Wausau, WI – Chris Wimmer kept his ARCA Midwest Tour top-five streak alive with another solid finish, this time at the Joe Shear Classic at Madison International Speedway. “I thought we had a pretty good day overall in Madison,” says Chris Wimmer, “My car got tighter and tighter as the race went on but any time you can bring home a top-five finish on the Midwest Tour circuit is a good day.”
Wimmer qualified his Preval Chevy 11th out of over 30 cars and began the 100-lap feature from the pole position. Wimmer held steady in the top five and fell back to sixth just before the break. At lap 64, the caution flew, signaling a 10-minute break for all teams and setting up a 36-lap dash to the finish in honor of the late Joe Shear. “We made a few changes at the break,” says Wimmer, “I tried a few things to free the car up more, but during those first 64 laps I also seemed to be having some issues with my motor. It kept shutting off down the straight away, but whatever it was we fixed at the break.”
Wimmer restarted from the 6th position and worked his way back up into the top-five in just a few short laps. The final 36 laps were plagued by restarts, but every time, whether on the high side or low side, Wimmer held his ground. With just under 20 laps to go, Wimmer made his move in to the top four, but just ten laps later was passed by veteran driver Rich Bickle. Wimmer held strong in the fifth spot to bring home his second straight top-five finish of the year. “We definitely learned some things this race,” says Wimmer, “These tires we run on are difficult to get used to, but hopefully we can take what we learn and keep improving and get back up in to the top three.”
Next up for Wimmer and the ARCA Midwest Tour is a stop at Wimmer’s home track of State Park Speedway. “It’s always nice when you can race close to home,” says Wimmer, “I had a good run there in a local show last year, so hopefully we can put some things together and have a strong day.”
