Staff Writer

Printed relatively small along with the “00” on the sides of Steve Arpin’s modified race car are two letters that together reside somewhere between question and exclamation in the lexicons of Canadians and those close enough to the border to pick up CBN on television:
“Eh,” as if the McKenzie Brothers had painted the car and left an inside joke for the Deep South to ponder.
Double-zero, eh.
“Well, if I’m upside down, people will still know who I am,” said Arpin of the number.
Funny. Take off, eh.
Life was good — complete with a beautiful wife, Trina, who isn’t afraid of a wrench and a little grease, and a family-owned race team run by his father, Chuck — and Arpin was hoping 2008 would be even better than 2007.
So what if the pipes froze and burst back in Minnesota while the team was racing at Golden Isles Speedway in Brunswick, Ga.? So what if the house was flooded and friends had to clear out the ruined carpet? It was only stuff. Volusia was waiting and with the NASCAR gentry nearby at Daytona — well, good things could happen, and Arpin’s dream of a NASCAR Cup career could begin to take shape if fate and fortune were on his side.

STEVE ARPIN Hometown: Fort Frances, Ontario, Canada Car: No. 00 EH, Larry Shaw Chassis Modified Team Headquarters: Rochester, Minn. Wife: Trina Crew Chief: Chuck Arpin Team: Jamie Davis, Brent Kisro, Joey Galloway Stats: 35 combined feature victories in 2006 (17) and 2007 (18), including the 2007 Wissota Heartland Nationals championship, 2007 North Florida Nationals championship and the Florida DIRTcar WinterNationals UMP Modified point title; won the 2006 Coca-Cola Young Guns championship and 2006 Carolina Clash championship; in 2001, 2002 and 2003, won every feature event entered at Emo (Ont.) Speedway; named Driver of the Year and Sportsman of the Year at Emo Speedway in 2001 and 2002. On Ice: Won seven snowmobile-racing titles, including Polaris Industries Pro Stock 440, 600, Triple Crown titles in 2002 and the Pro Open championship in 2001.

It’s just that fortune didn’t make the drive South from Brunswick where Arpin won two of three features during the SuperBowl of Dirt Racing.
Early during the modified series at Volusia Speedway Park, Arpin was working on his car when he was doused by 300-degree liquid from a radiator hose. He was taken to a local hospital with burns to his hands, arms and torso. The injuries were severe enough to keep him out of competition for nearly two months. There was the constant fear of infection coupled with a lot of pain as the burns healed, leaving behind tender skin.
It was a traumatic bump in the road for a young driver whose career and life, to that point, had been rolling along so smoothly.
In a few short moments, Arpin stopped being a race-car driver and started being a patient. Trina became a nurse determined to get her patient healed up.
“I’ve never been told what to do so much in my life,” Arpin chuckled after returning home to the frigid Minnesota winter and the warmth of his family and friends.
Carl Edwards drove Arpin’s No. 00, eh car at Volusia. Then, Edwards, Bobby Labonte, Ken Schrader, Don Schoenfeld and Kenny Wallace arranged for the Arpins to fly home on Labonte’s private jet so Arpin wouldn’t have to spend even more time in a Florida hospital.
Nearly a month later, Arpin said the injury has postponed what he had hoped to be a promising beginning to the season, but it wouldn’t derail it completly. He returned to the track on March 29 at Enid (Okla.) Speedway Park.
“I am trying to get hooked up,” he said. “I’m just excited to get going, but things like this, it really sets in with reality.
“It definitely put a dent in plans our for Florida. We were fine-tuning a lot of stuff we got going last year. Going into that trip, we were really confident.”
There was reason for Arpin to be confident.
He won seven out of nine rounds at Volusia in 2007. If Georgia dirt was different than Ontario or Florida dirt, it wasn’t noticeable in the results. He dominated Golden Isles on two of the three nights of competition.
But Arpin, a former snowmobile-racing champion, was used to adapting quickly. He had long-since graduated to national competition. In 2007, the family-owned race team raced at 47 venues in  22 states.
“We’ve kind of gotten the program to the point that we’ve got a nice, neutral setup and such a free-and-easy car to drive, that we don’t need to make many changes for different clays or flat tracks or banked tracks, long or short or anything.”
In some ways, Arpin’s journey to modified prominence is not dissimilar to others. His father, Chuck, raced at Ontario’s Emo Speedway, so the racing bug found Steve early. He raced go-karts, beginning as a 10-year old.
From there, the story veers from the traditional path. He also became a champion at several different levels as a snowmobile pilot. While racing snowmobiles on ice might have its lessons, it is certainly not the path those in most U.S. regions are going to take. Chuck Arpin said Steve did learn to use his snowmobile experience when he made the move to modifieds at 15 — but he also had to learn to exercise a kind of patience the ice didn’t teach.
“On snowmobiles, everybody starts in first place — they line up on a chalk line on the ice, and the first one to the corner usually wins,”
Chuck said. “I had to teach him that qualifying and heat races didn’t pay.”
Steve’s inauspicious debut in modifieds included two trips into Emo Speedway’s wall, but Steve said he never doubted himself.
“I just wanted to get out there and show that I could race with those guys,” he said.
So, the car was put back together and Steve began to show promise as he raced alongside his father.
“Pretty quick, he started beating me, and I said, ‘I’ve got to do something about this,’” Chuck said. “So, I quit.”
But those practices in patience have been put back into use as Arpin’s injuries heal. He initially planned to race in New Mexico, but discretion — and pain — prevailed.
“Laying on the couch, I felt pretty invincible,” he said. “Then I got up and started getting around, and it took a lot out of me. So, we decided to slow down a little bit.”
It has been a beginning unlike anything the Arpins could have envisioned other than in nightmares, but Deer Creek is on the horizon.
“To be honest, I’ve realized how much I enjoy what I do,” Steve said. “After laying on the couch and being hung up for a while, when I got back out in the shop, it felt so good to be out there.”
There’s no place like home, eh.