The 2024 ARCA Menards Series happened this past Friday night and Saturday morning/afternoon, which saw more than 70+ drivers hit the track for the weekend.
Friday’s Session:
Friday was delayed due to weather for over 5 hours and 37 minutes, but it still happened when the track was lightened up under the dark Florida skies, which saw Venturini Motorsports go 1-2-3-4 on the speed charts all under the 49-second mark.
Venturini Motorsports Lap Times:
No.20 – Jake Finch – 48.878
No.25 – Toni Breidinger – 48.916
No.15 – Kris Wright – 48.925
No.55 – Gus Dean – 48.978
The lap time set by Jake Finch was 184.132 MPH.
Former IndyCar driver Marco Andretti finished the night in 5th for Cook Racing Technologies in their No.17 entry with a time of 49.350 (182.371 MPH).
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, though, as a late-night incident happened on track with Amber Balcaen, driver of the No.22 Venturini Motorsports entry, as she had an issue caused by a broken track bar mount sent her into the Turn 1 wall.
Balcaen was fine after the incident, and only cosmetic damage happened to the Venturini Toyota Camry.
Saturday’s Session:
William Sawalich finished with the fastest lap in the Saturday testing session with a time of 49.318 (182.489 MPH).
Top 5 Fast Times for Saturday:
1st – No.18S – William Sawalich – 49.318
2nd – No.53E – Patrick Emerling – 49.332
3rd – No.2 – Andres Perez de lara – 49.349
4th – No.02B – Anthony Bello – 49.357
5th – 18G – Tanner Gray – 49.379
Saturday also had its fair share of incidents.
Debris was left on track coming out of the Tri-Oval from the No.73 of Andy Jankowiak, and no caution was called for it.
5 minutes later, a pack of cars hit it, and it caused major damage to the No.34 entry of Isaac Johnson with Greg Van Alst Racing.
The front end was destroyed, and the team wasn’t able to take any more laps during the rest of the session.
After all of this, a safety truck spun off the track twice in Turn 1, trying to clean up oil from the Johnson incident, as photographed in the tweet below:
After the track was cleaned up, the cars went out for another drafting session, and it didn’t last for long as the No.07 of Jeff Scofield cut a left rear tire and spun into the No.73P of Andrew Patterson.
Both cars suffered damage, with the No.73P getting the most of it.
There were no more incidents from the rest of the test, but there was an interesting moment for the No.93 Coster-Weaver Motorsports Team.
The team made a lap of 48.188, which was faster than any other lap taken that weekend.
Soon after, ARCA officials announced the team was disallowed due to a technical violation, and the team was also disqualified from the test entirely.
There were a lot of drivers that impressed a lot of people this weekend, and they deserve some shoutouts:
Kyle Keller and Emerling-Gase Motorsports
Keller, an ARCA Series West regular, had an amazing test weekend and was featured in the Top 5 in both testing sessions before drafting groups started. He finished 25th overall.
Also, a quick shoutout to team owner Patrick Emerling for finishing 6th overall. Emerling led most of the day Saturday before leaving the track at 1pm.
Dale Quarterly
“¼ Man,” as they call him, did a wonderful job and placed 11th overall for the weekend with a fast lap of 49.401.
Mandy Chick
Chick had a really good session and showed impressive speed. She was in the Top 10 for a lot of both sessions and finished 16th overall with a fast lap of 49.545.
Mullins Racing
The group over at Mullins Racing had a very good session and led for a majority early. Willie Mullins and Co. finished with overall times of:
21st – Willie Mullins – 49.896
23rd – Ryan Kuhn – 50.005
28th – Blake Lothian – 50.334
33rd – Davey Callihan – 50.722
Presley Sorah
Presley had a great weekend despite having to switch cars due to an engine issue diagnosed early on during the test. He finished 74th overall with a time of 56.359, which is really good considering the SB2 engine the team used.
Next time, the ARCA Menards Series will be on track for the big event, The ARCA 200, at Daytona on February 17th at 1:30pm EST on Fox Sports 1.
Image Sources: 3 – Mullins Racing Facebook
74 – Mandy Chick Facebook
06 – Devan Mello Photography
53 and 4 – Zachary Tinkle
Well done. I would like to read follow up on some of the comments, accidents, reasons why Scofield Ilmor motor ran so fast, etc.
We will see what we can do Craig!
Update on incidents: No.34 of Isaac Johnson car is not totaled but it will be fixed for Daytona. No.73 will be fine for Daytona. No.07 of Scofield will be fine for Daytona and get everything fixed up. No.22 of Balcaen will be fine after breaking a trackbar mount. I have no idea how the Scofield Ilmor was fast but my guess because it’s a brand new engine.
A person at the track said Ilmor intake manifolds are two piece and it possibly sucked a gasket into the motor. Hmm. It is plausible and I don’t think ARCA will fine anyone at this test session as it was a police yourself inspection line. Ilmor might know the answer but a new engine is not the correct answer.
Craig Jackson