Kevin Kovac's Take Five
Take Five: 'Washed up' Arpin back in the seat
In a new feature appearing regularly on DirtonDirt, senior writer Kevin Kovac will offer readers five things worth mentioning from around the Dirt Late Model landscape (index to previous Take Fives):
No. 1: Longhorn Chassis managing partner Steve Arpin has plenty of racing experience — he’s well known for his open-wheel modified success and also competed in such disciplines as USAC Silver Crown, ARCA, the NASCAR O’Reilly and Truck Series and even Global Rallycross — but the 42-year-old native of Fort Frances, Ontario, calls himself “the old washed up guy now” with his focus shifted to the manufacturing side of the industry. So the news that Arpin will return to competition during July 2-4’s NAPA Gopher 50 weekend at Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn., in the supporting Repairable Vehicles.com Tri-State Series for Dirt Late Models is a bit surprising. Arpin said he hasn’t raced a Dirt Late Model in “probably 15 years” — since he ran a couple nights in Montana for Chris Dunn — and “had no plans” of making a so-called “comeback” to the class, but he was pushed to put together a Longhorn Chassis carrying his familiar No. 00 by his longtime friend Mike Sorensen of Rochester, Minn., the father of World of Outlaws Late Model Series regular Dustin Sorensen and a Longhorn dealer. “Mike Sorensen is like family to me and him and I used to race modifieds hard together years back,” Arpin related. “(This year) he kept on pressuring me to race (a Dirt Late Model). I kept saying no, and then finally said, ‘If you do it, I’ll do it.’ Well, the bugger went and built himself a car and then called me out.”
No. 2: Arpin will be seeking bragging rights during his Deer Creek action over Mike Sorensen, who will make his first Dirt Late Model starts since sometime around 2010. “That’s the most valuable prize available for me,” Arpin joked when I asked him about facing off with Sorensen. Added Arpin: “I told him I already booked him an appointment on the repair jig for July 6.”
No. 3: The chance to climb in a Dirt Late Model and make some competitive laps — especially his pal Sorensen — has Arpin anxiously awaiting the holiday stretch of racing at Deer Creek, a track he frequented during his open-wheel modified days. “It’s honestly a dream come true for me,” Arpin said. “I’ve got my RV, an open trailer (for the race car), my wife and two kids coming, my dad will be there with us. Doing it with Mike Sorenson and my partner Paul Leach’s two boys Michael and Tyler … I’m honestly just childishly giddy looking forward to next week.”
No. 4: Speaking of the Sorensens, Dustin Sorensen had an eventful weekend away from the track. He bypassed Saturday’s WoO event at 141 Speedway in Francis Creek, Wis. — Nick Panitzke drove his car in the event to keep up owner points for Sorensen’s team — to attend a wedding. Then on Sunday he popped the question to his girlfriend Renee, so congratulations are in order for the newly engaged couple.
No. 5: I spent the past weekend on a vacation trip with my wife and son to visit our friends in Miami and make a side excursion to the Universal Studios Resort in Orlando. I’ve previously written how I’m always on the lookout for people wearing Dirt Late Model-related T-shirts while I’m at a theme park, so I have to report that I spotted a couple on Saturday. One was a guy wearing a Garrett Alberson shirt. The other was a person clad in a shirt that read “King’s Florence Speedway.” Oh, and I had on a Prairie Dirt Classic shirt, so there were at least three pieces of apparel representing Dirt Late Models among the throngs at Universal Studios.
