Sheltra Motorsports Focuses On Race Setup During ARCA Practice At Rockingham

ROCKINGHAM, North Carolina - Even though Patrick Sheltra was only able to maneuver his No. 60 Buffalo Wings & Rings-Kimmie Cares Toyota Camry to the 24th fastest time in the ARCA RE/MAX Series practice session Saturday afternoon, the Sheltra Motorsports team is feeling very confident about their racecar for tomorrow´s ARCA RE/MAX American 200, the season finale for the 58-year old tour.

For the second time this season, the Whitesville, Kentucky based operation pulled out a Toyota Camry as its primary manufacturer of choice for the second event at "The Rock" this season. Earlier this year, the team purchased the Japanese branded Camry from Germain Racing through its Hattori Racing Enterprises outfit. The team debuted the machine at Michigan International Speedway in June but while running in the top-five, the motor seized; forcing a disappointing finish.

Back with the assistance of Mike Abner from Germain Racing, the team focused on race day setup throughout much of the first hour and fifteen minutes but as the team drew attention to their qualifying run in the final half-hour of practice, light rain began to fall around the one-mile oval forcing the veteran team to regroup and hopefully prepare for Menards Pole by Ansell qualifying later today.

The rolled out on the track shortly after 11:30 a.m. this morning with a unique yet well accepted camouflage neon pink to promote Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

"We have a pretty good car for tomorrow´s race," said Sheltra, who finished second at Rockingham Speedway in April. "We didn´t have the opportunity to test on Monday like we wanted to because of rain – and now it appears the rain is back and it hurt us for our qualifying run in practice. Our car was extremely consist on long runs with the older tires and that will be key for tomorrow´s race, so we pretty confident that we´ll have something pretty potent tomorrow."

Sheltra is hoping that he´ll have a chance to qualifying this afternoon but he admits it looks doubtful. "They said when the rain gets here it´s going to be here for a while," Sheltra admitted. "I´m hoping that what we experienced at the end of practice will taper off and we´re able to get qualifying in because I think we are plenty capable of qualifying in the top-10. If not, we´ll start ninth and march our way to the front and try and put our pink Buffalo Wings & Rings-Kimmie Cares Toyota in victory lane."

Entering Rockingham, Sheltra has 66 ARCA RE/MAX Series starts to his credit with one career victory at Salem Speedway (April 2009). During his ARCA tenure, Sheltra has accumulated 10 top-fives and posted 22 top-10 finishes. A third place qualifying effort at Rockingham Speedway (April 2009) is Sheltra´s best time trials efforts to date. He has controlled the ARCA field five times for 109 laps.

The ARCA RE/MAX American 200 (200 laps / 200 miles) is the 21st of 21 events on the 2009 ARCA RE/MAX Series schedule. The fourth ARCA race held at Rockingham is a two-day show. Menards Pole by Ansell qualifying is slated to begin at 2:00 p.m. The event will take the green flag on Sunday, October 11 shortly after 1:00 p.m. The race will be tape-delayed on SPEED. The event will be aired at 10:00 p.m. Sunday night. Live flag-to-flag weekend coverage will be available through the ARCA Racing Network (ARN) online at arcaracing.com. All times are local.