Kligerman, Coulter, Goess Lead Powerful Parade of
ARCA RE/MAX Series Rookies to Pocono
From ARCAracing.com
LONG POND PA (7-14-09) - Jam-packed with story lines and a stampede of race-ready rookies, the ARCA RE/MAX Series will soon trek in an easterly direction to Long Pond, Pennsylvania for the Pennsylvania ARCA 200 at Pocono Raceway, Saturday afternoon, August 1st. The event marks the 49th appearance of the RE/MAX Series on the 2.5-mile Pocono triangle since July of 1983.
While nine-time ARCA RE/MAX Series national champion Frank Kimmel has occupied much of the headlines over the last decade, it's the rookies that are stealing the show in 2009.
One of those rookies would be Penske Development driver Parker Kligerman, who leads both the championship standings and Rookie of the Year standings halfway through the 2009 season. On the strength of four wins in the last five events, the recent high school graduate has taken the series by storm.
"I'm going to Pocono the same way I've gone everywhere else - with no expectations," said Kligerman. "I just gave a speech in my high school speech class about this. When I head into a race weekend I don't know anything about the track or the car so I really don't have any expectations about how I am going to do or how the weekend will turn out. That is how I have been able to do so well."
And do so well he has done. In 12 career ARCA RE/MAX Series starts, Kligerman has earned 11 top-10 finishes, and here lately, mostly top-fives or better, including victories at Toledo Speedway, Michigan Int'l Speedway, Mansfield Motorsports Park and Iowa Speedway.
"I just want to thank Kerry Scherer, Briggs Cunningham, Mark Gibson, my crew chief Chris Carrier and everyone at Penske Racing. We seem to be doing really well this year and we won again tonight (at Iowa) so I think we picked up some points in the championship race."
Currently, five of the top-10 title contenders are rookies; they include Kligerman, Craig Goess, Steve Arpin, Tim George, Jr. and 19-year-old Joey Coulter. Coulter, like Kligerman, is another rookie on a roll.
"I've got to congratulate Parker (Kligerman); he is really on a roll right now," said Coulter, who had just finished third at Iowa.
Coulter is on a roll of his own. He recently moved to fifth in championship points on the heels of four consecutive top-five finishes and a pole award at Iowa, a career-first for the Miami Springs, Florida driver.
In addition to fielding cars for Justin Lofton (second in points), Eddie Sharp Racing (ESR) will also field cars for three rookies at Pocono - Craig Goess (6th in points), Steve Arpin (7th in points) and Tim George, Jr. (9th in points).
The ARCA RE/MAX Series winners list at Pocono is impressive; it includes Tim Steele, Bob Schacht, Mike Wallace, Blaise Alexander, Kerry Earnhardt, Ryan Newman, Casey Atwood, Casey Mears, Scott Riggs, Frank Kimmel, Travis Kvapil, Justin Allgaier and Joey Logano to name a few.
On-track activity for the Pennsylvania ARCA 200 starts Friday, July 31 with practice from 10:15 AM to 11:55 AM. Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell follows at 1:45 PM. The Pennsylvania ARCA 200 kicks off Saturday afternoon, August 1 at 1:00 PM and is live on SPEED.
In addition, ARCAracing.com will feature live timing & scoring and live streaming audio of all the on-track activity via the ARCA Racing Network.
Tickets for the Pennsylvania ARCA 200, the Sprint Cup Series Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 events are available by contacting the Pocono Raceway Ticket Office at 1-800-RACEWAY (1-800-722-3929), or through PoconoRaceway.com.
|
