 JUPITER,
FL (February 27, 2010) -- The ARCA Series broke new ground during the Tire
Kingdom 150 at Palm Beach International Raceway. For the first time in its
58-year history the ARCA Series contested a race in the rain.
Hoosier has been in development of a
rain tire for the series and Saturday was the first time the the new tire was
put to use during a race. And based on feedback from both the drivers and ARCA
officials the result was a huge success.
Justin Marks, who captured the win,
gave his opinion of the the new tire stating, "It was awesome...great rain
tire."
Casey Roderick was the fastest
qualifier among the 34 cars on hand at the PBIR road course. Roderick posted a
78.037 second lap on the 2.034-mile, 11-turn track (93.325 mph). Justin Marks
was second quickest with a time of 78.480 seconds (92.798 mph).
The race began under cloudy skies
before a steady rain met the drivers on lap 20. Steve Arpin was the first to
hit pit road to bolt on a set of Hoosier rain tires. The other competitors
quickly followed and would complete the next 50 laps in the Florida rain.
Series officials later called the race
complete--five laps shy of the scheduled 75-lap distance after the rains became
a torrential downpour.
Despite the rainy conditions, the
event proved to be quite competitive with 10 leaders among five different
drivers.
Drivers leading during the race
included; Mikey Kile 1-9, 24-25 (11 laps), Casey Roderick 10-19, 23, 32-41 (21
laps), Robb Brent 20-22, 58 (4 laps), Steve Arpin 26-31 (6 laps), Justin Marks
42-57, 59-70 (28 laps).
The 70-lap race yielded just three
cautions for a total of nine laps.
Justin Marks, who led the most laps
(28), took the win over Robb Brent who finished in second after starting
sixth.
Marks commented after the race, "Hoosier
has always built a good rain tire. This tire was very consistent. It had great
grip."
Adding, "What is great about it
is that when you have Hoosier rain tires, you worry about driving the car,
finding grip on the racetrack and having good rain racetrack, you never worry
about the tire. You never have to worry about driving around on an ill-handling
tire."
Marks concluded, "It's just
consistent and you know it's going to be there for you."
Blake Koch, from West Palm Beach, FL
finished in third place followed by Tom Hessert and Steve Arpin to round out
the top five.
Joey Coulter finished in sixth
followed by Mikey Kile in seventh to complete the list of lead-lap finishers.
Joe Wells, ARCA's Vice President of
Competition, stated after the race, "Based upon the feedback we got
from both the teams and Hoosier, we are pleased with the performance of the new
rain tire. This has truly been an historic day for our series."
After starting their 2010 season at
Daytona's 2.5-mile superspeedway followed by Saturday's road course event, the
ARCA Series will be back in action April 11, on the .555-mile oval at Salem
(IN) Speedway.
For more information about the ARCA
Series please visit www.arcaracing.com.
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