France, Marcum Daytona Deal Set Tone For The Future

France, Marcum Make Daytona Deal; From MARC to ARCA, Superspeedway Program Born

DAYTONA BEACH FL (2-4-05) For the 42nd consecutive season, the ARCA RE/MAX Series will pack up its northern roots, break up winter's monopoly, and steer in a southerly direction toward the warm shores of Daytona Beach, Florida.

And it's all because ARCA founder John Marcum and NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. made a deal more than 40 years ago.

The story goes like this.

Marcum, prior to ARCA's birth in 1953, worked as a NASCAR official and raced for France in NASCAR's inaugural 1949 season. Marcum's wife Mildred, who at 91 years young still works everyday in the ARCA home office, also sold tickets in the early days for the NASCAR races on the beach. Marcum, who liked what he saw in organized stock car racing, and with France's blessings, took the idea North to his home in Toledo, Ohio and invented MARC (Midwest Association for Race Cars) in 1953. In the inaugural '53 season, all of MARC's events were on short-tracks, mostly dirt; and they would remain that way until Marcum got a call from his old boss 10 years later.

France felt Marcum needed to broaden his scope. With MARC national champions like Iggy Katona and Nelson Stacy beginning to make names in the Midwest, it was time to tell the nation about this newer, northern experiment called MARC, which seemed to be gaining momentum. And France, being the business-savvy guy he was, thought he'd get in on some of this northern flavor.

So France invited Marcum's MARC to race at Daytona in 1964. But to do that, France thought that Marcum needed to change the name of the club, something that would reflect a bigger, more nationwide scope. And so the moniker ARCA (Automobile Racing Club of America) was born. With the deal done (it was handshake), Marcum took his traveling road show down for the inaugural Daytona ARCA 250 in 1964 won by Stacy. ARCA icons/champions Katona, Jack Bowsher and Benny Parsons would soon follow as ARCA Daytona winners. Katona, with Daytona victories in '65, '71 and '74 is still the only three-time winner. Katona's victory in '74, at age 57, inked his name in the history books as the oldest superspeedway winner in sanctioned stock car history.

With a new name and a new claim to fame - an event at Daytona - ARCA's superspeedway program was officially born and would endure in every season thereafter.

The Daytona deal also opened up other superspeedway doors at Charlotte for starters where the late Curtis Turner won the inaugural ARCA event on the 1.5-mile superspeedway in '64.

Since the early speedway days, and despite the proverbial bump in the road every now and then, the ARCA RE/MAX Series has never looked back. In the modern era, the RE/MAX Series annually races on as many 14 superspeedway events per season mixed in with some classic short-tracks on both dirt and pavement.

So here we are, going on 42 years later and thousands of superspeedway miles down the road, the ARCA RE/MAX Series, still gaining momentum, continues to flourish as one of most respected superspeedway stock car commodities on earth.

With a title sponsorship extension through the 2008, the ARCA RE/MAX Series is again preparing for what's become the crown jewel of the season - the 42nd annual Advance Discount Auto Parts 200 at Daytona Int'l Speedway, LIVE on SPEED Channel Saturday, February 12 at 4 pm ET. The race will serve as the preamble to the same-night NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Bud Shootout.

And while you're there, take a stroll on historic Daytona Beach, where ARCA's ticket to the superspeedway stage was born on the heels of NASCAR, compliments of Bill France Sr.