| Patrick Sheltra Revived Heading To Chicagoland
JOLIET, Illinois (September 3, 2008) - - Feeling refreshed
after his awesome second place finish earlier this week
at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds, Patrick Sheltra heads
to Chicagoland Speedway this weekend looking to put an exclamation
point to Monday’s run.
The Indiantown, Florida native will make his third start
at the 1.5-mile speedway and looking for his first top-10
finish there. In his most recent start at Chicagoland Speedway,
Sheltra qualified a solid 16th and hovered in the top-15
for much of the event’s 134 circuits before crossing
the start-finish line 13th on his way to an impressive seventh
place finish in the championship standings.
Now, with an improved resume and better equipment on his
side, Sheltra is ready to break out in a big way Saturday
afternoon.
“Chicagoland, here I come,” said Sheltra. “I
like the place. It’s real smooth and real fast. We
should be good there this weekend.”
He continued, “I’m so proud of my guys for
the great job they’ve done all year with the cars.
As a team, we improved so much that we can literally taste
victory. We’re gonna get there and our chances for
this weekend look real good.”
For the 10th and final time this season, Sheltra and his
team will bring a Dodge Charger to the track. With one top-five
and five top-10s already in the books under the Dodge banner,
the team is hoping to record their first win under the Chrysler
nameplate. The team answered their inaugural debut with
Dodge with a respectable eighth place finish at Kansas Speedway.
A week later the team proved that the finish was no fluke
as Sheltra steered through late race carnage and confusion
at Kentucky Speedway to record an seventh place finish.
In June, Sheltra mounted his best finish in a Charger after
recording a sixth place finish at the two-mile oval of Michigan
International Speedway. Sheltra also battled back from adversity
to nail a 10th place finish in the TOYOTA ARCA 150 at Nashville
Superspeedway in early August. Most recently, Sheltra in
the Southern Illinois 100 qualified a respectable ninth
before charging to a second place finish, their best finish
in a Charger. The new manufacturer also catapulted Sheltra
to record a career best qualifying effort (Kansas) while
also leading the field for four laps at the 1.5-mile race
track of Kansas Speedway.
“We’ve enjoyed monstrous success with the Dodge
program this year and it’s a shame that this is our
last weekend with the camouflage paint scheme, but I think
we can go out with a bang. We’re bringing a fast hot
rod and some serious horsepower, so hopefully the luck will
continue for us and we can be a contender Saturday afternoon.”
When asked to compare Chicagoland Speedway verses the other
1.5-mile tracks on the ARCA circuit of Kentucky Speedway
and Kansas Speedway, Sheltra paused but then replied. “Well,
physically they all look the same,” Sheltra laughed.
“They are all very good race tracks. We’ve ran
good at both Kansas and Kentucky this year and there is
no doubt we won’t do the same again this weekend at
Chicagoland. The tracks though are never the same. Each
track has their own unique characteristics. The flip side
is that you can start with similar setups and just tweak
from there. My crew chief John Hayden and our newest member
Larry Moore (Director of Competition) have put their heads
together and I think we’ll have a rocket ship this
weekend.”
Crew Chief John Hayden has elected to bring Sheltra Motorsports
chassis number 15 to Chicagoland Speedway this weekend.
The team ran that model at the open ARCA RE/MAX Series test
and race at Nashville Superspeedway in addition to the test
and race at Michigan International Speedway in June. Chassis
number 11 will serve as the team’s backup automobile.
This is the same automobile the team participated with in
both Pocono Raceway events this year.
“I like this car,” explained Sheltra. “It
ran real good at Nashville Superspeedway last month and
it was fast at Michigan. We’ve got a superb RC Consultants
motor coming, so I’m looking forward to making some
noise in our final intermediate race of the year.”
Entering “The Windy City”, Sheltra has 41 ARCA
RE/MAX Series starts to his credit with a career best finish
of second at Toledo Speedway (May 2008) and the DuQuoin
State Fairgrounds (September 2008) with two additional top-five
finishes (third) at Illinois State Fairgrounds (August 2007),
(fourth) at Berlin Raceway (July 2007) while holding additional
top-10s at Nashville Superspeedway (August 2008), Michigan
International Speedway (June 2008), Kentucky Speedway (May
2008), Kansas Speedway (April 2008), Iowa Speedway (April
2008), Kentucky Speedway (June 2007), DuQuoin State Fairgrounds
(September 2007) and Toledo Speedway (October 2007). An
eighth place qualifying effort at Kansas Speedway (April
2008) is Sheltra’s best time trials efforts to date.
