Officials from ARCA, the Champion Racing Association (CRA) and the ARCA Midwest Tour (AMT) have confirmed the extension of the organizations’ sanctioning relationship for 2021.
Both CRA and the Midwest Tour are owned and operated by respected industry veterans. CRA founders and principals R.J. Scott and Glenn Luckett are marking a quarter century of the tour’s existence, and Midwest Tour owner and GM Gregg McKarns is a second-generation racing businessman voted by his peers as the 2019 RPM Workshops National Promoter of the Year.
“We are pleased to extend the solid working relationship we have enjoyed with the team at ARCA for what will be our 10th consecutive season,” said CRA Managing Partner R.J. Scott. “It’s especially noteworthy that anniversary coincides with the 25th season of competition for the ARCA/CRA Super Series powered by JEGS.”
The ARCA/CRA Super Series powered by JEGS, well respected throughout the Eastern United States as a premier template body super late model tour, ran its first race in 1997 and has been in continuous operation since. The series has raced at 37 tracks across the eastern U.S., appearing in Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin.
“We’re proud to partner with ARCA, with its long history of stock car racing both nationally and especially with its focus on Midwest short track racing,” said McKarns, who is also the owner and promoter at Madison Speedway in Wisconsin. “We are full speed ahead after an abbreviated 2020 and excited about the schedule of great tracks on the AMT schedule for 2021, the series’ 15th season.”
The ARCA Midwest Tour has long been recognized for its high quality on-track competition and long list of accomplished template late model drivers who have raced in its events throughout the upper Midwest. Carrying on the late model racing tradition of the Midwest-based ARTGO Series established by McKarns’ late father John McKarns from the 1970s to the 1990s, the AMT has raced at 22 tracks in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin since 2007.
Combined, the two series sanction or co-sanction some of the most prestigious events in pavement late model racing in the Eastern United States. The Winchester 400 in Indiana, Oktoberfest in Wisconsin, the All American 400 in Tennessee, SpeedFest in Georgia, the Glass City 200 in Ohio, Battle at Berlin 251 in Michigan, Wisconsin’s Joe Shear Classic, the RedBud 400 in Indiana and the Father’s Day 100 at the Milwaukee Mile are all included in the tours’ overall 2021 schedule among many other major long running traditional races.
Past CRA and AMT series champions include Ty Majeski, Travis Braden, Dan Frederickson, Cody Coughlin, Chris Gabehart, Jonathan Eilen, Derrick Griffin, Scott Hantz, Steve Carlson, Brian Ross and Johnny Van Doorn. Drivers who have won CRA and AMT races who now race in NASCAR National Series divisions include Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, Matt Kenseth, Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace, Erik Jones, Harrison Burton, Noah Gragson, John Hunter Nemechek, Grant Enfinger, Derek Kraus, Tyler Ankrum, Chandler Smith, Raphael Lessard and Majeski.
Other winners include some of the biggest names in Midwest pavement late model racing including Junior Hanley, Bubba Pollard, Jeff Fultz, Chris Wimmer, Stephen Nasse, David Stremme, Steve Holzhausen, Augie Grill, Travis and Tim Sauter, Eddie Hoffman and Brian Campbell.
The 2021 ARCA/CRA Super Series powered by JEGS schedule, recently released, consists of 15 total races including 12 championship points events across Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. The season begins with SpeedFest scheduled for January 23 at Crisp Motorsports Park in Cordele, Georgia.
The 2021 ARCA Midwest Tour schedule is comprised of 12 events, 10 of which are championship point races, at tracks located in Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee and Wisconsin. AMT is scheduled to open its season with the Joe Shear Classic 200 at Madison Int’l Speedway in Oregon Wisconsin on May 2.
The ARCA/CRA Super Series powered by JEGS and ARCA Midwest Tour are among five ARCA sanctioned touring series. Season-openers for the other tours include Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 13 for the ARCA Menards Series, New Smyrna Speedway in Florida for the ARCA Menards Series East on Feb. 8 and Phoenix Raceway in Arizona on March 12 for the ARCA Menards Series West.
— ARCA Racing —
