Illinois State Fair ARCA RE/MAX Stock Car Series Race

Kimmel Seeks History at Springfield in ARCA Crowe 100

Macon, IL  August 17, 2004-Frank Kimmel has a unique opportunity to make
motor sports history at the Illinois State Fairgrounds on Sunday, August 22
in the 42nd running of the Allen Crowe 100 for the Automobile Club of
America RE/MAX stock car series.  Should Kimmel, a five time ARCA RE/MAX
national driving champion,  post a win in the unique 100-mile dirt track
grind he would become the first ever five-time winner of the Crowe 100.

Kimmel’s task is complicated by the fact that an entry list of hungry
drivers, which numbers at present thirty-six cars, is planning to be a
significant obstacle to Kimmel’s quest to become not only the first five
time winner of the Crowe 100, but the first man to win five consecutive
Crowe 100 races at the “World’s Fastest One Mile Dirt Track”.  When the ARCA
RE/MAX Series invades the Illinois State Fairgrounds on August 22, the field
of stock car drivers is expected to include most, if not all of the top ten
in the current ARCA RE/MAX title hunt, some talented rookies, three former
winners and one popular veteran coming out of retirement to play in the dirt
on a Sunday afternoon.  The entry list includes several Illinois drivers
looking to post their first win in the Crowe Memorial.

Kimmel leads the current ARCA point standings with 4 wins in 16 starts and
has a 590 point lead over second place.  Kimmel, who now calls Clarksville,
Indiana home, is the driver of Larry Clement’s Advance Auto Parts-Pork Ford
Taurus and has moved near the top of many statistical categories at
Springfield.  His performance last year moved him to third on the all-time
lap leader list at Springfield with 286, just nine behind Don White and 34
behind the legendary Dean Roper.  By capturing the pole last year, Kimmel is
tied for the most stock car pole positions at Springfield with three, and
gave Clement his fifth Springfield victory as a car owner.  Kimmel seems to
have found a home in the ARCA stock cars, though he has been able to dabble
in both the NASCAR truck series and has a few starts in the NASCAR Nextel
Cup Series as well.  He stated in an interview last year that he “wasn’t
that good on dirt” but you would never know it from his performances,
between the Crowe 100 at Springfield and the Federated-Southern Illinois 100
at DuQuoin, Kimmel has won six of the last eight ARCA dirt track events held
in Illinois, dating back to 2000.

Seeking to end Kimmel’s dirt track domination is the driver currently second
in the ARCA RE/MAX standings and one of several drivers from Illinois
looking for a win in the home state, Brent Sherman of North Barrington,
Illinois.  Sherman has ten top ten finishes in the series this year and is
still looking for his first win in his Serta Mattress Chevrolet.  Third in
points is another Illinois driver, second-generation competitor Billy
Venturini.  Billy, who hails from Chicago, also has ten top ten finishes and
is looking for his first ARCA win in his father’s stable of General Motors
products.

Fourth in the points is top rookie T.J. Bell of Sparks, Nevada.  The
twenty-four year old Bell is a road-racing veteran who has experience in the
NASCAR Truck Series and plans to expand his horizons with a few USAC Ford
Focus Midget Series starts this year.  Sitting behind Bell is third
generation driver, Jason Jarrett of Hickory, North Carolina.  Driving the ML
Motorsports fleet of Chevrolets and Pontiacs, Jarrett has been a regular on
the ARCA tour since 2001, when he shocked everyone with a front row start
and a third place finish in the Crowe 100 in his first time ever on the
dirt.  Jarrett, with one career ARCA win to his credit, has finished second
twice in the ARCA title chase, both times to Frank Kimmel.  Jarrett is the
son of 1999 NASCAR champ Dale Jarrett, and the grandson of two-time NASCAR
champ Ned Jarrett.

