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 TOLEDO,
OH (May 4) -- Frank Kimmel became the fifth different winner in as
many races in the ARCA RE/MAX Series at Toledo Speedway on Sunday.
Kimmel won the GFS Marketplace 200, but not without a struggle. The
defending series champion had his share of trouble, including getting
spun out. But after rejoining the tail-end of the field, the crafty
veteran managed to work his way through the 33-car field and
eventually capture the win over Jason Jarrett and last week's winner
Shelby Howard. The 17-year-old Howard has now finished in the top five
in four out of his last five races. Justin Allgaier, son of Hoosier
Tire Midwest owner Mike Allgaier, also finished a career-best sixth
after leading seven laps.
Thirty-three cars started the GFS Marketplace 200 on
Sunday afternoon with Winston Cup veteran Kenny Schrader on the pole.
Schrader won the Old Milwaukee Pole Award after circling the Toledo
1/2-mile in 16.695 seconds (107.817 mph). Joining Schrader in the
front row was ARCA points leader Frank Kimmel.
The race began with Schrader immediately taking
control leading 105 of the race's first 106 laps. It was during the
race's early stages that Frank Kimmel was tagged from behind as the
leaders first approached lapped traffic. The contact caused the
Jeffersonville, IN driver to spin forcing him to the pits for fresh
rubber and rejoin the rear of the field. But, Schrader's car was
clearly the car to beat. Unfortunately, electrical problems forced the
nine-time series winner to retire for the day on lap 107. This handed
the lead back to Frank Kimmel, who had battled through the entire
field to second place with Jason Jarrett and Shelby Howard in tow.
Kimmel led a total of 85 laps including, the race's final 50 circuits
en route to the win.
Following Kimmel to the finish line was Jason Jarrett,
Shelby Howard, Andy Belmont and Billy Venturini. Sixteen-year-old
Justin Allgaier finished a career-best sixth after starting 18th.
Allgaier also won the Hoosier Tire Hard Charger Award for advancing
the most positions.
Hoosier ARCA Track Service Manager Doug Barnes who
attended the event commented, "Today's race was awesome and the
Hoosier tires performed extremely well throughout the entire event. My
hat's off also to all the competitors." Barnes continued,
"These teams race one week on a Superspeedway with radial tires,
and then another week on a tight half-mile on bias-ply tires like they
did here at Toledo. And later this season, they'll be racing on dirt
using bias-ply tires again." Barnes added, "This series is
such fun to be associated with, this is really what racing is all
about."
Frank Kimmel leads the ARCA Series standings with 1405
points over Billy Venturini with 1245 points. Jason Jarrett is in
third place followed by Ron Cox, Brent Sherman, Mark Gibson, Shelby
Howard, Christi Passmore, Bill Eversole and Mike Buckley in fourth
through tenth, respectively.
The ARCA RE/MAX Series will be in action this weekend
at Kentucky Speeedway in Sparta Kentucky. Hoosier Racing Tire Corp. is
proud to have been selected the sole provider of tires for the ARCA
RE/MAX Series during the 2003 season.
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