For Carson Hocevar, competing in the ARCA Racing Series is a dream come true. The Portage, Michigan native gets the chance to compete at his home track in Berlin this weekend. “The feeling of coming home and racing in front of your hometown fans is a pretty special feeling,” Hocevar remarked. “I think I have an advantage coming into the race but competing at your home track is a pretty special feeling to run at home in the ARCA series. I can’t wait to see what Saturday brings,” Hocevar continued.
Hocevar is competing in just his second ARCA race. He competed earlier this season in Toledo and learned a lot from that experience from his first ever ARCA Race. “We had a really good car for Toledo. The rain really hindered our qualifying efforts and we really didn’t get to work on the car. I was struggling with the car all race, but we were able to bounce back and had a really good finish. It’s a big confidence booster heading into Berlin,” Hocevar stated.
Hocevar is just 15 years old but really doesn’t let his age bother him. “I don’t really feel any pressure of racing in the ARCA series at just 15 years old. One thing Johnny Benson, who happens to be my mentor, told me is that I’m 15 years old outside of the car but in the car I was a veteran. That’s always a big thing that I go by, but I know that I’m here to win just like everyone else,” Hocevar said.
Hocevar wanted to start racing when he was just two years old and was hooked from there. His dad then sponsored a local late model to learn a little about the sport. It turned out that the guy that his dad sponsored, had a little brother that raced quarter midgets. He then tried out the quarter midgets. He loved it, and it just kind of went on from there.
Hocevar is running a lot of late model races with two or three ARCA Races in between. He does however want to race some ARCA races along with K&N and Truck Races while continuing to race late model races next year. “We plan on running about 8 to 10 ARCA Races along with some K&N Races this year. We are also planning to run Lucas Oil Raceway later this year. I’m really excited about that,” Hocevar remarked.
The Primera Plastics 200 is Saturday, July 21st at 9 PM on MAVTV.