JUPITER, Fl — Racing on the track closest to his home, Blake Koch of West Palm Beach, Florida made an impressive run in his first ever ARCA Series qualifying session at Palm Beach International Speedway (PBIR) Friday afternoon. Despite motor complications that limited his practice time, Koch took home the third qualifying spot out of 35 qualifiers for Saturday's Tire Kingdom 150 on the 11-turn Road Course.
"I'm looking forward to doing my best to put this Tire Kingdom #6 in victory lane tomorrow. "— Blake Koch
A local favorite in the first ever ARCA event at PBIR, Koch took to the track Friday afternoon aboard the Tire Kingdom sponsored Toyota fielded by Eddie Sharp Racing, the 2009 ARCA Series champions. A second year driver in the NASCAR West K&N Pro Series, Koch used his past motocross experience and patience to master the twists and curves of the 2.03 mile course to post a time of 78:501 seconds at a speed of 93.773 miles per hour.
"We made some big swings with the car," said Koch. "The crew made some major changes after practice. It says a lot about this Eddie Sharp Tire Kingdom team, to come back from the challenges we had in practice."
During the early practice session, Koch was forced to the garage when the Tire Kingdom #6 suffered a motor loss. The fast work by the ESR crew got the former Florida Late Model racer back on track for qualifying where he was positioned last on the roster due to the needed repairs.
"We only got eleven laps of practice in before we blew a motor," said Koch. "So I will settle for a third place in qualifying for sure considering we had so few laps to get the car dialed in. I had a good run and great time. I'm looking forward to doing my best to put this Tire Kingdom #6 in victory lane tomorrow.
Koch timed in behind pole sitter Casey Roderick of Lawrenceville, GA who timed in at 93.325 MPH and second place qualifier Justin Marks, a well seasoned road racer. Due to the fact the team was unable to take their original qualifying spot he will fall to the 35th position for the green flag. The Kingdom Tire 150 presented by ModSpace is scheduled to begin at 1:00 ET, Saturday, February 27.
For additional information on professional stock car driver Blake Koch visit his official website at www.blakekoch.com. Further information on the upcoming Tire Kingdom 150 at Palm Beach International Raceway can be found at www.racepbir.com. For more information on the ARCA Series visit www.arca.com.
