Versus Broadcast Team to Meet and Greet with Fan at Stafford Speedway’s 20th Annual Town Fair Tire 150
Stafford Springs, CT — With the Whelen Modified Tour coming to Stafford Motor Speedway for the 20th Annual Town Fair Tire 150 on Friday, August 6th, Versus will also be making a stop at the Connecticut half-mile to provide tape-delayed television coverage of the race. The Versus broadcast team consisting of Jack Arute, Jimmy Spencer, and Ralph Sheheen, will meet and greet with fans and sign autographs at the Town Fair Tire booth following the conclusion of Whelen Modified Tour Time Trials.
Arute left his Stafford promoter duties in 1973 to pursue a broadcasting career first with NASCAR’s MRN Radio and then with ABC Television where he covered a variety of sports including NASCAR, the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, Olympic Soccer, Cycling, and Luge. For more than 25 years he was a cornerstone to ABC’s coverage of NCAA College Football as well as the IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis 500. Arute’s television efforts have earned him multiple broadcasting awards and he is a current member of his hometown’s (New Britain, CT) Sports Hall of Fame. Since returning to the Northeast in the early ’90’s Jack has been the force behind Stafford’s television coverage including ESPN’s telecast of the Fall Final and NESN’s NASCAR New England. Now the IZOD IndyCar Pit Analyst for Versus’ IndyCar series telecasts, Jackie was also a key catalyst in the network’s decision to air 9 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour events this year including the Town Fair Tire 150 and Stafford’s season ending CARQUEST Fall Final.
Jimmy Spencer, also known as “Mr. Excitement”, is a former two-time Whelen Modified Tour champion and he is the 1984 CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler champion. Spencer moved from the Modified ranks into the Sprint Cup Series where he won 2 races while driving for Junior Johnson. Spencer is one of a handful of drivers that have victories in each of NASCAR’s three top series.
Spencer has 2 career Sprint Cup wins, 12 career Nationwide Series wins, and 1 career Camping World Truck Series victory, which came at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2003. Spencer is a former co-host of NASCAR Race Day and NASCAR Victory Lane on SPEED, and he is now the host of What’s the Deal on SPEED.
Ralph Sheheen is currently a pit reporter for NASCAR on TNT, an announcer for AMA motocross and supercross on SPEED, as well as announcing many other forms of racing on SPEED. Sheheen’s broadcasting career began in 1988, when he did ISMA sports car race for ESPN and he has since worked for ESPN2, FSN, Spike TV( formerly TNN), and CBS covering various forms of auto racing.
Versus is one of the fastest growing sports channels in the country. Versus offers a wide range of professional sports to viewers, including the Izod Indycar Series, National Hockey League, WEC, UFC, College Football and College Basketball, Professional Bull Riders Tour, the Tour de France, and the UFL. Versus is available nationwide in high definition on DirecTV and Dish Network and is available on a regional level on cable.
Tickets for the 20th Annual Town Fair Tire 150 are on sale now at the Speedway Box Office. Tickets are priced at $30.00 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved seating is priced at $32.00 for all ages. As always, Stafford Motor Speedway offers free parking with overnight parking available.
For more information on the 20th Annual Town Fair Tire 150, or to order tickets, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783 or
visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.
Sources: Scott Running/Stafford M0tor Speedway PR