Under brisk but crystal clear blue skies over a dozen ARCA RE/MAX Series (ARS) teams participated in the fifth open test session of the 2008 season preparing their automobiles for the ninth event on the 2008 ARS calendar, the Michigan ARCA 200 set to commence on Friday, June 13th shortly after 5:00 p.m. EST .
The series returns to the facility for the 27th time since 1980 with ARCA driver Patrick Sheltra poised to make his third career start at the two-mile oval.
Last year, Sheltra aboard his familiar No. 60 Chevrolet entry, qualified 24th but showed maturity and patience by guiding his Grace Sheltra owned machine to the 14th position, one of 20 machines on the lead circuit (100 laps complete). In 2006, Sheltra driving for veteran NASCAR driver Ken Schrader Sheltra finished 33rd after experience in an engine failure in the Hantz Group 200.
Unlike the previous two seasons, Sheltra will not bring a Chevrolet for race competition. Instead, Sheltra and his Whitesville, Kentucky based Sheltra Motorsports team will bring a Dodge Charger with their signature Camouflage paint scheme. Prior to Tuesday’s test, the team has run a Dodge Charger in two of the seven ARCA RE/MAX Series events this season awarding the team with two straight top-10 finishes at Kansas Speedway and Kentucky Speedway respectively.
Teams took to the track shortly after 9:00am local time with the complete day of testing scheduled to end at 5:00pm local time.
PATRICK SHELTRA, NO. 60 FERGUSON PIPE ENTERPRISES, INC.-FLORAGANICS-THE CASITE COMPANY DODGE CHARGER:
SHELTRA: (ON MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY) “Michigan International Speedway is an amazing place. A huge track with a lot of history. I’ve raced here twice with one bad finish and one solid finish. This year, I would like to make a statement at Michigan International Speedway and put our team in victory lane in the “Motor City.”
SHELTRA: (YOU CHANGED MOTORS JUST PRIOR TO THE BREAK) “Yeah, we felt like we were losing some horsepower. We were turning some pretty good laps early and then we just started falling off the pace. We didn’t want to completely lose the motor so we pulled it out and put the back-up in. We’re not worried, just glad that we diagnosed the problem here at the test rather than race weekend.”
SHELTRA: (ON WEDNESDAY’S TEST SESSION) “This is a brand new piece for us this weekend. It’s another Dodge that we’ve acquired from Penske Racing and I know it will be a great piece. We just want to get a good feel for this car, shake out the bugs and make sure our RC Consultants motors have some serious steam. We want to come back here in a couple weeks and be the car to beat.”
SHELTRA: (WHAT IS THE KEY TO MASTERING MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY?) “You have to have a good down force car and you have to some power under the hood. We’re lucky enough we’ve acquired some great equipment from the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series side and it’s been dividends for us. RC Consultants does our engines for the Dodge program and they have really stepped up to the plate and poured out some horsepower. I’m very confident in our abilities for this race and I know that we can be a car to beat.”
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