by Gregg Paul
The ARCA Midwest Tour presented by SCAG Power Equipment and Lester Buildings In conjunction with the ARCA/CRA Super Series powered by JEGS staged the Border Wars 7Up 150 at the Toledo Speedway. When the twin checkered flags flew it was Johnny Van Doorn holding off ARCA Midwest Touring star Chris Wimmer by a mere .502 seconds.
Battle Lines Drawn Almost Down The Middle
There were forty three cars that made the trek to Toledo Speedway for the Border Wars 7Up 150. Twenty three of those cars were from the ARCA Midwest Tour, while twenty were ARCA/CRA Super Series cars.
The starting lineup featured sixteen from the ARCA Midwest Tour and fourteen from the ARCA/CRA Super Series.
The top twenty finishers were split down the middle with ten cars from each series.
Of the fourteen cars that did not make the main event, seven cars were from each series.
New Track Record Set In Qualifying
Johnny Van Doorn set a new qualifying record at the Toledo Speedway with a quick lap of 15.197. Chris Wimmer went out to qualify right after Van Doorn, and also broke the old track record, but fell short at a 15.267. Bubba Pollard (15.281) and Kyle Benjamin (15.330) also eclipsed the old record of 15.370 that was set by Brian Campbell almost a year earlier.
Tracking The Touring Stars
The fourteen drivers that are part of the ARCA Midwest Tour Touring Stars program had varying degrees of success on the weekend. Chris Wimmer fared the best by both qualifying and finishing the race in second position. Skylar Holzhausen and Nathan Haseleu finished in third and fourth respectively in the race. Dan Fredrickson was 12th, Cardell Potter was 14th, Jacob Goede was 16th after leading many laps in the early going. Jeff Storm was 17th, Jonathan Eilen was 23rd, and the Weinkauf brothers were the first two cars out of the race with Jason finishing 29th, while Chris wound up in 30th.
Unfortunately for a few of the Touring Stars, they did not qualify for the main event of the evening. They included, former champion Andrew Morrissey, Rich Bickle, and 2013 rookie of the year contenders James Swan and Jeremy Miller.
Points Are A Non Factor
Despite the Border Wars 7Up 150 being an official ARCA Midwest Tour event, it was decided that in all fairness to the many drivers who would not have been able to make the long trip to Toledo, that each driver who was fully registered and presented a car for qualifying tech from the ARCA Midwest Tour would be given 200 points regardless of their finishing position. That means that all of the twenty three drivers who competed at Toledo are now tied for first place in the point standings.
5th Annual Joe Shear Classic At Madison International Speedway On Deck
The next event for the ARCA Midwest Tour will be the 5th Annual Joe Shear Classic on Sunday May 5th at the Madison International Speedway. Joining the cars and stars of the Super Late Models will be the SCAG Power Equipment Midwest Truck Tour and the Legends cars. There will be an optional practice session on Saturday May 4th beginning at noon and going until 5pm.
Sunday May 5th will be a full race day of practice, qualifying, and racing action. The festivities get underway with practice at 11:30am. Qualifying will start at 1:15pm with the racing action set to begin at 2:30pm.
The race is named in honor of the newly elected member of the South Eastern Wisconsin Short Track Racing Hall of Fame, the legendary Joe Shear. The race will be a 100 lap contest with a break coming at lap 64. That will leave a 36 lap shootout in honor of the car number made so famous by Joe Shear.
Be sure to follow the ARCA Midwest Tour on Facebook (midwesttour) and Twitter (@midwesttour).
To learn more about the Automobile Racing Club of America Midwest Tour, log on toarcamidwesttour.com. For questions call the ARCA Midwest Tour office at (262) 729-4111 or Tim Olson at (612) 327-5831 or Steve Einhaus (630) 212-6022 at or e-mail Tim Olson at tim@arcamidwesttour.comor Steve Einhaus at steve@arcamidwesttour.com.
The Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) is among the leading auto racing sanctioning bodies in the country. Founded in 1953 by John and Mildred Marcum, the organization administers more than 100 events each year in multiple racing series, including the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards, the ARCA/CRA Super Series, the ARCA Truck Series and the ARCA Midwest Tour, plus weekly racing at Toledo and Flat Rock Speedways.
