The event also marks the return of Thunderfest, an all-day extravaganza/festival Friday to officially kick off the event.
Thunderfest is open to the public from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and features an early afternoon hauler parade through the streets of Rockingham, live music in the town square accompanied by ARCA RE/MAX Series driver autograph sessions. There will be a variety of vendors and 11 hours of continual live broadcasting over the ARCA Racing Network (ARN) at arcaracing.com.
It marks the eighth Thunderfest for the city, and the second tied with an ARCA race. The others were previously held for NASCAR events and were held on Thursdays.
“It’s the same event, just a different day,” said Kim Williams, the coordinator of Thunderfest for the City of Rockingham. “I think this is going to be the largest crowd we’ve had because it’s on a Friday.”
“It should be a festive atmosphere,” said Jackie Franzil, a spokesman for ARCA.
Entertainment will include the Swinging Richards Band from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m., followed by General Johnson and Chairman of the Board at 7 p.m. ARCA drivers will be signing autographs from 6 p.m. until 7 p.m. and UARA drivers will be available from 7 p.m. until 8 p.m.
PGM Racing, which fields the #03 ARCA RE/MAX Series Chevrolet driven by Stephan McCurley, will be giving out complimentary official PGM Racing team t-shirts to the first 200 fans in line for autographs for their team.
Sponsoring Thunderfest are the city, Progress Energy, The Richmond County Tourism Development Authority and the Richmond County Daily Journal.
Another change this year will be the route of the hauler parade. Last year, it started in the parking lot of the former Wal-Mart location on Broad Avenue. This year it will start and end at the speedway. The route goes down N.C. 177 to County Home Road and then down Rockingham Road to the downtown area. From there trucks will go back to the raceway via U.S. 1. The parade starts at 12:30 p.m.
The ARCA Racing Network, via arcaracing.com, will feature live streaming audio to include practice, qualifying and flag-to-flag race coverage in addition to live timing and scoring.
Entrants for the Carolina ARCA RE/MAX 200 already include nine-time ARCA RE/MAX Series national champion Frank Kimmel as well as veterans Patrick Donahue, Ken Weaver, Tom Hessert, Alli Owens, Norm Benning and Bryan Silas. The entry list is also stocked with well-financed rookies including Joey Coulter, Steve Arpin, Craig Goess, Tim George, Jr. and Robb Brent.
In last year’s inaugural race, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Joey Logano, in an all-out dominating performance, steered the Venturini Motorsports-prepared Chevrolet to victory lane from the pole.
The ARCA RE/MAX Series initially raced at Rockingham Speedway on June 10, 1973 during which time Charlie Glotzbach won the 300-mile event from the pole.
ARCA RE/MAX Series on-track activities start Saturday with practice from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. followed by Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell at 2:30 p.m. Driver introductions go off Sunday afternoon raceday at 12:30 p.m. followed by the start of the Carolina ARCA RE/MAX 200 shortly after 1 p.m.. The race will be shown live on SPEED.
The UARA-STARS Late Model Series is also on the race card with a 70-lap race Saturday.
For more information about the Carolina ARCA RE/MAX 200 or to order tickets, please contact the speedway at (910) 205-8800 or visit the website at www.rockinghamspeedway.com.
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