Sunday’s ARCA Racing Series race in Millville, New Jersey is a hidden gem – one of the few national stock car races run on a road course.  Overshadowed, however, by Charlotte and Indianapolis, this race is not televised and often spoken about.

The 2.25- mile, 12 turn Thunderbolt Raceway road course at the New Jersey Motorsports Park, the lone road course in ARCA racing, has been a staple on the ARCA Racing Series calendar since 2008.  The race has been dominated by Canadian driver Andrew Ranger in recent years, but Sunday’s race could produce a breakthrough winner possibly in 17-year-old Michael Lira from Port Orange, Florida.

“I’m feeling very confident,” Lira said.  “I really struggled here last year, so I did a bit of road course racing between then and now and I’m definitely more comfortable with it now.  I really had no road course experience before Jersey last year, but my dad (Carlos Lira{) has a background in sports car racing, so I watched him race that growing up.”

Ever since his 12th place finish in last year’s New Jersey 150, Lira has developed a certain proclivity for road racing and has even made starts in IMSA’s TUDOR United Sports Car Championship series, which included a start in a Ford GS Mustang, which he says is surprisingly similar to the cars run in the ARCA Racing Series.

“The cars are the same weight, and they both have solid rear end.  A lot of other cars in that class, BMW, Porsche, they have independent rear suspension.”

While history says the road racing aces tend to prevail at New Jersey, there has been a surprise in the past.  In the inaugural race, conventional wisdom said it would come down to road racing specialist Andy Lally and former Formula One driver Scott Speed, but Justin Allgaier scored the victory in the rain shortened event which ended up being the springboard for his epic, come from behind triumph in the 2008 ARCA RE/MAX Series Championship.

If a road course specialist prevails again against proverbial favorites Cole Custer, Tom Hessert and Brandon Jones, that driver could be Lira’s teammate David Levine.  Levine is a regular in the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge series and Lira feels that Levine should be the driver standing in victory lane at the end of the race.

If Lira himself can’t come away with a surprise victory, he does stand a chance of scoring his first career top-five finish in the ARCA Racing Series.  So far, in 19 career starts, he has six top-10 finishes.  His best 2015 finish was an eighth at Mobile International Speedway in Alabama.

Outside of the ARCA Racing Series, Lira races in Super Late Models, mostly in Florida.  He said he hopes to race more in the Super Late Model as well, possibly in the CARS Tour.

The ARCA New Jersey 150 will be run on Sunday afternoon with live audio coverage available on ARCARAcing.com.