Luckily I had a team on my side who had been running steady race in, and race out all season.  Venturinni Motorsports is quite possibly the most well known team in all of ARCA.  They take pride in winning races and developing young talent.

Drivers such as Joey Logano, Sean Caisse, and Brian Scott are all part of the Venturinni Motorsports driver development program.  They look up to the team for mentoring, advice, and just sharpening up their racing skills whenever possible.

It’s an honor becoming one of the newest members of their team, it instantaneously amps you up.  It also gives you a tremendous amount of confidence going into a race cold turkey because you know the team can win, they have twice this year.  You know the car is prepared right, you know that you will unload and be close on set-up right away, and you know that everything will be, or is taken care of .  So all I need to worry about is racing the car.

During practice the car was great.  The track was an odd ball shape, you never really get the pedal to the floor unless you are on new tires, even then the car has to be right on.  Running Oxford the weekend before helped a lot.  Not only was Oxford my first time on the track all year battling other race cars, but the shape was nearly identical.  Very round and technical, Berlin was similar it just had more banking and was a little bit sharper off turn 4.  Our practice time put us 4th on the board.  We made a few changes in practice to tighten the car up but by the end of the run we came back to almost the identical set-up we showed up with.  All and all practice went well.

Qualifying was borderline disastrous.  I don’t know if it was from my lack of qualifying over the past year or so, or if I was just so excited because I thought we had a potential pole winning car and I had way over drove it.  Either way I sawed on the steering wheel, drove sideways, spun tires, and some how qualified 13th.  Based on how tight the field was and how poorly of a lap I had run I figured I would have been 20th.  So I guess calling qualifying borderline disastrous is a bit of an overstatement, but running a bad lap like that in a tight field of cars, and in a caution filled short track race is indeed a recipe for disaster because you put yourself in the middle of the pack where all of the action is (crash action, the action that you want to avoid).  So I had my work cut out for me.

It was time to race, after a bit of a shower passed over the track and caused about an hour delay in start time.  When the green dropped we where fast, I picked off a few cars lap after lap and before I knew it I was in 8th.  I continued to gain positions while keeping the car clean and conserving tires.  The 20 car and us had the same strategy, pit once and take four tires instead of pitting twice and taking two tires at a time.  I think the strategy worked, it got us up to 2nd while the 20 car continued to lead.  Our tires started to wear out just before our mid race pit stop and we lost several positions.

Finally a caution came out and we got our four tires, now I had 60 laps to battle my way to the front from the back of the pack.  Once the green dropped we did just that.  Within 30 laps I found myself sitting in 3rd with 30 to go, I kept digging and digging trying to catch the leaders who had opened up a bit of a gap, but by doing so I used up some tire and Frank Kimmel in the 44 and the 29 car got around me.  I was now in 5th which was the best I felt we were going to run.  Just after the 44 and 29 got by me the two of them got together which sent Frank in the 44 car spinning off turn 4.  I was once again in 4th and it was going to be a green, white, checkered finish.  The green came out for the final time but nobody had enough left to make any significant move.  We wound up crossing the line 4th which was a solid day for myself, Venturinni Motorsports, and last but not least our Sponsor National Exhaust System Inc.

I want to thank my family, Billy Venturinni with the rest of Venturinni Motorsports, and Tom Baker from National Exhaust for helping my career continue to move forward and get much needed races in, Thanks guys!

“Coming back to the ARCA RE/MAX Series is going to be a great experience, especially since I have become part of the Driver Development Program with Venturini Motorsports. They have proven week in and week out they are the strong force in the Series, and I am honored to have the chance to drive their car,” commented Pete Shepherd III.

Shepherd is no newcomer in the Series however. After taking on the elusive Roush Fenway “Gong Show” in 2005, and becoming one of the top finalists, Jack Roush signed Shepherd to a multi-year contract. He ran several ARCA RE/MAX Series races and Camping World Truck races during his two-year contract, showing his maturity and skills in a racecar, before a lack of sponsorship sidelined the promising young Canadian driver.

“To have the chance to race for Mr. (Jack) Roush and his team was truly a chance of a lifetime. I am still humbled to this day that I was given that chance, they taught me so much, and I can’t wait to use those skills this weekend in Berlin,” said Shepherd.

Shepherd since his time with Roush Fenway Racing has continued racing in one of Canada’s premier series, CASCAR. He also competed in the prestigious ACT, American-Canadian Tour where he has become a constant force to be reckoned with. Shepherd’s drive and determination have made him one of Canada’s fiercest young drivers, who will jump in and drive any form of racing.

