by Jana Wimmer
Sept 26th, 2014 – Nick Barstad entered the 2014 ARCA Midwest Tour presented by Scag Power Equipment season with hopes to compete for the Rookie of the Year title, but a lack of funding forced him to miss three of the eleven races and allowed Ty Majeski to open up a huge gap in the Rookie of the Year battle. Even so, he currently finds himself eighth in overall point standings and second amongst rookie drivers. “We fell short of funding for Milwaukee,” said Nick Barstad, “Being that it is a big event that requires more practice tires, etc and is hard on equipment.”
Barstad hoped to have a strong run last weekend at his home track of Elko Speedway. He sat just outside the top five at the break, but then a mechanical failure ended his night early. “We were really disappointed we didn’t get the chance to finish,” said Barstad, “The third link moved and it made the car a handful to drive after about lap 30 and we weren’t able to catch what was going on at the break and eventually broke the rear end. We worked hard to test and try new things for Elko being it’s our home track and just 15 minutes from home. We felt it was going to be our best race of the year.”
Mechanical failures also plagued Barstad at two other tracks where he hoped for a good run. An early exit from Dells and Grundy served as low points during the season.
The highlight of Barstad’s year came at an unexpected place, Hawkeye Downs Speedway, a place he had never turned any laps, but brought home a top-ten finish in sixth place. “The long hours in the shop refining our old car we have had since my Big 8 Series days finally paid off,” said Barstad, “It felt good to have such a good run.”
Barstad and crew will work hard to get the car back together before the season finale at La Crosse Speedway next weekend, where Barstad has a full plate of racing. “We will be running as many races as we can during Fest including the Oktoberfest 200,” said Barstad, “We are excited to see what a 200-lap race is like since the farthest distance we have gone is 125 laps.”
Be sure to follow the ARCA Midwest Tour on Facebook (midwesttour) and Twitter (@midwesttour).
For complete event details log on to arcamidwesttour.com.
Upcoming Event Information
What: 45th Annual Oktoberfest
Where: West Salem, WI
When: October 4th-5th, 2014
To learn more about the Automobile Racing Club of America Midwest Tour, log on to arcamidwesttour.com. For questions, call Tim Olson at (612) 327-5831 or e-mail tim@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.
