(DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.) – When open testing begins this morning for ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards teams at Daytona International Speedway, drivers in ARCA’s “Road to Daytona” program will have Fast Track High Performance Driving School and Hoosier Racing Tire, among others, to thank.
The North Carolina-based Fast Track High Performance Driving School, ARCA’s Official Driving School, will provide the cars and support for three 2012 touring series champions: the ARCA CRA Super Series’ Johnny VanDoorn, the ARCA Midwest Tour’s Jonathan Eilen, and the ARCA Gold Cup Series’ Dakota Carlson.
School owner Andy Hillenburg, a two-time ARCA Daytona winner and the 1995 Series champion, will assist each Road to Daytona driver in the test session. The 2012 Daytona test is the second at which Hillenburg’s school has assisted the touring series competitors. Last year, the Super Series’ Derrick Griffin and the Gold Cup Series’ Dennis Strickland drove Fast Track cars in the Daytona test.
Hoosier Racing Tire will provide a set of tires for each driver at the test. The Indiana-based company has been active in the ARCA Racing Series since the 1950s and has acted as the series’ official tire supplier since 1995.
Yesterday, officials from Roush Yates Engines and ARCA announced that Roush Yates will supply an ARCA spec restrictor plate engine lease for the weekend’s test.
Testing will take place from 9-12 and 1-5 today, Saturday, and Sunday. Over 50 drivers are entered. ARCARacing.com will feature live timing and scoring of each session as teams prepare for the 50th consecutive annual event at Daytona, a tradition dating back to 1964.
The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards has crowned 30 ARCA national champions in 60 seasons since 1953, and has toured over 200 race tracks in 26 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 0.375 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.
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. Having completed its sixth decade after hundreds of thousands of miles of racing, ARCA administers over 100 race events each season in four professional touring series – the ARCA Racing Series, the ARCA CRA Super Series, the ARCA Truck Series, and new in 2013, the ARCA Midwest Tour – in addition to local weekly events at Ohio’s Toledo Speedway and Michigan’s Flat Rock Speedway.