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Marks Escapes Dusty DuQuoin Fairgrounds in Twelfth
DuQuoin, IL (September 7, 2010)- A scorching hot afternoon turned into a dust cloud of chaos as the ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX and Menards took on 100 miles of competition at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds on Monday. Returning to the dirt for the second time in three weeks, Win-Tron Racing and Justin Marks unloaded early Monday morning at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds in preparation for a one-day show, concluding with the Southern Illinois 100 presented by Federated Car Care.
Bad luck mired the team’s last visit to a dirt track at Springfield, where a 22nd place finish didn’t show the true performance of the solid No. 32 Construct Corps Dodge that day. Carrying momentum from a sixth place finish last weekend at Chicagoland, along with dirt racing fresh in their memory banks, the team had prepped a stout Dodge Charger to take on 100 laps on the one-mile clay oval.
Early trouble showed up in the one-hour ARCA Racing Series practice session Monday morning when Marks discovered a malfunctioning throttle in his Construct Corps machine. Spending nearly the rest of the 60 minutes behind the wall making repairs, the Win-Tron crew remedied the throttle problem and sent Justin back onto the track for just a few more laps before discovering a broken clutch in the No. 32.
With a very short turnaround time between the lone practice session of the weekend and Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell forced Win-Tron and Marks to take a provisional starting spot for the afternoon’s event. Starting shotgun on the field wasn’t what the team had hoped for, but was necessary to complete all the changes on the car.
Marks wasted no time at the drop of the green flag and began picking his way through the field quickly, breaking into the top 20 before lap 10. Opting to stay out under a caution period on lap 22, Marks moved up into the top ten where he rode comfortably until making his first pit stop of the day just eight laps later under the third caution of the afternoon. Traffic proved to be an issue as the day wore on, with the track losing grip and gaining dust as the laps clicked off.
A restart after the sixth caution flag of the day on lap 65 ended in Justin going for a spin in the Construct Corps Charger after sliding through some oil in turn one. With no damage sustained in the incident, Marks pitted for four fresh Hoosiers and enough Sunoco fuel to take him to the finish.
Restarting back in 21st after the spin, Marks once again threaded his way through traffic avoiding several obstacles while wrestling with tough track conditions, and eventually, a spark plug failure in the No.32. The field would see the yellow flag displayed five more times before the checkered flag finally flew, finding Marks in the 12th position after the dust would settle.
“It was a tough day for our team,” Justin Marks commented. “We had a lot of mechanical issues throughout practice that pretty much took all of the laps and set-up time away. We were able to get everything fixed for the race and I just tried to move through the field slowly and steadily. We ran in the top-10 for a while, but near the end of the race the motor started missing a little so it was just pretty much an exercise in survival. A frustrating day but the guys worked hard to overcome the adversity and everyone did a great job.”
The 12th place finish didn’t help Marks gain ground on the new ARCA Racing Series championship point leaders Patrick Sheltra and Tom Hessert, he’s still not out of the hunt- now 200 points behind in seventh. Marks and company will travel to Toledo Speedway this Sunday, September 12th for the Northwest Ohio Ford Dealers 200. The series last visited the Ohio short track in May, when a solid top-five run ended abruptly in the form of a cut tire on the Construct Corps Dodge with five laps remaining. Win-Tron Racing and Marks are prepared for the 200-mile short-track shootout and look to back up another good run with a solid finish this time around.
For more on Justin Marks, visit www.justinmarksracing.com and follow him on Twitter (@Justin_Racing)
For more on Construct Corps, visit www.constructcorps.com, and follow them on Twitter (@ConstructBuddy)
For more on Win-Tron, visit www.win-tronracing.com, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter (@WinTronRacing)
About Justin Marks
California native Justin Marks began his love of racing after attending local races and the Indianapolis 500 with his father at the age of 14. His racing career sprouted from local street stock racing and grew into a successful SCCA and Rolex Sports Car Series career. Marks finished 16th in the 2001 Rolex Sports Car 24 Hours of Daytona in his first career professional race, and later collected a total of 12 wins in the SCCA and Rolex Sports Car Series combined. In 2009, he competed once again in the 24 Hours of Daytona and came home with a victory.
Marks moved on to ARCA Racing Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck and Nationwide Series competition in 2007, where he competed in select races over the next two years. This season, Justin is competing full-time in the ARCA Racing Series with Win-Tron Racing in the No. 32 Construct Corps machine. For the latest news on Justin, please visit www.JustinMarksRacing.com.
About Win-Tron Racing
Based in Lakeville, Minnesota, Win-Tron Racing officially began in 2007 with one main goal in mind: to win races. Owned by a former successful racecar driver in Kevin Cywinski, and engineer Nate Thiesse, Win-Tron has successfully competed for wins in the ARCA Racing Series with the No. 32 machine since its first appearances in 2004 under a former name, Country Joe Racing. Though the organization has seen several different drivers behind the wheel of its entries, Win-Tron and driver Justin Marks are set to compete for the entire season in 2010, with hopes of capturing a team first ARCA championship. For more on Win-Tron Racing, visit www.Win-TronRacing.com.
About Construct Corps
We are a cutting edge temporary skilled labor provider to the construction industry. We have the first centralized operations and recruiting system. With a database in excess of 120,000 workers from more than 9,000 zip codes, our partner contractors have the ability to take on projects nationwide. Construct Corps is uniquely positioned as the company with the most qualified workers in the most locations with one point of contact.For more on Construct Corps, please visit www.ConstructCorps.com.
Kirby Johnson
Public Relations Manager
Win-Tron Racing, Driver Justin Marks
M: 608.289.8919
Kirby@Win-TronRacing.com
WinTronRacingPR@aol.com
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