By: Mitchell Breuer

On Saturday June 27, the ARCA Menards Series West will return to action for the first time since February, with a pair of races at the Utah Motorsports Campus. This will also mark the first time since 2016 the series traveled to the road course, posing an obstacle to drivers that do not have a lot of experience at these types of tracks.

One person that does have road course experience is the driver of the No. 17 Bill McAnally Racing Toyota, Lawless Alan.

“I’m really looking forward to it; I love road courses,” Alan said in a Zoom press conference on Wednesday. “I spent all of last year in Trans Am preparing for road courses, specifically in stock cars. I think I have a really good shot to win this thing. Obviously, once we get there, we’ll actually see where everybody lays in terms of the time and the standings but, going into it, I’m very confident.”

Alan did see success during his time in the Trans Am Series in 2019, winning the TA2 Rookie of the Year. The 20-year-old also made one road course start in the West series last season at Sonoma Raceway, where he started 13th and finished 24th after being involved in a crash.

With both of the races at Utah will take place on the same night, Alan believes because of how close they are running to each other, you will be able to notice a different between how the two events are run.

“In race one it has to be raced with the understanding that there is also a second race and they are both worth points,” Alan said. “So, I’m not going to sail her off in there on the last lap in a wreckers or checkers move in the first race, when I know I have to do it all again in not that long.”

Heading into the weekend, Alan is sixth in points, but being one race has been run, he is only 11 points behind current leader, Sam Mayer. However, who he is chasing with for the championship will change this weekend, as Mayer is not scheduled to compete.