Catchfence

POCONO, PA (Aug 2, 2009) Steve Arpin notched another top-five finish in ARCA RE/MAX Series action Saturday afternoon at Pocono Raceway as he took the Venturini Motorsports Toyota to a fourth-place run in the Pennsylvania 200. In his first outing for the team, the talented driver from Fort Frances, Ontario kept the Pinewood Sports Camry at the front of the pack throughout the day on the testy 2.5 mile superspeedway and would go on to eventually lead nine circuits of the event, pacing the field on laps 38-41 and 43-47. A late race battle between Arpin and series points leader Parker Kligerman would result in a crash ending the latter’s day and leaving Arpin with the challenge of salvaging the fourth position when the checkered flag waved.

‘I’m excited about what’s going to come in the near future with our new team,’ said the enthusiastic Arpin after the Pocono run. ‘We had a great car today and got a good feel for the direction we are going to be heading as we move on. It took a few laps to get adjusted to the new feel today, but its only going to get better and better each week,’ Arpin pointed out. ‘It was great working with Billy and we really understand each other about the car. I’m all smiles coming out of Pocono and looking forward to our next race together.’

Arpin’s strong run began on the first green flag lap as he raced toward the front picking up a couple of spots on the first lap, then roared into third-place following the race’s first caution period. Arpin used that restart in his debut pairing with Venturini Motorsports to move closer to a possible first career ARCA win for the twenty-five year old Candian racer and he would stay in contention for the win throughout the race as he would eventually find himself holding down the second spot from laps 48-80.

Arpin was posed to again challenge for the top spot with less than 10 laps remaining when the caution flag waved for a car stalled in turn one and bunching up the field for a restart with four laps to go. It was shortly following this restart that Arpin and Kligerman would each have their sights set on leader Justin Loftin as they dueled in the closing laps. The battle between Arpin and Kligerman would come to an end when the two cars touched exiting the final turn with just three laps remaining, ending the day for Kligerman and leaving Arpin with just enough damage to his car to compromise its aerodynamics and put a bittersweet ending on the day.

‘We had an awesome car and it was a pleasure to drive,’ Arpin said as he recapped the closing stages of the race and incident with Kligerman. ‘It’’s a bad deal that we got together with Parker there at the end. He races all of us clean each and every week. I feel horrible for getting into him; we just got a little tight and got his left rear. He had a shot at winning that race and we were still in it to win it as well,’ Arpin added. ‘All of us here at Venturini Motorsports are excited about the new partnership and we are going to win some races this year. It was an awesome first weekend with Venturini Motorsports,’ Arpin concluded.

Arpin would still restart in second following the tangle with Kligerman for a two-lap overtime shootout and Arpin holding on to an extremely tight handling machine, but manage to bring the Pinewood Sports / SpeedShop backed entry home to a career best fourth-place ARCA finish position in the green-white-checkered flag conclusion. Arpin gained ground in the series points battle closing in on a top-five ranking on the tour as he continues to be shown in seventh place of the season-long driver championship.

With eight of the 2009 championship battles remaining on the ARCA RE/MAX Series to decide the title, Arpin will find himself literally on familiar ground in several of the of the tour’s upcoming stops on a barnstorming schedule across America’s heartland. Although the Canadian racing Arpin hasn’t competed on several of the tracks, he’s hoping his strong and successful career on dirt aids his run for the win when the ARCA RE/MAX series returns to action on Sunday afternoon, August 23rd on the one-mile dirt oval at the Illinois State Fairgrounds and annual 100 mile event. For event info click onto http://www.arcaracing.com/tracks_detail.cfm?trackID=229

This season marks Arpin’s first full year of asphalt racing experience after several stellar seasons on dirt in which the young Canadian talent became a dominant force and earned numerous titles while racking up wins in his open wheel modified against the strongest competition in North America while attracting the attention of some of the sports biggest names. Last season Arpin claimed the USAC Silver Crown Rookie of the Year award and prior to moving into auto racing Arpin earned 7 world championships in snowmobile competition as lead pilot for Team Polaris. In Arpin’s new role with Venturini Motorsports associates at Taylor Motorsports, Lo-N-Bro Enterprises and Pinewood Sports & Marine continue to play supporting roles in the team efforts. The official web site for Steve Arpin on the internet is www.stevearpin.net.