(SPRINGFIELD, Ill.) – This weekend, the stock cars of the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards will compete on the dirt mile at the Illinois State Fair, and nine-time ARCA champion and seven-time Springfield winner Frank Kimmel will be front and center.
Kimmel, driver of the No. 44 Ansell/Menards Toyota for ThorSport Racing, will appear at two Menards stores in Springfield to promote Sunday’s race.
Saturday, Kimmel will appear at the North store, located at 2701 Marketplace Dr. – near Exit 100B from I-55 – from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Later that afternoon, he will be at the South store, located at 3325 S. Veterans Pkwy. – near Exit 93 from I-72 – from 2-3:30 p.m. The 75-time ARCA race winner will meet and greet fans, sign autographs, and pose for pictures next to his No. 44 show car. Guests who purchase a pair of Ansell gloves inside the store will receive a voucher for a free second pair of gloves, presented by Kimmel outside the store.
As the ARCA Racing Series continues through its 60th Anniversary Season, race fans in Illinois have the chance to “Save Big Money” on tickets to see the action live.
Through tomorrow, fans can buy tickets for Sunday’s race at $15 – a $10 discount off of the advertised at-track price – at the two stores in Springfield, as well as stores in Champaign, Effingham, Forsyth, Normal, Pekin, Peoria, Quincy, and Washington.
Championship leaders Chris Buescher and Brennan Poole are among the headline names in a field that also includes Kimmel, a seven-time winner at the Springfield mile between 2000 and 2008. Kevin Swindell, a three-time champion of the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals, will embrace his dirt roots in a stock car for the first time. In all, nine drivers from Illinois are entered.
Practice for the Allen Crowe 100 will begin at 9 a.m. Sunday and last for one hour, with Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell starting at 11. The 100-lap, 100-mile race will take place at 1 p.m. All times are Central. ARCARacing.com will feature live timing and scoring coverage throughout the day, and ARCA Racing Network hosts Charlie Krall and Tim Clagg will deliver a live audio call for the race on the site.
2012 is the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards’ 60th Anniversary Season, featuring 20 races at 18 tracks. The complete 2012 event schedule is available at ARCARacing.com.
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 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. This year, the series visited Alabama’s Mobile International Speedway and Minnesota’s Elko Speedway for the first time.
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.