Sixth in the standings is a Georgia driver who has found a second home on
the Illinois dirt, Winder’s Mark Gibson.  Gibson drives Chevrolets and
Pontiacs sponsored by Williams Lumber and annually looks forward to the two
dirt races on the ARCA schedule.  A four time winner in the ARCA series, the
forty-seven year old Gibson has eight top ten finishes this season.  Seventh
in the current standings is one of three women drivers to contest the Crowe
100 in its 42-year history, dirt track veteran Christi Passmore of Pryor of
Pryor, Oklahoma.  Ninth is the improving Todd Bowsher, son of former ARCA
champ and two-time Crowe 100 winner Jack Bowsher.  Jack owns the Fords
driven by son Todd, who has four top ten finishes this season.  Tenth is
veteran Darrell Basham of Henry, Indiana.

Other ARCA regulars expected to join the Crowe 100 field are Norm Benning of
Pennsylvania, Tim Mitchell of Tennessee, Brad Smith of Michigan, and Andy
Belmont of Pennsylvania.  Benning is a veteran of the ARCA tour while
Belmont ran a few NASCAR Nextel Cup races earlier in the year and is an
apparent replacement for his regular driver, rookie Brandon Knupp.

Two popular veterans, including one former Crowe 100 winner, have come out
of semi-retirement for another crack at victory lane at the Illinois State
Fairgrounds.  1999 Allen Crowe 100 winner and former ARCA national champ
Bill Baird of Sturgis, Kentucky announced several weeks ago that he would
field a car for the ARCA dirt track events.  However, the fifty-five year
old Baird is a youngster compared to the legendary Red Farmer who is rumored
to turn seventy-two in October!  Farmer, who competed at Springfield and
DuQuoin in 2002, is a member of the famous “Alabama Gang” that included
NASCR greats Donnie and Bobby Allison and the late Neil Bonnett.

The third former winner of the Crowe 100 to join the field is two-time
winner Bobby Bowsher of Springfield, Ohio.  A former ARCA national champion,
Bowsher left the series a few years ago and just recently returned.  He is
one of former winner Jack Bowsher’s sons and an older brother of Jack’s
current driver, Todd Bowsher.

Including Sherman and Venturini, several Illinois drivers that generate a
significant amount of fan interest for the Allen Crowe 100 have a legitimate
shot at victory on Sunday.  No downstate Illinois driver has ever posted a
win in the Allen Crowe 100, however at least three will be on the entry list
including a rookie who is eighth in the ARCA RE/MAX points and an eighteen
year old from the city of Springfield who will be pulling double duty this
weekend.

Twenty-three year old A.J. Fike of Galesburg is in his first year of ARCA
competition and has parlayed seven top ten finishes, including a second at
Berlin, Michigan to 8th in the standings.  Fike ran in the USAC Silver Crown
Series last year and was in the top ten in the Bettenhausen 100 at
Springfield before being eliminated in an accident.  Fike could have pulled
double duty this year but has given the family USAC ride to brother Aaron.
Fike’s car owner is former USAC Silver Crown driver and 1995 ARCA RE/MAX
champ Andy Hillenburg.

Young Justin Allgaier of Springfield may have received the loudest ovation
from the crowd prior to last year’s Allen Crowe 100.  The son of Mike
Allgaier, owner of Hoosier Tire Midwest, Justin is a veteran of local late
model competition and has raced at the prestigious Chili Bowl midget event.
He has two ARCA starts at Springfield, qualifying ninth before mechanical
problems sidelined him last season.  This year brings a new twist for
Allgaier, he has secured a USAC Silver Crown ride and will attempt to make
the Bettenhausen 100 at Springfield and the Horn 100 at DuQuoin.  Should
Justin make the USAC race on Saturday, he would become the first driver to
race in the champ car and stock car race at Springfield on the same weekend
since Tom Bigelow ran in both 100-milers in 1989.  If by chance he could win
both races, Justin would add his name with legends A.J. Foyt, Roger
McCluskey and Al Unser as the only drivers ever to win both the Bettenhausen
and Crowe 100.  Unser is the only driver ever to win both in the same
weekend in, that feat coming in 1972.

Centralia’s Joe Cooksey was planning on a limited schedule in the ARCA
series this year, but the sudden retirement of Ron Cox gave him the seat in
the SERVPRO Pontiac.  Cooksey, a veteran of ARCA competition became the
first Southern Illinois resident to capture an ARCA pole position at DuQuoin
when he won the top slot there in 2000.  Another Southern Illinois resident,
Carlyle’s Charlie Schaefer has been a regular on the ARCA dirt tracks for
the past several seasons and is a veteran of the short track late model
stock cars.

