(ROCKINGHAM, N.C.) - The end of the 2010 ARCA season with the American 200 at Rockingham Speedway will be the beginning of an ARCA career for Tyler Speer, 19, of Woodstock Georgia as he makes his series debut in the #10 Chattanooga Auto Auction Chevrolet.
Speer earned his ARCA license at the at the ARCA Racing Series 3-day open test at Daytona International Speedway Dec. 18-20, 2009. It was his first experience in an ARCA car, but running a detuned backup car from Andy Hillenburg’s stable Speer still posted the 21st fastest lap of the test.
Although he will be a rookie in the ARCA race, Speer may well be the most experienced driver in the field at Rockingham. That is if you consider competing at all of the track’s venues. He’s run Little Rock in the Allison Legacy Series, the big track in the Frank Kimmel Streetstock Nationals Polar Bear 150 and he won the Allison Legacy event on Rockingham’s road course.
“I really enjoy racing at Rockingham,” Speer said, “especially the big track. I’m looking forward to running it with 800 horsepower and learning to race with some of the best drivers in the sport.”
Although new to ARCA cars, his four wheel racing career began the age of 12 when his parents vetoed his re-entry into dirt bike racing, which he had been a part of at an early age. They bought him a go-kart for Christmas and started racing in a local weekly series.
“I’m competitive in everything that I do, and I always want to be the best at it,” he said. “By the end of my first year of go-kart racing, I was starting to think about one day running in NASCAR.”
After running up front in the kart series, he and his parents realized he needed experience that would be relevant to running a major racing series, so when he turned 14 Speer joined the Allison Legacy National Touring Series running a three-quarter scale Cup car replica in 20+ races a year at tracks from Virginia to South Carolina.
To help refine his driving and race strategy skills, Speer enrolled in Mike Loescher’s FinishLine Racing School where he excelled his first time in a “big” car. Loescher has remained an advisor to Speer since based on his performance at the school.
After the 2009 Allison Legacy Series season when he finished fourth in the points with one win and nine top-five finishes, Speer moved on starting with the Daytona ARCA test and leading to a limited schedule in a Pro Late Model car in 2010 where he had top-ten finishes in each of his three events at Lanier National Speedway.
“Maybe the most fun was running two positions behind Kyle Busch in my first late model race,” Speer said.
Besides his diverse experience with Rockingham’s various tracks, Speer has run a wide variety of cars and tracks as he targets a racing career. In addition to the Kimmel Street Stock series, he made his dirt track debut at Dixie Speedway in Woodstock, GA this spring, placing in the top-five in three of the six Crate Late Model events he ran, including a heat race win.
“Learning and gaining experience is what my target is for this year,” Speer said. “The year started with the ARCA Daytona test and I feel like my first ARCA start makes a perfect ending to it.”
Speaking about learning, in addition to traveling, driving different cars in different classes, building his race cars and doing media appearances Tyler Speer graduated from Etowah High School in May of 2009 with dual diplomas and with honors and is currently attending Kennesaw State University full time.
MEDIA NOTE: Tyler Speer will be available for interviews at Rockingham Speedway, Thursday Oct. 7 and Friday, Oct. 8. Please contact Jim Murphy, lftrn97@comcast.net or cell (404) 409-2404. Also, Tyler invites you to visit Chattanooga Auto Auction at www.chattaa.com