Doubling Down; Taylor Ferns Set for Weekend ARCA & USAC Silver Crown Races at Historic Springfield

Concord, NC (August 15, 2013) – Seventeen-year-old Taylor Ferns will be making her Springfield dirt mile debut this weekend pulling double duty in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards and the Traxxas USAC Silver Crown Series.
 
Racing on both dirt and pavement has helped Taylor become of the most versatile young drivers in the country.
 
Honing her skills in the open wheel ranks, the Shelby Township, Mich. teenager has expanded her horizons this year by competing in a select number of ARCA races with Venturini Motorsports.
 
Already with several ARCA short track events under her belt Taylor made her first superspeedway start a couple of weeks ago at the historic Pocono (Pa.) Raceway and will now show her true versatility as she takes to the famed one-mile dirt oval at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield, Illinois.
 
Taylor will compete this weekend in both ARCA’s Allen Crowe Memorial100, driving the No. 55 Motor City Transport Toyota for Venturini Motorsports and the Tony Bettenhausen 100 race for the Traxxas USAC Silver Crown Series in the No. 35 Toyota-powered Beast for Team 6R.
 
The 51st annual Allen Crowe Memorial 100 will be Taylor’s first ARCA event on dirt.
 
The Tony Bettenhausen 100 for the Traxxas USAC Silver Crown Series will mark the second one-mile dirt-race that Ferns has competed in this season. She made her first Traxxas USAC Silver Crown Series start on a one-mile dirt oval in May, in the historic Hoosier 100 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis. That race also was the first dirt start in a Silver Crown car for the winningest female driver in USAC history.
 
“Having raced a Silver Crown car on the dirt at the Indy Mile definitely helps and I can take some of what I learned there over to Springfield this week,” said Ferns. “On a mile track you are going so much faster than on say a half-mile, so the main thing is to make sure you know where to get into the corner so don’t lose any corner speed. In a 100-lap Silver Crown race you use the same philosophy you do in a stock car and that is to take care of your equipment at the beginning so you can be there at the end.”
 
Taylor will open the weekend with practice for the Tony Bettenhausen 100 on Saturday, Aug. 17, followed by two laps of qualifying, which will set the starting lineup for the 100-mile main event.

Practice for the ARCA Allen Crowe 100 is scheduled Sunday morning from 9:00-10:00 a.m. with Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell following at 11:15. The 51st annual Allen Crowe Memorial 100 starts at 1:30 p.m. All times are local.

The Allen Crowe Memorial 100 will also be the third ARCA Racing Series race that will be broadcast on NBC Sports Network. NBC Sports Network’s ARCA racing coverage of the Allen Crowe Memorial 100 premieres Friday, August 23 at 11 p.m. ET.

Taylor is also schedule to pull double duty at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds in DuQuoin, Ill., Sept. 1–2, which will feature another 100-lap event for both the ARCA Racing Series and the Traxxas USAC Silver Crown Series.