DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Dec 17, 2011) – Milka Duno and her Sheltra Motorsports team proved they will be a team to watch when the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards visits Daytona International Speedway for the season opener in February. Duno drove her No. 63 Ford Fusion to the top of the speed charts during the Saturday morning test session, topping over 50 other drivers to post the fastest time in the third and final single run session before drafting sessions begin this afternoon.
Circling the famed 2.5 mile superspeedway in a time of 48.383 seconds (186.016 mph), Duno not only set the fastest time in the first day and a half of testing but also tops 2011 ARCA Racing Series Champion Ty Dillon’s pole qualifying effort (48.509 seconds/185.533 mph) from last season’s race at Daytona by almost two tenths of a second.
“This is what we want; we are working for this,” said Duno. “It is not a surprise. All the guys on the team have been working very hard to find what we can do with the car. Also, when I am on the track, I am driving as hard as I can to run the perfect lap every time. We worked very hard this morning because the car was not responding the way that we wanted it to. Dave (crew chief) and the team changed everything on the car in the morning session, and we finally got it driving the way that we wanted. It was a good result; we are happy with that, but we also expect that every time.”
Duno and her Sheltra Motorsports team are set to return to Daytona’s high-banks this afternoon for the first drafting session of the test. Teams have three total sessions left throughout the open test with this afternoon’s session and two more drafting sessions on Sunday.
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About Sheltra Motorsports:
Sheltra Motorsports, established in 2007, is in the midst of its fifth season of ARCA Racing Series competition. Owned by Florida-native, Patrick Sheltra, the owner-driver team captured the 2010 ARCA Racing Series driver and owner’s championship titles on the strength of two wins, 12 top-fives and 17 top-10 finishes in 20 events. Sheltra Motorsports is headquartered in Mooresville, N.C., with additional operations in Indiana and Florida. For more information, visit www.sheltramotorsports.com.
About Milka Duno:
Duno has eight major race wins in the highest classes (Prototype) in the American Le Mans Series and Rolex Series and the highest finish ever by a female driver (2nd Place) in the Rolex 24 at Daytona in the 48-year history of the race. Go, Milka, Go! – a book about her life and racing career, was awarded the Best Young Adult Sports/Recreation Book of 2009 at the 11th Annual International Latino Book Awards. In 2010, Duno became the first Venezuelan athlete inducted into the Latin American International Sports Hall of Fame.