The ARCA RE/MAX drivers continue a 42-year-old Illinois State Fair stock car
auto racing tradition that remains a memorial to a Springfield race driver
whose burgeoning career was cut short by an accident.

Stock car racing was added to the motor sport lineup at the fairgrounds in
1950, with Jay Frank taking a September 100-mile race.  Stock cars returned
again under the American Automobile Association banner in 1953, but were
absent until coming back under USAC sanction in 1961, a race sponsored by
Springfield’s Seratoma Club and won by champ car veteran Len Sutton.  Stock
cars returned (once again after the fair) in 1962, with Michigan’s Paul
Goldsmith taking the checkered flag.  The next stock car event at the
Illinois State Fairgrounds would take on even more importance.

Springfield’s Allen Crowe was an up and coming USAC race driver, running in
the midgets, sprint cars and getting his second championship start in 1961,
delighting the home town fans by making the first Tony Bettenhausen Memorial
100 at Springfield.  Crowe got much of his early training in stock cars and
midgets on the tracks in Central Illinois, including the late Joe Shaheen’s
Springfield Speedway.  Crowe’s dream was to follow fellow Springfield
residents Rex Easton and Chuck Weyant into championship cars with an eye on
the Indianapolis 500.

Crowe’s dream became reality in May of 1962, when he qualified the S-R
Racing roadster in 22nd and finishing 31st when he was caught in an accident
involving Jack Turner, Chuck Rodee and Bob Christie.  He survived a nasty
spill in the Central Excavating dirt car at the 1962 Hoosier 100 to return
to the Indy 500 in 1963, and qualified a respectable 13th.  He finished the
race in 27th, the victim of an accident in the first turn, and his career
seemed on the verge of taking flight.

Unfortunately, a sprint car accident at New Bremen, Ohio cut his career and
his life short.  Springfield promoter Jim Kidd, along with many members of
the Springfield racing community looked for a way to pay homage to Allen.
They found a way with the fledgling stock car race at the fairgrounds,
renaming the event the “Allen Crowe Memorial”.  NASCAR’s Curtis Turner won
the first Allen Crowe Memorial 100, held after the close of the Illinois
State Fair.  The first Crowe Memorial to be included in the Illinois State
Fair entertainment lineup came in 1965 and was won by Bobby Isaac.

The last forty-two years have seen a number of famous racing drivers not
only enter, but also win the Allen Crowe 100.  NASCAR stars such as Benny
Parsons, Dick Trickle and Davey Allison all have appeared on an Allen Crowe
100 entry list, while NASCAR stars Turner, Bobby Isaac and Ken Schrader have
posted victories in the memorial event.  USAC stars such as Norm Nelson, Don
White, Butch Hartman and A.J. Foyt dominated the sixties and seventies.
When ARCA came on board to sanction the Crowe 100 in 1983, ARCA stars such
as Bob Keselowski (a four-time winner), Bobby Bowsher and Bob Hill posted
wins at Springfield.

One star driver transcended both sanctioning bodies and became the master of
the Springfield Mile, the late Dean Roper of Fair Grove, Missouri.  Roper
won seven of nine 100-mile stock car events at Springfield between 1981 and
1986, four of them Allen Crowe Memorial races.  He attempted a comeback of
sorts in the 1990’s, and was running in the top ten in the 2001 Allen Crowe
Memorial 100 when he suffered a heart attack and sadly passed away a short
time later.  Fittingly, the pole position award at Springfield is named in
his honor.

Practice for the 42nd Allen Crowe 100 is slated to begin at approximately 9
in the morning on Sunday, August 22 with Pork-Dean Roper Pole qualifying at
11.  The Wynn’s Sportsman feature is slated for around 12 noon, with the
Allen Crowe 100 field taking the green flag at approximately 1:00.

Good seats are still available by calling Track Enterprises at 217-764-3200,
at Ticketmaster locations or at the Illinois State Fair Box Office.
Additional information can be found on the World Wide Web at
www.trackenterprises.com or www.arcaracing.com.