A few years ago, NASCAR celebrated its 50th anniversary. Now, it's ARCA's turn, and the organization's accomplishments over the past five decades deserve to be recognized.
It all started as a relationship between the guru of stock car racing at the time, NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., and one of France's race officials, John Marcum. The year was 1953, and big-time stock car racing was in its infancy.
France and Marcum had a longstanding relationship. They had actually raced against each other in the 1940s.
"My dad ran against 'Big Bill' in open-wheel roadsters," says Marcum's daughter Suzie Drager, still an ARCA employee. "That's how they first got to know each other. Then, when France formed NASCAR, he brought my dad along with him. My dad was involved with track operations, but he would do anything Bill asked of him."
But the talented Marcum had a dream gnawing in his gut. He seriously felt a need existed for a similar stock car organization to be fielded up north.
Soon Marcum formed the Midwest Association for Race Cars, or MARC. Eventually, the MARC name was dropped in favor of ARCA, short for the Automobile Racing Club of America, a name that gave the group a more national image.
The organization established roots in Toledo, Ohio, a location where it still resides today. In fact, Marcum's grandson, Ron Drager, now heads the organization.
Links To NASCARDuring its early years, ARCA raced slightly modified street cars in the Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania area. Through the '60s and '70s, the organization gained great prestige and was considered by many as the "NASCAR of the North."
The France-Marcum relationship paid big dividends for the new group. France called Marcum and asked him if ARCA would like to go down to Florida and be a part of the February Speedweeks at Daytona in 1964. Marcum jumped at the chance, and ARCA has been at the track every year since then, enjoying the huge exposure.
The NASCAR-ARCA sharing of tracks on the same weekend didn't stop at Daytona. Through the decades, the groups have shared weekends at Talladega, Charlotte, Atlanta, Michigan and other venues. All the while, ARCA has maintained its short-track roots by competing on tracks such as Kil-Kare (Ohio) Speedway, Winchester (Indiana) Speedway, Berlin (Michigan) Speedway, and Salem (Indiana) Speedway, where the group first ran in 1955.
Beyond sharing tracks, ARCA has other close ties to NASCAR. ARCA, with just minor changes, uses Winston Cup cars for its series. In fact, many of the ARCA machines, just one or two years earlier, carried the paint schemes of Winston Cup racers.
The arrangement gives ARCA drivers the highest technology possible, and provides experience for those drivers hoping to one day land a Winston Cup ride. Also, ARCA uses the cars until they are 5 years old. As such, models like the Oldsmobile and Buick hung around in ARCA after they were discontinued in Winston Cup.
Both ARCA cars and Winston Cup cars have a minimum weight of 3,400 pounds and use the same type of 358ci small-block engines. The only difference in the engines is that ARCA allows the use of a rocker cam. There are also slight differences in the body rules, including changes in air dam heights and deviations in rear spoiler heights and angles.
The differences were greater during the '70s and into the late '90s. With the departure of Chrysler from NASCAR in the early '70s, NASCAR basically operated with just two companies, General Motors and Ford, although there were a number of different brands within each.
Not true with ARCA. Through those years, a number of non-factory Chrysler teams ran competitively. Bob Keselowski was best in MOPARs during the '90s.
ARCA also used the most famous of the MOPAR models, the awesome winged Superbird Dodge Daytona. Ramo Stott, in fact, won the ARCA championship in a Superbird in 1970. During the '70s, most of the Chryslers were LeBarons fielded by the likes of Jerry Churchill, Ron Otto, and Keselowski.