Stock car racing’s ARCA Racing Series will make its fourth trip to Mobile International Speedway next spring, with the Mobile 200 set for Saturday, March 14, 2015, at the half-mile oval in Irvington. The race will again serve as the second event on the national ARCA schedule, following only the season-opening event at Daytona.
Fairhope driver Grant Enfinger, who has won the Mobile 200 the past two years running, said he plans to be back to defend his title and chase a third straight victory at the track. Enfinger parlayed last season’s win into a runner-up finish in the overall ARCA driver standings. He was also honored this year as grand marshal of the homecoming parade at the University of South Alabama, his alma mater, and said the Mobile stop remains one of the highlights of his season.
ARCA, short for the Automobile Racing Club of America, was founded in 1953 and is known for putting drivers and teams through one of the most varied schedules in motorsports. Its tracks range from just over a third of a mile to more than two and a half miles, cover both paved and dirt surfaces, and include ovals as well as road courses run in both directions.
Mobile International Speedway opened in 1964 and is regarded as Alabama’s fastest half-mile track. Beyond the ARCA date, the Irvington facility hosts the Sunoco Southern Super Series and the Miller Lite Super Late Model Series, along with a regular slate of Saturday night short-track racing. Along with Talladega Superspeedway, it is one of only two Alabama tracks on the ARCA circuit.
ARCA officials say the Mobile stop has become a fixture on their calendar. “Mobile will again be the second race on our schedule, following the season opener in Daytona,” ARCA President Ron Drager said in a statement announcing the return. “Our teams and officials talk about the Mobile event all year long, and it has become one of the most anticipated stops of the series. The energy and community involvement we experience in Mobile is incredible.”
ARCA Week is scheduled to open Saturday, March 7, with an open practice session for competing teams, followed by the Mobile 200 itself the following weekend. Track officials estimate that nearly 22,000 fans have attended the race’s first three runnings since it joined the schedule.
Mobile’s own Thomas “Moose” Praytor, who finished seventh in this year’s ARCA championship standings, said the hometown crowd sets the Irvington race apart. “I’ve had the opportunity to race all over the country, but there is nothing like racing in front of the hometown fans at Mobile International Speedway,” Praytor said. “Grant has won the last two. I hope it’s time for another Mobile driver to win.”
Other area drivers with Mobile 200 experience include Cale Gale, who won the inaugural running of the race in 2012, and Darren Mathews. Organizers say the growing list of local competitors has helped fuel interest in the event across the Gulf Coast racing community.
Elsewhere on the local sports calendar, the status of next year’s LPGA stop in Mobile is drawing some uncertainty. When the Ladies Professional Golf Association released its 2015 tournament schedule, the Airbus LPGA Classic was listed for May 18-24 at the Magnolia Grove course in west Mobile, but with the notation “tentative” attached — a designation not applied to any other stop on the tour’s 34-event calendar.
John Cannon, president of the Sunbelt Golf Corporation, which oversees the tournament, said in a statement that organizers remain optimistic the event will return. “While work continues on the final details with Airbus and the LPGA, we are very hopeful the Airbus LPGA Classic will be returning to Mobile in May 2015,” Cannon said. Neither the LPGA nor tournament officials have offered further comment on the tentative designation.
On the football side, the picture is coming into focus for the next GoDaddy Bowl, set for Sunday night, Jan. 4, at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. The Mid-American Conference’s representative will be decided Friday, Dec. 5, when Bowling Green (7-5) meets Northern Illinois (10-2) for the MAC championship at Detroit’s Ford Field, with kickoff set for 6 p.m. Toledo (8-4) and Western Michigan (8-4) finished just behind Northern Illinois in division play.
In the Sun Belt Conference, Georgia Southern completed a perfect 8-0 run through league play by rallying to beat Troy and finished 9-3 overall, but the Eagles remain ineligible for a bowl bid while in their final season transitioning to the Football Bowl Subdivision. That leaves Louisiana-Lafayette (8-4 overall, 7-1 in the Sun Belt) and Appalachian State (7-5 overall, 6-2 in the Sun Belt) as the next-highest finishers in the conference. GoDaddy Bowl organizers are expected to announce their selection this Sunday, Dec. 7.
The University of South Alabama also remains in the bowl conversation despite a heartbreaking 42-40 loss to Navy last week. The Jaguars finished the regular season 6-6 overall and 5-3 in the Sun Belt, tying them with Texas State and Arkansas State, the latter a program that has already played in three straight GoDaddy Bowls. South Alabama is bowl eligible for the second consecutive season.
The Sun Belt currently holds three bowl tie-ins: one league team faces a Conference USA opponent in the New Orleans Bowl, a second takes on a MAC team in Mobile at the GoDaddy Bowl, and a third travels to Montgomery’s Camellia Bowl to face another MAC squad. According to the conference, a fourth bowl tie-in will be added for the 2015 season with the Cure Bowl in Orlando, Florida, which benefits breast cancer research, and the Sun Belt is also part of a coalition that will rotate teams into the Miami Beach Bowl and the Bahamas Bowl.
South Alabama head coach Joey Jones said during a news conference Monday that a bowl invitation would carry outsized significance for the young program. “In my opinion, [a bowl invitation] would be the biggest thing that has ever happened to this football program,” Jones said. “We have done a lot of good things … We have a chance to showcase the University of South Alabama, no matter what city we are in, and I think we would do a good job of doing that. The anticipation of having that and not knowing is tough, but I feel good about it. I think we put ourselves in very good position to get there.” Jaguar fans will find out Sunday whether the team’s season continues into the postseason.
In academic news from the world of local college athletics, several members of the University of Mobile’s cross country program have been recognized as Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athletes. Seniors Daniel Holley of Bay Minette, an elementary education and early childhood education major, and Stephen Tindal of Bon Secour, a sociology major, made the list, along with senior Katelyn Osborne and junior Sarah LeCroy. To earn the distinction, student-athletes must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale.