Mitch Calvert
Predicts
first win
on horizon
Fort Frances native Steve Arpin and his Eddie Sharp Racing team are starting to enjoy the fruits of their labour on the ARCA RE/MAX Series.
The 25-year-old series rookie enjoyed his best finish on the circuit to date with an eighth-place showing in the Racing for Wildlife 200 at Michigan International Speedway on Friday.
“I told you it’s starting to come in the right direction,” Arpin remarked.
“We were running top three most of the day and then we had to make a green flag pit stop [halfway through the race] because we were just about out of fuel, but as soon as we got back on the track, the caution [flag] came out [and] we got stuck a lap down,” he recalled.
“We eventually raced our lap back, but kept on getting caution after caution the last bit of the race,” Arpin lamented.
After racing back onto the lead lap, Arpin grazed the wall and had to pit again—restarting the race in 17th place. But he quickly moved into 13th one lap in when the race went live again.
The last restart prevented him from making up much ground, but Arpin eventually moved up five spots in a four-wide battle on the final lap.
“The last restart had us run around caution for the last 10 laps and I was in 13th at the time, but made up some ground on the last lap,” he noted.
“Like I said before, we’ve been getting a whole lot of good people on board with our program,” Arpin stressed.
“We were in tough shape there for a while,” he admitted. “The program was in a little bit of a mess, but these guys have been working on straightening it out.
“It’s not something you can just flick a switch and it happens overnight, but they’ve worked their butts off at it and now we’ve got the program where we want it to be and can start tuning and improving each and every week,” he enthused.
Arpin started Friday’s race in 13th place based on owners’ points because qualifying had to be postponed due to weather for the fourth-straight race.
Meanwhile, in between his high school prom last week and final exams this week, 18-year-old ARCA RE/MAX Series rookie Parker Kligerman took the checkered flag at Michigan to capture the points lead with 1,875 on the year.
Justin Lofton is second with 1,830 while tour veteran Frank Kimmel is well back in third (1,700).
Arpin currently is 10th overall with 1,430.
The ARCA RE/MAX Series visits Mansfield, Ohio this Saturday night for the inaugural running of the Tim Richmond Memorial.
Richmond, who was born and raised in nearby Ashland, had a successful NASCAR career after graduating from ARCA.
Everything is very new to Arpin in this his first year on the circuit—and this weekend will be no different.
“Every single track we go to [from now on], it will be my first time there,” he explained. “It definitely kills us when practice and qualifying gets rained out.
“We’ve been getting short little sessions first thing in the morning before the race, but that just doesn’t do it,” he remarked.
The former Emo Speedway driver is hopeful his first win is on the horizon.
“We’re leading up to our first win here. Iowa [July 11] is going to be our first win, if not Mansfield,” he predicted.
