| Sour Finish Overshadows Strong
Showing For Patrick Sheltra At Iowa
“Sheltra Praying That Iowa Finish Is Team’s
Lone Mulligan Of Year”
NEWTON, Iowa (July 10, 2010) - - Patrick Sheltra entered
Saturday night’s Prairie Meadows 200 at Iowa Speedway
as the ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX and Menards
points leader but a motor failure 46 laps into the 200-lap
contest resulted in a disappointing 29th finish for the
Indiantown, Florida native.
Sheltra was making his fourth start at the .875-mile paved
oval and after notching the sixth and fastest (first) time
respectively in the day’s duo practice sessions, the
Sheltra Motorsports team had all the intuition that Saturday
night’s event could be the night that the Jon Wolfe-led
organization celebrated in victory lane.
In Menards Pole by Ansell qualifying, Sheltra maneuvered
his No. 60 Recycling Services / Ferguson Pipe Toyota Camry
to the eighth fastest time after the rising star admitted
that he overdrove his machine gunning for his first career
ARCA pole.
When the green flag dropped for the ninth race of the season,
“Mr. Showtime”, as he’s known in the ARCA
garage wasted no time slicing and dicing his way through
the front pack as by the completion of the fifth lap, Sheltra
had worked his way into the sixth position.
Studying the No. 16 Chevrolet of Joey Coulter for fifth,
Sheltra finally passed his fellow racing colleague by lap
15 and had set his sights on the top-four racers. As Sheltra
continued to inch closer to the lead pack, the ARCA pro
informed Wolfe that his brakes were shot and the pedal was
going to the floor, which virtually simultaneously caused
the No. 60 to begin a backslide in the running order.
Wolfe acknowledged his driver’s problem but also
gave his pilot a few pointers to try and challenge the braking
woes. On lap 38, a caution flew for a two-car incident which
allowed Sheltra to make a trip down pit road for four tires
and fuel and an overview of the braking system.
Under the yellow flag, Sheltra advised his Mooresville,
North Carolina based team that the brake pedal had returned
to its normal function from previously in the day. The team
was pleased with their driver’s final assessment of
the situation and had hoped that would be the only issue
the four year ARCA team would face during the night.
Restarting in the 12th position, Sheltra fiercely negotiated
his green and orange machine back into the top-10 and was
clearly on the move back towards the top-five when he radioed
the team on lap 46 that the motor was “done”.
Slowly, the frustrated driver made his way back to the
attention of his crew on pit lane where upon further review,
the engine seizure was diagnosed as terminal.
For the first time this year, Sheltra would finish a race
outside the top-10.
“Man, we had a good car, I hate for that to have
happen,” offered Sheltra. “It just wasn’t
our night. I guess, it’s all apart of racing –
my emotions are just all over the place right now because
we’ve worked so hard to make this team a factor week
in and week out. We did that again tonight, just didn’t
receive the result we were looking for. I want to thank
everyone on the team, our marketing partners and everyone
else who makes this deal possible. We’ll bounce back.
We’ll take this race as our mulligan and get back
on track next week at Mansfield.”
Sheltra’s finish on Saturday night halted an impressive
eight consecutive top-10 finishes in a row which started
off in the season-opener at Daytona (Fla.) International
Speedway in February where he finished fifth and before
Iowa, Sheltra finished a solid third at Michigan International
Speedway, the eighth race of the 2010 season.
The mishap ultimately slipped Sheltra to second in the
ARCA point standings now 70 markers behind Justin Marks,
who was leading the championship chase before the No. 60
team assumed the top position three races ago at Toledo
(Ohio) Speedway.
Next up for the ARCA Racing Series is a stop to Mansfield
(Ohio) Motorsports Park for the running of the second annual
Tim Richmond Memorial ARCA 200 next Saturday night, July
17th. Last year, Sheltra finished 21st in the No. 60 Sheltra
Motorsports Dodge Charger.
Cost-effective marketing partnerships are still available
for the remainder of the 2010 ARCA Racing Series season.
For additional information, please contact brandon@patricksheltra.com
or marketing@patricksheltra.com.
Exiting Iowa, Sheltra has 76 ARCA Racing Series presented
by RE/MAX and Menards starts to his credit with one career
victory at Salem (Ind.) Speedway (April 2009). During his
ARCA tenure, Sheltra has accumulated 15 top-fives and posted
30 top-10 finishes. A third place qualifying effort at Rockingham
(N.C.) Speedway (April 2009) and Michigan International
Speedway (June 2010) is Sheltra’s best time trials
effort to date. He has controlled the ARCA field six times
for 148 laps.
For the latest on Patrick Sheltra, Sheltra Motorsports
and marketing partnership opportunities please visit PatrickSheltra.com.
Join the official Patrick Sheltra fan page on Facebook by
clicking here.
About Sheltra Motorsports:
Sheltra Motorsports (sheltramotorsports.com) is a three-tier
professional Motorsports organization consisting of dirt
and asphalt competition. Patrick Sheltra, a 24-year old
native of Indiantown, Florida competes in the UMP and WoO
(Dirt) Series; while also running a full schedule in the
ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX and Menards (No.
60) and a limited schedule in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
The team is headquartered in Indiantown, Florida with additional
operations in Richmond, Indiana and Mooresville, North Carolina.
TEAM COMMUNICATIONS CONTACT:
Chris Knight, Sheltra Motorsports
P: 239.834.9797
E: chris@patricksheltra.com
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