Part 1of 2: Chris Tells His Side Of The Story
by Gregg Paul
When the ARCA Midwest Tour presented by SCAG Power Equipment and Lester Buildings rolls into the Marshfield Motor Speedway for their 100 lapper on June 29th, the Weinkauf brothers will battle each other as well as the rest of the Touring Stars. While Jason is a member of Team DOC 360 and Chris is a member of Team Spiked Island as part of the ARCA Midwest Tour’s Touring Stars program, they are teammates in the VanDerGeest stable of race cars. A situation that seemingly has many more benefits than controversies.
In this two part story, each driver will tell his side of the story of how being brothers, teammates, and competitors shape the way they tackle the challenges of racing.
Chris Weinkauf has won multiple times at Marshfield Motor Speedway over the years and battled his brother Jason in many of those races. Chris does feel a certain amount of pressure every time he returns to MMS, but he relishes the challenges that it presents.
“I think it adds a certain pressure going back to a track that I raced at weekly,” said Chris. “People know you and it is nice to see familiar faces and people that I only see when I go to MMS. You always want to run good in front of a home crowd, so there’s the pressure! We normally run pretty decent there just need to capitalize! So we are adding to ourselves the pressure to piece together the perfect setup from all our experience.”
Speaking of experience, it also has to be a unique experience in not only racing against your brother, but also in having him as a teammate. Sibling rivalry brings on its own challenges, yet it is something that works both for and against the Weinkaufs. You don’t see them messing with each other at the track like you’d think most brothers would do.
“My brother is my brother in the shop and in the pits,” said Chris. “We always try to help each other out but when we get on the track, he is the driver of the 76 car and that is it. He is no different than any other race car once I hit the track. My goal is to win. We work together at our daily job so that keeps everything pretty serious …we just like to mess with everyone else!”
Messing with everyone else wouldn’t be possible without the help of the VanDerGeest family. Their sponsorship and generosity to the racing community as a whole is something that the Weinkaufs know and certainly appreciate.
“VanDerGeest’s have been helping us Weinkaufs for a long time whether it was farming with my dad or Jay now with my brother and I,” said Chris. “He was a big part of our last full season at MMS as his sponsorship from Jay VanDerGeest Cattle flashed across the finish line on our hoods a lot that year. Jason and I finished 1-2 in at lot of races and the championship! Jay is a big family man and generous man that loves the sport! When he had the opportunity to have our family join his race team he jumped at it! Running the Midwest Tour would be very hard without him as it takes a lot of dedication from team members and owners!”
It’s that dedication to family that helps makes the Weinkaufs and VanDerGeests an integral part of the ARCA Midwest Tour.
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.
