The home office and headquarters of the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) suffered a catastrophic fire in Temperance, Mich., Sunday morning less than a week from its conclusion of their 64th season of competition.
Firefighters say the blaze started around 8:00 a.m. The immediate cause of the fire was unknown.
The sanctioning body said in a brief statement on its website that the fire “destroyed” the home office. The site also reported the fire had been completely extinguished.
“We know we’ve lost some documents, computers and some historical artifacts we can’t replace; however, we know we’re racing today at Winchester Speedway, racing today at La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway, and we’re full ahead for Friday’s Kansas 150 at Kansas Speedway,” said Ron Drager, president of ARCA in a statement.
John Marcum founded the Midwest Association for Race Cars (MARC) in 1953 in Toledo, Ohio as a regional stock car racing series after working as an official for NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. In 1964, Marcum changed the name to the “Automobile Racing Club of America” where the series became national by racing on superspeedways.
The series made its debut at Daytona International Speedway during the 1964 season at the request of France, who raced against Marcum in the 1940s. Drager is the grandson of Marcum.
The ARCA and NASCAR relationship continues today. The series frequently schedule events at the same track on the same weekend. Today, ARCA administers over 100 race events each season in four professional touring series and local weekly events.
The series still plans to hold its season finale at Kansas Speedway on Fri., Oct. 14, where rookie Chase Briscoe is poised to win his first stock car championship in a dominating season driving for Cunningham Motorsports.
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