 NORTH
EAST, PA (August 5, 2005) -- Frank Kimmel continued his dominance in the ARCA
RE/MAX Series on Friday night winning the ARCA 200 at Lake Erie Speedway. Amazingly,
it was the defending series champion's third consecutive win at the track. In
fact, Kimmel has been the only ARCA RE/MAX Series winner at the track since
they started racing there in 2003. It was Kimmel's fifth win of the season in
15 races contested to date.
Forty-two cars attempted to gain entry in the elite 35-car field. Rookie
Joey Miller paced the field for the 200-lap short track spectacular winning the
Pork Pole Award as the event's fastest qualifier. Miller circled the .4-mile
speed plant in 15.785 seconds (85.524 mph). Billy Venturini joined Miller in
the front row as the field took the green flag.
The event had six race leaders among three different drivers. Joey Miller led
twice for 80 laps (1-50, 89-118) and Chad McCumbee led once for 3 laps
(138-140), while Frank Kimmel led three times for a total of 117 laps (51-88,
119-137, 141-200) en route to the win. Miller challenged for the win, but
succumbed to an oil pump failure on lap 149 ending his chance at winning two
consecutive races. The short track race was slowed 10 times for a total of 50 laps.
Frank Kimmel, who started fourth, was followed to the finish line by outside pole sitter Billy
Venturini. Ken Weaver finished a solid third followed by Chad
McCumbee, Bobby Gerhart, Brett Hudson, Brian Keselowski, Jason Jarrett, Bill
Eversole and Gary Sherman in fourth through tenth, respectively. Of the 35 race
starters, six drivers finished on the lead lap.
With Joey Miller (3685) finishing in 28th place, Frank Kimmel (4060)
takes a commanding 375 point lead in the driver standings over the talented
rookie driver. Ken Weaver is in third place with 3225 points, while Chad
McCumbee (3105) and Mark Gibson (3025) are fourth and fifth, respectively, in
the standings.
TIRES: The ARCA RE/MAX Series was making its only stop of the season at Lake
Erie Speedway with all the competitors using Hoosier bias-ply tires. Lake Erie is one of
eight stops on the series' 23-race schedule where bias-ply tires are used.
All ARCA RE/MAX Series events are serviced out of Hoosier headquarters
in Lakeville, IN under the direction of Hoosier track service manager Doug
Barnes. Tire mounting and balancing activities were performed by Dave
Wroblewski, Mike Haenes, Eriks Bers, Chad Wright and Jacob Hartle. Ron McKay,
from Hoosier Tire Canada, also attended the event to observe the local series.
Barnes commented, "Lake Erie is a great facility that
always has a very competitive race. The short track tires we ran here are the
same #12 lefts and #20 rights that we use at all the ARCA short track events
and, once again, they ran flawlessly." Barnes added, "The
teams I spoke with were very happy with the consistent sizes and long tread
life of the Hoosier tires."
Barnes also congratulated Ohio's Todd Bowsher for winning
the Hoosier Tire Hard Charger Award for advancing the most positions. Bowsher
finished 17th after starting 26th in his Safe Auto Insurance Ford. Bowsher is
currently leading Indiana's Darrell Basham by two points for the annual Hard
Charger Award.
The ARCA RE/MAX Series drivers will be back on Hoosier radial tires this
Saturday, August 13, at Nashville Superspeedway. The Spring race was won by
Chad Blount who is now competing in another series. For complete race results and more
information about the ARCA RE/MAX Series visit their website at www.arcaracing.com.
|
