SPORTS

Arpin, Loenbro join forces on the track

Lee Vernoy
lvernoy@greatfallstribune.com

Editor's Note: Today marks the start of a new feature in the Tribune sports section, a column by Lee Vernoy devoted to auto racing. It will appear most Mondays in the spring and summer.

— Scott Mansch

If it seems I'm going from one extreme (bowling) to another (motor sports), keep this in mind: there are several race drivers who bowl during the season.

I kid you not. Local driver Tim McCune, who we'll feature down the road, bowls in the winter, drives in the summer.

This column is about motor sports and their drivers. Not just on the dirt oval at Electric City Speedway, but also on the quarter-mile dragstrip in Lewistown, and even the motocross riders who call the Rainbow Motosports Complex on Wire Mill Road their home away from home.

Steve Arpin has seen it all. The Fort Frances, Ontario native started racing go-karts at age 10, progressing to modifieds by the time he was 14, and has been racing on dirt tracks ever since, which is a pretty good reason why he has joined up with Chip Ganassi Racing and Loenbro owners Paul and Jon Leach on the Red Bull Global RallyCross Series.

Arpin and Loenbro president Paul Leach raced at the Speedway this weekend: Arpin was in an A Modified, Leach in both A and Midwest Modifieds.

But GRC cars are a whole different breed: "I drive a car based on the Ford Fiesta, but the car is 100 percent purpose-built in England," Arpin said. Ford, General Motors, Subaru and Volkswagen are Official Manufacturing Partners for the GRC, and Ganassi/Loenbro Racing own two cars on the circuit.

It's an all-wheel drive, 650 horsepower, full-turbo vehicle that can go from zero to 60 in 1.6 (that's one-point-six) seconds, which outdoes a Formula One racer hands-down. They go through two heat rounds (four cars, six laps), then into the semifinals (two groups of equal size, also six laps), with the top 10 cars moving into the 10-lap main event.

All those not getting into the main event then race one more time — a "last chance qualifier;" this time for four laps — for any remaining qualifying slots. Championship points on a basis of 50 points for first, 45 for second, all the way to five points for 10th, with all other racers getting one point for starting. Points are also awards in heats two and three: three points for first, two for second, everyone else gets one.

GRC cars race in, as Arpin puts it, "any element you can imagine: dirt, gravel, asphalt, sunshine, rain."

And if that isn't enough, the cars have to make a jump on every lap. At least 70 feet to upwards of 200 feet.

GRC cars weigh about the same as an A Modified — 2,450 pounds — but A Modifieds aren't built to withstand the GRC jumps.

"If a Modified goes airborne, it is not on purpose," Arpin said with a laugh. "Because of the terrain and the jumps, RallyCross is a very physically demanding sport, more so than NASCAR. NASCAR is more of an endurance test over 500 miles."

And GRC, which is raced on tracks that are 0.5-1 miles in length, has something no other racing sport has: a penalty box, which is a 50-meter box designed to deal with on-track infractions, much in the same way hockey deals with on-ice no-nos: the offender pulls into the "sin bin" until released by a track official. If it's too late in the race, a time penalty is enforced.

Then there's Paul Leach, who admits he's been "a motorhead since I was a little kid. Jon and I would race each other, using anything with a motor."

The Leach boys, who were raised on a ranch just south of Sun River (which is where their race shop is), didn't get the racing bug passed directly from one generation to another.

"My dad didn't race," Paul said, "but I guess I have an uncle who did."

The Red Bull GRC series is televised on NBC Television (KBGF in Great Falls), as well as on NBCSN via tape delay.

Live racing at the Speedway will happen Friday night, May 1, with "Mud In Montana," with Street Stocks, Super Stocks, A Modifieds and Midwest Modifieds in action. Gates open at 6, racing starts at 7:30.

Tribune Sports Writer Lee Vernoy writes a weekly column devoted to motor sports personalities. Contact him by email at lvernoy@greatfallstribune.com.