Catchfence

(TOLEDO, Ohio) – Tucked just inside the eastern border of Indiana – one of America’s most noteworthy racing states – is Winchester Speedway, where the contenders in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards will compete Saturday in the Winchester ARCA 200 presented by Federated Auto Parts.

The smooth, half-mile oval first hosted racing in 1920, and has earned a reputation as the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile,” in part a result of the exciting 21 ARCA Racing Series events held at the track since 1957.

This weekend, ARCA returns to Winchester for the first time since 2007, when Billy Leslie held off a hard-charging Brian Keselowski and five-time Winchester winner Frank Kimmel. The Winchester ARCA 200 will begin at 8 p.m. Saturday, preceded by practice and Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell earlier in the day. ARCARacing.com will feature live timing and scoring of all events.

“It’s important for the ARCA Racing Series to go back to Winchester Speedway,” said ARCA president Ron Drager. “It’s exactly the type of Midwestern facility where the ARCA brand is well-known and has the chance to be successful. Winchester is big enough and fast enough to play to the very nature of our cars.”

Drivers will prepare for the 200-lap, 100-mile race with a 90-minute practice at 1:45 p.m. and Menards Pole Qualifying at 4:45, and fans will be treated to a driver autograph session on the track at 6:45.

Featuring a 37-degree banking, Winchester is known for true speed and has hosted numerous USAC Silver Crown, Midget, and Sprint events in addition to its history with ARCA. The storied facility also hosts highly successful CRA events, including Labor Day weekend and the Winchester 400.

Kimmel, an Indiana native and driver of the No. 44 Ansell/Menards Ford, is the leading ARCA Racing Series winner at Winchester, with five victories (1996, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006).

“Winchester is exactly the kind of track we need to be racing at,” Kimmel said. “It’s perfect for these big heavy stock cars, and what a show. I think Winchester is one of the best half-miles in the country, bar none. When it was repaved, I thought it wasn’t going to be as good, but it actually got a lot better. It made a lane in the middle and made it a really racy race track.”

One of the oldest speedways in America, Winchester debuted in 1914 as a flat half-mile dirt oval and remained that way through 1921. The high-banks were added in time for the 1922 season; however, the track would not be paved until 1952. A 1995 re-paving provided the surface found today.

“Before they repaved it, it was a lot like Salem where you had really only one good lane to work with – through the middle in one and two and higher up in three and four,” Kimmel said. “But now, you can put the car about anywhere on the track. You can actually pass someone without running them over.”

The race is the first for ARCA at Winchester since Hoosier introduced a short track radial tire to the series, a move instituted for the 2008 season.

“The speeds will be up,” Kimmel said. “The radial is just a better tire than the bias-ply so I’m curious to see how that could affect the outcome.”

Kimmel, who is currently second in points to Ty Dillon (No. 41 Richard Childress Racing Development Chevrolet), is followed on the Winchester win list by three-time series champ Tim Steele, who won four times (1993, 1995, 1997, 2001).

ARCA’s tenure at Winchester reaches back to 1957, when Don O’Dell won the inaugural event in a Chevrolet. Other ARCA winners at Winchester over the years include Jack Bowsher (1964), Ralph Latham (1972), Bobby Watson (1972), two-time series champion Marvin Smith, who won back-to-back races in 1982 and 1983, and 1988 series champion Tracy Leslie, who won in 1988 and 1989. Other winners include Bob Keselowski (1990), Gary Bradberry (1994), and Bob Strait (1998).

The event is scheduled as the ninth of 19 on the 2011 ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards schedule.

The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards features 19 events at 16 tracks on its 2011 schedule. The series 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 tests the abilities of drivers and race teams over the most diverse schedule of stock car racing events in the world, annually 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.

Founded by John 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 two professional touring series and local weekly events.

- Automobile Racing Club of America Press Release