“Pete (Shepherd) is already known through the ranks of ARCA and NASCAR because of his talent and racing resume,” commented Crew Chief Billy Venturini. “I am really looking forward to working with him this weekend, and making sure he stays a household name.”

Shepherd will be piloting the No. 25 National Exhaust Systems INC – Venturini Motorsports Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS in Saturday night’s bullfight around the tight half mile of Berlin Raceway. Veteran Crew Chief Billy Venturini will be calling the shots from atop the box all weekend, along side his Venturini Motorsports crew.

“The entire Venturini Motorsports crew is excited to go racing with Pete (Shepherd) Saturday night. We have had a rough couple weeks, being caught up in some wrecks, and we are looking forward to staying out front all night with Pete. He will definitely be a force to be reckoned with,” commented Billy Venturini.

Make sure to catch the No. 25 National Exhaust Systems INC – Venturini Motorsports Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS driven by Canada’s own Pete Shepherd III this Saturday night at Berlin Raceway in Marne, MI. The Wolverine Power Systems 200 will have live video and audio at www.arcaracing.com beginning at 8:30PM EST.

Also be sure to catch out the official radio show of Venturini Motorsports, the “Venturini Motorsports Power Hour” exclusively on www.racefanradio.com. You can tune in live every Thursday night at 9PM EST and be sure to catch previous episodes ON Demand 24/7 in their archive.

For more information on Venturini Motorsports please visit www.venturinimotorsports.com

For more information on Pete Shepherd III please visit www.peteshepherd.com

Please visit our sponsor at www.nationalexhaust.com

MEDIA CONTACT

Nic Moncher

Venturini Motorsports

nic@venturinimotorsports.com

To make matters worse I lost power steering, or so I thought, we changed the pump but still had problems.  The problem ended up being in the steering rack so we put a new one on and went back out.  Valuable practice time was missed though.  The crew worked frantically the rest of the day but very little gains were made.  If there were some kind of a “Hard Workers Of The Weekend” award my Dad, Jeff Wilson, Don Reinhart Jr., and both Grandfathers would’ve had it in their back pockets.

Race Day started off much better.  My Dad drew the number 56 out of the hat for our heat line-up order.  Dad pulled number 1 out of the hat for the 250 back in 1999, so it’s a tradition that he pulls my number for this race.  The number 56 started us 6th in heat number 5, 20 cars where in my heat.  During the heat the car started off strong, within 2 laps I drove my way up to 4th which is the last transferring spot out of the heats.  Our car then began to get free on exit and it was getting pretty tough to drive, I had to “White Knuckle” it from that point forward.  The mistake I made though was perhaps being a little too conservative, with one lap to go a hard charging car which started near the rear of the pack got on the outside of me and stole 4th pace away right at the line.  I was mad, but with myself as there was nobody else to blame but me.  Yeah, the car wasn’t great but I let it slip away by not being aggressive enough.  Giving up 4th and finishing 5th put me in another 20 car heat race.  This time I was on the pole with once again 4 cars transferring to the 250.  This time when the green dropped there was no messing around.  I took off like a bullet and ran hard every lap giving myself about a 10 car length lead, and it was a good thing I did because with 4 laps to go a tire went soft and I had to finess my vay to victory.  It felt pretty good getting my first win of 09 in just my 2nd start but I knew in order to win the big one we still had a lot of work to do on the car.

The evening rolled around and it was time for the biggest Late Model race of the year, The TD Banknorth 250. Two hundred and fifty green flag laps that paid $100 per lap to lead, plus $25,000 to the winner.  So if the stars lined up just right the winner could potentially take home $50,000.  We stated 27th but when the green flag dropped so did we.  I figure we must have slipped back to about 32nd but right away a problem arose.  Once again a tire went soft and we fell way off the pace only 20 laps in.  We needed a caution but it never came.  Those guys from the North East race hard and clean so we were forced to make a green flag stop.  The crew busted off a wicked stop, which they did for me all night, but a green flag stop on a short track will kill you every time, and we lost several laps.  Once we had the tire problem solved we scratched and clawed our way though the pack but at this point it was only for experience and pride.  It still felt good considering it was one of the toughest groups of cars I have ever ran against.  Sometime in the middle of the race the yellow flag came out and everybody including myself checked up.  Unfortunately the car behind me couldn’t get it slowed down on time and drove into my left rear tire sending it towards the outside of the track.  It caused just enough damage to end our day, we came home with a 36th place finish.  The whole team as well as myself kept our heads up high though because we knew we qualified for the toughest short track race in America, a race where 40 very good Late Models were sent home, and we knew that it wasn’t our day, but our day will come soon!