ARCA Kicks Off 60th Season Feb 18 at Daytona
Posted Friday, February 10; Source - ARCA Communications
TOLEDO, Ohio - Next Saturday, the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 at Daytona International Speedway will open the 60th Anniversary Season for the Automobile Racing Club of America. The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards - ARCA's flagship series for developmental drivers and veterans alike - will open practice Thursday, hold qualifying Friday, and race Saturday in the first major stock car event of 2012.
The basic facts and figures surrounding the race are as follows:
What: Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200, the first race of 20 on the 2012 ARCA Racing Series schedule
When: 4:30 p.m., Saturday, February 18 (broadcast on SPEED; coverage starts approx. at 4)
Where: Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Fla.
Distance: 80 laps, or 200 miles
Last year's winner: Bobby Gerhart. Gerhart has seven wins in 24 Daytona starts since 1988 (1999, 2002, 2005-2007, 2010-2011).
Last year's pole winner: Ty Dillon, 48.509 seconds (185.533 mph).
ARCA qualifying record at track: Bill Venturini, 44.953 seconds (200.209 mph) - 1987.
Last year's race summary: Gerhart pitted on Lap 5 in last year's 80-lap contest, well before most cars, and took the lead on Lap 20. He held the point without returning to pit road over the race's final three quarters to edge eventual Rookie of the Year Chris Buescher and Matt Merrell for his seventh Daytona victory.
Schedule of accompanying on-track events: Practice: 1-5 p.m., Thursday, February 16; 10-10:45 a.m., Saturday, February 18. Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell: 2 p.m., Friday, February 17.
History at track: ARCA first raced at Daytona International Speedway in 1964, and has held a position on Speedweeks in advance of the Daytona 500 since then. The 2012 race will be ARCA's 49th on the 2.5-mile superspeedway.
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 will visit Alabama's Mobile International Speedway and Minnesota's Elko Speedway for the first time; ARCA's first visit to Minnesota 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.
