“We’ve been working with officials at Palm Beach Int’l Raceway for well over a year, and today’s announcement has been highly anticipated by everyone at ARCA,” said ARCA President Ron Drager. “The PBIR venue and market represents a key addition to the 2010 schedule and we certainly look forward to working with Jason Rittenberry, Ron Dixon, Emily Brown and everyone at PBIR. We expect a large number of our teams to visit the facility based on common travel over the next couple months with the Performance Racing Industry trade show in Orlando Dec. 10-12, the ARCA sanctioned open test at Daytona Int’l Speedway Dec. 18-20, and the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 race at Daytona Feb. 6.”
PBIR joins the previously announced August 15 race date at New Jersey Motorsports Park as one of two road course venues on the 2010 schedule. Long recognized as the most versatile sanction in motorsports, ARCA has toured more than 200 racetracks in the U.S. and Canada since its inception in 1953. The 2010 schedule, which is expected to be released in full in the coming days, features a diverse combination of road courses, superspeedways and short tracks on both paved and dirt surfaces.
Boasting an 11-turn, 2.034-mile design and FIA Grade II certified, PBIR’s state-of-the-art road course features some of the fastest and most challenging corners, elevation changes and straightaways offered by any track in North America and is currently approved as an IndyCar testing facility. Technologically superior, the road course showcases a seamless table-top smooth finish, full lighting, S.A.V.E. soft barriers and run-off areas.
“We are excited to host the ARCA Series on the road course in 2010,” stated Jason Rittenberry, CEO and President of Palm Beach International Raceway. “It is a milestone for PBIR since this event will be the first-ever stock car race at the facility. We look forward to a long-term relationship with ARCA, their staff and the competitors in the series.”
The February 27, 2010 ARCA race date marks the sanction’s inaugural appearance at PBIR and the 13th time that the nationally touring stock car series has contested a road course race. Most recently, ARCA raced on New Jersey Motorsports Park’s 2.3-mile Thunderbolt Course in 2008 and 2009, with a third ARCA race planned at NJMP in 2010. ARCA made its road course racing debut in 1958 at the now defunct Meadowdale Raceway in Carpentersville, Illinois.
The list of former ARCA road course winners is impressive, including Fred Lorenzen (Meadowdale 1958), Nelson Stacy (Meadowdale 1960), Curtis Turner (Virginia Int’l Raceway 1962), Elmer Musgrave (Meadowdale 1964), Jack Bowsher (Mid Ohio Sports Car Course 1965), Bob Schacht (St. Louis Int’l Raceway 1986), Ken Schrader (Heartland Park Topeka 1991), Darrell Waltrip (Heartland Park Topeka 1992), Scott Lagasse, Sr. (Streets of Des Moines 1994), John Finger (Watkins Glen Int’l 2001), Justin Allgaier (New Jersey Motorsports Park 2008) and Patrick Long (New Jersey Motorsports Park 2009).
Tickets to the February 27 ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX race at Palm Beach Int’l Raceway are available at http://www.racepbir.com.
The 2010 ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX kicks off at Daytona Int’l Speedway on Saturday, February 6 with the 47th running of the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200. The entire 2010 ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX schedule will be released on arcaracing.com in the coming days.
- ARCA Press Release