Season 24 ARCSOA Elite Series Award Results!

by **CJ Racing** May 3rd 2018, 12:05 am

After a great 24th season of the ARCSOA Elite Series, the fans and drivers of the AES
were given the opportunity to nominate their choices on a variety of categories,
from Best Race of the Year, to the Worst Race Theme Music, and of course,
the all important Driver of the Year award! During the voting process, several drivers
gave their opinions on the wide variety of categories in which they voted for,
and some of those comments will be added as well.

So here, after it is all said and done, are the winners...
And well, losers too, of the S24 AES Awards!

________________________________________________________________________

---The Driver of the Year Award goes to... JOHN ARNDT!
+++Kenny Myatt:"(John) Arndt by far was the most flashy driver on the grid. He came in, stamped his authority with a Talladega victory. Then backed that up with an American 700 victory. He by far improved the most."
+++Chris Dodd: "To think, the driver who I brought over to race with me on that once-little CJ Racing team is now one of the biggest names in the series. He absolutely deserved to win the Championship this year, and hey, he just about did. He started out of the gate so strong, especially when he won that American 700. He struggled pretty hard in the middle part of the year, but he never quit, and almost came back to win the Championship. (John) Arndt's future is super bright in the AES, and I can't wait to race with and against him for years to come. #TheFutureIsNow
+++Kyle Basaglia: "(John) Arndt was very consistent, and was able to keep good performances through the season, where others were all over the place, I just thought Arndt was more consistent."
+++Jack Hallec: "Aye, the chap be able to win a few races, be in t'e fight most of the year, an' even when he be failin,' he went on a supersurge 'er luck an' skill and made it back to t'e top. Noah Hart got quite lucky. He truly deserves ta' be Driver of the year."

---The Team of the Year Award goes to... SILVERSPEED!
+++Noah Hart: "Silverspeed was a consistent threat each and every week. They had speed that nobody else seemed to be able to find on a weekly basis. They were able to bring fast cars for every car on it's organization to the point a mediocre driver was able to capitalize and win a race! Pericles and Arndt went into races each week knowing they could win races and most of the time they were right there if nothing bad happened to them. They were just so fast and the way they could get back to the gas so much faster than everyone else made them so dangerous on the ovals."
+++Jack Hallec: "Silverspeed be no doubt the top team. Every race, they be havin' stellar fast runs t'at could get any of t'e t'ree a win. Fer instance, take Beka Moss, a reckless individual, she won a race in top equipmen' and brought the team a win. Whenever Silverspeed was not dallyin,' t'ey sure put on a show, aye. It be takin' a lot to have both of ya drivers fightin' fer the championship, an' it be a shame t'ey could not seal t'e deal. T'at be why I be pickin' Silverspeed."

---The Reject Driver of the Year Award goes to... Beka Moss.
+++Vince Freeze: "Beka(Moss) has talent and even won a race, but her inconsistency to perform each weekend is why I chose to make her my reject driver of the season. Daytona was the infamous incident. After wrecking herself and the silver-speed teammates, Mr. Silver made the conscious choice to move on from Beka and have James Shelly in the car. As a competitor it’s sad to see anyone leave, but thoroughly important, this is a business to perform and if you can’t perform, action has to be taken. Beka will learn her lesson, but at the end of the day it will be a life lesson to respect opponents and competition while at high speeds especially in the Elite Series."

---The Reject Team of the Year Award goes to... Red Viper.
+++Eric Monaco: "Well Red Viper was pretty much done from the start."

---The Best Race of Year Award... AND THE BEST FINISH OF THE YEAR AWARD, goes to...The ARCSOA World Championships @Port Skyline!
+++Noah Hart: "To have a bad pit stop and put your fate in the championship in other drivers hands made me really sick to my stomach... It wasn't really anything I did wrong but more so my guys. All we could do was just hope that what we were able to accomplish all year long up until that point was going to be good enough. Hearing that Arndt and Pericles was 1-2 in the race made it feel so devastating but for Ike Durbin and his part time team to gamble it really threw us back in it. I could barely drive the last couple of laps of not knowing what was happening or what was going to happen... to hear my crew chief call me off the final corner screaming "You're the champion brother! You are the man! Awesome job team!" To hear everyone else on my team so excited to win a championship meant the world to me bc so many of them had never won a title with me before and for me to go out on top for my last ride is just an incredible feat I couldn't have pictured it any better."
+++Kenny Myatt: "Port Skyline was one of the toughest races in my career. The rain was constant and steady throughout the race. I think the finale was well thought out because it relied on pit strategy, and that outcome essentially solidified the championship for Noah."
+++Kyle Basaglia: "Port Skyline had the title coming down to the wire as Hart had to drag through the field with Pericles and Arndt tossing the lead for the championship, and with pit strategy coming into play, it made it a lot more fun."
+++Eric Monaco: "That Finish at Port Skyline was Good with the Two Teammates of Arndt and Pericles And (Ike)Durbin out of nowhere Again Winning the Race."

