Part 2of 2: Jason Tells His Side Of The Story
by Gregg Paul
The ARCA Midwest Tour presented by SCAG Power Equipment and Lester Buildings brings you part two of a story on how the Weinkauf brothers handle the pressures and challenges of racing together. Team DOC 360 Touring Star Jason Weinkauf tells his side of the story.
Jason Weinkauf is no stranger to winning at Marshfield Motor Speedway. Jason has multiple feature wins and consecutive track championships in 2009 and 2010 to go along with his first career win in the ARCA Midwest Tour in 2011. He is anxious to return to see if he can recapture the glory of past successes.
“We have had a lot of success running weekly at MMS in the past, winning the track championship in 2009 and 2010, and coming real close to three-peating, finishing second in 2011,” said Jason. “Which was probably the most impressive as we skipped two nights earlier in that season and then went on to win multiple feature wins as well as set fast time in every single appearance we were in that season. But we know what we’re up against in the ARCA Midwest Tour series, running against the best drivers in the upper Midwest and even though we consider MMS our “home track” because of our past weekly success, that can only take us so far. We have to be at our very best in order to compete for the win. Despite this tough task ahead of us, we do really look forward to the series returning to MMS because we have had some series success there in the past in capturing our first ever Midwest Tour victory in 2011. We lost a motor in our primary 76 car a few weeks before that and having to jump into the “bosses” 23 car (as we like to refer to our car owner Jay VanDerGeest). That win was definitely the highlight of my career, so far.”
Just like his brother Chris, Jason looks at their racing relationship a bit differently than their family relationship. The typical sibling rivalry has been geared towards being on the professional side as opposed to the childish side.
“Racing against Chris has always been fun,” said Jason. “We’re brothers, but when we’re on the track we’re both super competitive and we both want to beat each other. We pretty much treat each other as “just another racer” out there in the event, but still help each other out the best that we can in the pits, as well as in the shop. We haven’t had a ton of 1 – 2 finishes in our careers (we’d definitely love to see more, especially in the tour), but I think I have the edge, when it comes out to who was on the top of most of those battles. That’s probably not what others would have imagined, as overall Chris has had a more consistent career of running up front.”
Jason certainly appreciates the help and stability that a good sponsor and race team can bring. The VanDerGeest’s have helped both Jason and Chris remain competitive and always a threat to win, especially at their “home track” at MMS.
“We used to be a self funded race team, but now we’re in our third year together with VanDerGeest racing,” said Jason. “That also consists of Jay, who races himself weekly at State Park Speedway. Our car owners, the VanDerGeest’s, Jay, Kristen and Levon have been great. We wouldn’t be running the Tour if it wasn’t for them providing us with all the tools and resources we need to do what we love to do. Many people don’t realize that they just love racing and love helping people out. Whether it’s putting on food at their motor home at the tracks for other racers and even the series workers, to constantly calling up the series directors with ideas to make the Tour better. Overall we’ve had our ups and downs the last two and a half seasons, but I think it’s only made us stronger and I believe there are good things to come for us the rest of this season.”
Those good things just might come to them beginning at Marshfield Motor Speedway on June 29th.
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 to arcamidwesttour.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.