He has controlled the ARCA field twice for 15 laps.
The Chicagoland ARCA 200 (200 miles/134 laps) is the 17th
of 21 events on the 2008 ARCA RE/MAX Series schedule. The
eighth ARCA race at Chicagoland Speedway is a two-day show.
Practice begins Friday September 5 with a two hour practice
session planned from 1:00 p.m.- 3:00 p.m. ARCA SIM Factory
pole qualifying is slated to begin at 5:00 p.m. The field
will take the green flag on Saturday September 6 shortly
after 5:00 p.m. The race will be next day taped-delay on
SPEED (Sunday September 6 at 4:00 p.m.) with additional
race coverage including live timing and scoring available
online at arcaracing.com. All times are local.
For more on Patrick Sheltra, please visit PatrickSheltra.com.
About Sheltra Motorsports:
Sheltra Motorsports (sheltramotorsports.com)
is a three-tier Motorsports operation consisting of dirt
and asphalt competition. Patrick Sheltra, a 22-year old
native of Indiantown, Florida competes in the UMP and WoO
(Dirt) Series; while also running a full schedule in the
ARCA RE/MAX Series (No. 60) and a limited schedule in NASCAR.
Sheltra Motorsports ownership is combined of Richard, Grace
and Patrick Sheltra. The team is headquartered in Indiantown,
Florida with additional operations in Richmond, Indiana
and Whitesville, Kentucky.
Patrick Sheltra, Sheltra
Motorsports, Chicagoland Speedway Notes of Interest:
· Sheltra Motorsports will run a
mixture of Dodge Chargers and Chevrolet Monte Carlos during
the 2008 ARCA RE/MAX Series season. For Chicagoland, Sheltra
Motorsports will run a Dodge Charger that will make it’s
third start of the season. The team ran that model at the
open ARCA RE/MAX Series test and race at Nashville Superspeedway
in addition to the test and race at Michigan International
Speedway in June. The automobile was acquired from Penske
Racing during the 2007 off-season. RC Consultants will provide
the horsepower for the sophomore ARCA team.
· Sheltra currently maintains a point’s position
in the top-10 (ninth) heading into the Chicagoland Speedway
this weekend. Sheltra moved into the top-10 in the series’
second race of the season at Salem Speedway and has remained
locked in the top-10 since. The Indiantown, Florida native
is just 415 markers from entering the top-five and 670 credits
from the number one position held by SunTrust Rookie-of-the-Year
candidate Scott Speed. Last year, the then 21-year old superstar
finished seventh in the championship standings competing
in 22 of the scheduled 23 events.
· Sheltra will make 536 left hand turns on Saturday
afternoon, one hundred and thirty six (136) more turns than
the series last outing, the Southern Illinois 100 at the
1.0 clay dirt track of the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds this
past Monday.
· In addition to running a full 2008 ARCA RE/MAX
Series schedule, Sheltra will also run a limited schedule
in NASCAR and compete in selected dirt late model events
(UMP and WoO Series) throughout the United States.
Sheltra Motorsports Quick
Facts:
Team Name: Sheltra Motorsports, No. 60 Dodge
Charger
Driver: Patrick Sheltra, Indiantown, Florida
Car Owner: Grace Sheltra, Indiantown,
Florida
Marketing Partners: Groupe Beton Brunet,
Ferguson Pipe Enterprises, Inc, FloraGanics, American Concrete
Industries, Inc, The Casite Company, J&S Bulk Transportation,
Inc., US Construction Supply Corp., CP Concrete Products
of the Palm Beaches, Sheltra & Son Construction, Sheltra
Cattle Company, Recycling Services, Aaron’s Outdoors,
Boatwerks Waterfront Restaurant, Indiantown Marina, All
About Flowers, Speed Media, Klotz Synthetic Lubricants,
DMC Graphics and Purcell Tire & Rubber.
Crew Chief: John Hayden
Director of Competition: Larry Moore
Team Manager: Keith Strunk
###
TEAM COMMUNICATIONS CONTACT:
NAME: Chris Knight, Sheltra Motorsports
PHONE: 239.834.9797 or 830.261.1215
EMAIL: knight849@aol.com |