The Worst Race of the Year goes to... Donet City.
+++Vince Freeze: "Where do I even begin with this one is the statement I said on the radio during the race. Starting on Lap 1, to see my then teammate Eric(Monaco) wreck and than to see (Roman)Rehall be a pinball, it was just not what we were looking for as a team, but they were not the only ones. Wrecks and major incidents involving Championship Contenders was way too risky to run aggressive throughout. Donet City also proved to be the one race where not only was passing, wrecks, and pit stops so hard to do because of the entrance to pit road, but Qualifying was virtually useless because of the attrition. I had a great top 5 run going, but a wreck with Ben Dover cost us the spot. Although I wasn't frustrated, I did talk to Dover saying it was just a racing deal and the track was a treacherous one to say the least."
+++Kyle Basaglia: "One word: WRECKFEST."

The Most Disappointing Race of the Year Award goes to... Catawba Central/Ohio.
Editor's Note: A race that probably could have been really good, but unfortunately was ruined by a rushed track construction with very limited testing. It became especially clear when on pretty much every pit stop, when the cars would fly off the track and into the wall on the same part of the track.

The Worst Finish of the Year Award goes to... Road Atlanta.
Editors Note: Ohh Road Atlanta, the track that everyone either loves or hates. During S24's running, it was shaping up to be a great finish, until the lap car of William Brock just flat took out DJ Kurtis, who was battling for the lead, taking him out of the battle for the win completely. And for extra measure, on the White Flag Chris Dodd(who was 5th at the time) was crashed as well.
+++Chris Dodd: "Who would have thought, that a last lap crash on the very first race of the season probably cost me the Championship this year? It just goes to show how every race and every result matters here. But man the finish of this race just didn't settle well with me."

The Biggest Wreck of the Year Award goes to... The Indy 250.
+++Kenny Myatt: "I actually think Suzuka was the biggest crash in my career. Indianapolis was quite bad though. Indianapolis took the career away from Moshe Gurion, and it pretty much solidified that I was making the right move by retiring."
+++Moshe Gurion: "Without question, the crash that happened in the Indy 250 completely changed not just my life, but how the remainder of S24 would pass. I mean heck, it gave Jake Baskinger an opportunity to try to win a Championship in the #73 I used to drive, and it gave Bobby Jones a shot to win the Championship with the FBR team, 2 drivers that probably wouldn't have had a realistic chance otherwise."

The Best Paint Scheme of the Year Award goes to... John Arndt's #83 Zaxby's Dodge!
+++Chris Dodd:"Gotta say, there were a ton of great paint schemes this year, and it came down to 2 paint schemes to me. But I had to go with (John) Arndt's #83 "Chicken-Mobile". The way that car looked on the track, with the yellow paint that would always make him closer in your rearview mirror then he really was. But when the car was still, seeing the Yellow and Blue be such a great color combination, it was just a great scheme to look at."

The Worst Paint Scheme of the Year Award goes to... Tylor Thaber's #28 Albertsons Ford.
Editor's Note: It wasn't that this paint scheme was terrible, but when you compared it to the vast majority of the paint schemes in the field, it simply did not look like a good scheme.

The Best Race Theme Award Music goes to... The American 700 Finishing Music!
Editor's Note: It's the freaking American 700 Finishing Music, what do you expect? It's awesome.

The Worst Race Theme Music Award goes to... Barbagallo/Australia.
+++Vince Freeze: "This was the worst because the racing was quite aggressive and narrow. I couldn’t believe that especially when I lead the whole race and to have it wash in tears in the waning laps due to aggression and lap traffic management. The whole race besides was interesting and also the major fact that it reminded myself of a doomsday Halloween scenario type beat made it to good to be true while watching the race back to study tape of the errors I made for next season. The other major reason I voted this the worst is all the other races the music fitted the races well to me personally, but this one felt out of sorts."[/color]