It comes as no surprise to see Mark Berriau at the top of the 2012 ARCA OK Tire Sportsman Series points standings.
The 42-year-old driver has captured two of the last three championships in 2009 and 2011 and only missed out on a three-year streak because he took most of 2010 off. After three races Berriau had 234 points giving him a 24 point cushion on Tim Graham.
"We haven't won any races yet, but we're running pretty consistent," said the third-place finisher at the PGARA Speedway last Saturday. "We take nothing for granted and we work hard and have gotten the results, but we've also had a lot of breaks and stuff go our way. This is a tough series and there's a lot of good drivers here."
He knows Graham for one has plenty of motivation to surpass him for the points title this year.
"Ian led the points last year for over half the season," said Berriau. "We had a couple mishaps early in the year so we had to really make up a lot of ground on him. But he had some bad races near the end and we were able to catch him and make the pass for the championship."
Berriau finished fifth in the opening ARCA race of the season in Vernon and was the runner-up June 5 in Williams Lake.
Despite his success Berriau said he doesn't share the ambitions of many of his fellow drivers to build a resume in ARCA before moving into the professional ranks.
"This is just a hobby a big group of us do," said Berriau. "It's a great outing for us. We just love the traveling part of the series and visiting all the different race tracks."
