 SALEM,
IN (April 23, 2006) -- Thirty-year-old Billy Venturini held off Nextel Cup
veteran and frequent ARCA competitor Kenny Schrader Sunday afternoon in the
"Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200" at Salem Speedway. Making his 134th
series start, the second generation driver led 95 of the 200 race laps en route
to claiming his first career win in the ARCA RE/MAX Series. Hoosier Racing Tire
Corp. is proud to be in its 12th consecutive season as the exclusive tire
provider for the ARCA RE/MAX Series.
Forty-four cars were on hand Sunday attempting to make the 35-car grid. In
qualifying, rookie Brad Coleman earned the Pork Pole Award as the event's
fastest qualifier. The 18-year-old circled the .555-mile high-banked oval in
17.756 seconds (112.525 mph) and was the only driver to break the 18-second
barrier. Posting the second fastest time in qualifying was 19-year-old Justin
Allgaier who joined Coleman in the front row for the start of the 200-lap
race.
An incident involving the race leaders ended Coleman's day on lap 22. The
contact involved seven cars including defending series champion Frank Kimmel.
The seven-time champion wound up finishing a disappointing 25th. You may
remember last year when Kimmel, the defending race winner from 2004, was
leading the event with two laps to go when Chad Blount made contact with the
series champion's car sending him into a spin. Blount won the race with Kimmel
settling for seventh place.
Sunday's race featured 11 leaders among seven different drivers including;
Brad Coleman (1-22), Billy Venturini (23-46, 72-103, 135-150, 178-200), Justin
South (47-65), Norm Benning (66-71), Damon Lusk (104-134), Bobby Gerhart
(151-160, 162-177), Bobby Bowsher (161).
Following .217 seconds behind Venturini to the finish line was Kenny
Schrader followed by Bobby Gerhart, Phil Bozell and 18-year-old Josh Allison.
Billy Leslie finished in sixth place followed by Damon Lusk, Blake Bjorklund,
Ryan Foster and Terry Jones to round out the top ten. Bjorkland was making his
first career ARCA RE/MAX Series start en route to an eighth place finish.
Other race notes: Kevin Swindell, son of former World of Outlaws Sprint Car
Series champion Sammy Swindell, finished in 14th place> While Portage,
Michigan's Phil Bozell won the Hoosier Tire Hard Charger Award for advancing
the most positions. Bozell started 26th en route to a 4th place finish.
With three races in the books, Bobby Gerhart currently leads the point
standings with 645 points followed by Billy Venturini (625), Damon Lusk (620),
TJ Bell (550) and Frank Kimmel (540).
TIRES USED: Hoosier 11.5/26.0-15 12L (left side) and 11.5/27.0-15 20R
(right side) tires. Salem is one of eight tracks the ARCA RE/MAX Series visits
on it's 23-race schedule in which a bias-ply tire is used, while Hoosier
radials will be used at all other tracks the series visits in 2006.
ARCA RE/MAX Series events are serviced out of Hoosier headquarters in
Lakeville, IN. The service team was led by Dave Wroblewski with Chad Wright
performing crew chief duties at Salem. Other members of the service team
included Larry Merrill, Mike Haenes, Mark Curtis, JP Malone and Kevin
Wroblewski.
The ARCA RE/MAX Series is back in action May 7, at the .5-mile paved
Winchester (Indiana) Speedway. For complete race results and more information
about the ARCA RE/MAX Series, visit their website at www.arcaracing.com.
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