. However, it would be Stacy who would etch his name in the record books as winner of the inaugural ‘Daytona ARCA 250′ on February 8.

ARCA’s qualifying races were reduced to just 25-mile sprints in 1965, and remained that way through the 1967 season. In 1968, France and Marcum decided to eliminate the qualifying races altogether, and as a result, increased the race distance to 300 miles. The race distance remained at 300 miles up until 1974, when it was reduced to 200 miles, which it’s been ever since.

While Bowsher would eventually go on to win the ‘big race’ at Daytona, Balmer, Neil Castles (1967), Les Snow (1967) and Jack Lawrence (1966) could still rightfully call themselves Daytona winners as victors of ARCA’s qualifying races in the early days. And that’s still worth bragging about.

Entry List