I know early in the season Bobby Gerhart wasn't planning on running the full ARCA schedule, but when he maintained his point lead, he said he was still going week-to-week. Now that he's second in points (but still within striking distance), does anyone know if he has sponsorship for the rest of the year, or is he still running the rest of the races. As a PA resident, it'd be pretty neat to see Bobby win the championship, beating "The King of ARCA", Frank Kimmel.

Gerhart said at Pocono that he is in it for the rest of the year. I'd also like to see him win the title over Kimmel.

Well that's good news. I know who I'm rooting for, although I have a ton of respect for Frank Kimmel. I think it's time for a change.

Yeah same here, I'm from PA and I want to see Bobby take it. I respect Kimmel's records in ARCA, but I can't stand the guy.

I live like 15 minutes from Gerhart's shop...right near Lebanon, PA. Hopefully he's able to regain the points lead at some of these tracks coming up. Unfortunately I think Kimmel will have to stumble big time throughout the ramainder of the season. While Gerhart usually has a top 10 car and sometimes a top 5, Kimmel is always top 2-3.

But at least Kimmel was fined and docked 25 pts after Pocono...couldn't find a story on arcaracing.com (I don't think they ever write bad about Frank...90% of their stories are about Frank haha), but found a link through Speed Channel.

http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/oval/29570/

What happened to Kimmel after Pocono?

I hadn't heard of any problems after the race.

 

ARCA RE/MAX Series News Release

Based on post-race technical inspection after Saturday’s Pennsylvania 200 ARCA RE/MAX Series race event at Pocono Raceway, the Tri-State Motorsports #46 team has been fined $1500 and team owner Larry Clement and driver Frank Kimmel have been penalized with the loss of 25 championship points. The penalties were issued for violation of the minimum rear quarter panel height and minimum roof height rules per the 2006 ARCA Rulebook.

Let's not forget the penalty accessed this week in Nashville against Frank for a some sort of weird unheard of rule violation. Dropped him off the lead lap and Gerhardt picked up a few points. Frank will be tough to beat though and I don't know if Gerhardt has the finances to complete the whole season in the same fashion as he started it. He's running it but it looks as though his lack of sponsorship dollars is catching up with him. His cars the last few races haven't been as effective as they were earlier in the year. His car at Nashville was just dismal.

I'm just wondering where he's going to get a dirt car. His cars haven't been aweful. He had a top 10 car at Gateway and got wrecked. The car was around a 10-12 place car at Nashville. Not good enough to be the champ, no doubt, but better than most of the hacks from 20th on back. Let's not forget this team isn't exactly Roush Racing or anything either. They are on a tight budget as well.

MHeff13:

I'm just wondering where he's going to get a dirt car. His cars haven't been aweful. He had a top 10 car at Gateway and got wrecked. The car was around a 10-12 place car at Nashville. Not good enough to be the champ, no doubt, but better than most of the hacks from 20th on back. Let's not forget this team isn't exactly Roush Racing or anything either. They are on a tight budget as well.

Preaching to the choir dude. And yes it was a terrible car in Nashville, he said so himself. I cover this series every week. (well except the weeks I miss lol, and I'll be missing Michigan because of some personal business). When he came in for his first pitstop last week in Nashville they went up something like 50 rounds on the track bar (just a LITTLE exageration) and then later they tried stiffening up the front end to make up for the bad rear end with an adjustment brother Bill called "unethical". His cars just haven't been as good as they were in the earlier part of the year and it's a direct result of stretching his budget to make a full season out of a twelve race deal with Lucas. It sucks but it is what it is. If Gerhart had an unlimited budget (or even just a little more cash) he would have no problem. But then neither would Mario Gosselin. Mario was leading in Kansas with like six laps to go when his transmission let go. He told me he was short of cash (for racing) and that the trannie he was using needed to be torn down every second or third race. He just didn't have the resources to do so. After Kansas he wasn't able to compete again til last week in Nashville. He showed that he is an awesome car builder and driver with his win there. If he hadn't had to leave the series for a month he would be right up there with Frank and Bobby contending for the series championship. Other than the "development" teams EVERYONE in ARCA is hurting for cash. Hell the winner at the race in Berlin, Brian Keselowski only got 5 grand for the victory. Think THAT paid for the car, gas, tires, crew, and trip there?

You bring up a good point with Mario, I was wondering where he went the last few races. I've really been impressed with Jeremy Clements and Dexter Bean lately.

I am not however impressed with Ken Weaver, what was his deal...if you cover the series, what do you think of this guy? I heard he had a falling out with the 20 team? They were doing fine this year and then had a bad string of races and the bottom fell out?


Edit: Oh and do you think Gerhart will bring his own car to the dirt races, or do you think he'll be purchasing a ride?

I've never heard of Gerhart purchasing a ride. They will do what they have to do. Gerhart told me in Kentucky I thonk that as long as they are running like they are running (top tens) he is only one race out of the lead.

The rumor (and the key word is RUMOR) I heard on Weaver is that ......... (Eddie Sharp?) the team that runs his car and he had words after HE (Ken) had words during the Pocono race when Ken was so critical about the team and car. I was shocked and dismayed to hear this rumor for a couple of reasons. Ken seems like a nice guy for one and more importantly it showed my lack of research in Ken's team as I thought it was HIS team. Ken has always been accessable at the track (as have all the rest of them) and I went on the assumption it was HIS racing team. I heard something different Saturday. Again let me stress that I classify it as a RUMOR as I did not get it from Ken, his team or Eddy Sharp.

Dexter Bean is another impressive young man whom I haven't  devoted enough time to in doing an in depth interview with. His team is by the way looking for someone to score him in either the Busch race (which he will be running) or the ARCA race as of yesterday. If you are interested in driving to Michigan for the race PM me and I'll send you the contact info. It has probably already been filled at this point though. Sorry I logged of last night before I could relay this to you.

Jeremy Clements has just been awesome considering that he also is a low budget team who has raced few races. His results are quite amazing.