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The Federated Auto Racing Championships, abbreviated FARC and formerly the American Racing League of America (abbreviated ARLA), is a Midwest-based North American motorsports sanctioning body founded by Henry Walker in 1973. The current CEO of FARC is Jeff Falkner, and the race director for the Lowe Dollar Series is his wife and former ARLA CEO Jen Walker, granddaughter of Henry Walker. FARC is currently headquartered in Flat Rock, Michigan next door to the Flat Rock Speedway, after a 2014 relocation from the office that shared space with Walker Automotive in Dallas, Texas.

FARC is popular for young drivers looking to make a name for themselves, as well as hobbyists who enjoy competing in a national tour with relatively low costs.

Founding

 * For a listing of FARC champions, please see List of FARC champions.

As the 1960s gave way to the 70s, the major stock car sanctioning bodies at the time, the TM Master Cup Series and the American Stock Car Championship, started to outgrow America's bullrings with low spectator capacity and bare-bones amenities in favor of the larger superspeedways that were establishing themselves. However, drivers, teams, and fans still desired to see the national tours visit these short tracks with the late model stock cars that headlined these shows. One such figure was Henry Walker, a native of Texas who operated Walker Automotive, a mid-sized chain of car dealerships and service shops that peppered the lower Tornado Alley region. Walker was a huge fan of stock car racing, traveling up and down the Midwest to attend races as both a spectator and as a sponsor. Walker Automotive could be seen on a number of Master Cup and ASCC cars when those tours held races in the region, and the business also rented billboards on several short tracks that Walker had personally attended over the years.

Henry Walker was in attendance at the 1972 track championship weekend at the historic Rockford Speedway in Loves Park, Illinois, but during the festivities, he was meeting with drivers, car owners, and officials to pitch his vision for a semi-national low-cost touring series that would not only highlight the bullrings left behind by the major series, but also support events at the bigger speedways that were starting to gain popularity in the sport, preparing up and coming drivers for the big leagues.

Walker convinced Rockford's promoters to organize a post-season exhibition event on short notice that would become the unofficial first race for his new tour, taking place on November 25, 1972. Walker took it upon himself to spread the word about the 200 lap event, confidently declaring the race to be the start of a new era for stock car racing. The race saw only 13 competitors show up, but plenty of spectators were attracted thanks in part to the presence of the popular brothers-in-law Alan Monroe and Chuck Johaanes from Chicago, who had made the most of their secondhand Master Cup cars and dominated at Rockford and the surrounding short tracks that year, with Monroe taking the Rockford track championship just a few weeks prior. Chuck Johaanes won the race in a thrilling duel with Missouri's Jeb Klinger that electrified the crowd. Henry Walker was very happy with the show, but had little time to organize the promised season opener for the series that he would christen the American Racing League of America, ARLA. The redundancy in the tour's name apparently went unnoticed or just unaddressed by Walker and his partners.

Walker was able to secure 8 ARLA race dates spanning between the Midwest and the East Coast for the 1973 season, with the first official points race taking place in February at Daytona International Speedway the Friday before the ASCC season opener. Daytona was to be the only venue over one mile in length during the championship. Once again, the entry list was meager with just 21 cars showing up at Daytona, but 10 of the 13 starters at Rockford were among the entries, showing strong belief in Walker's vision for the new series despite never having competed on such a massive track before.

Jeb Klinger avenged his previous loss to Chuck Johaanes in the 100-mile event, making the most of his first learning experience with drafting to slingshot past Johaanes exiting the final corner to take the victory, a finish that the ASCC race on Sunday could not live up to. The first ARLA race was by all accounts a great success, and the entry lists slowly grew larger leading up to the 1973 finale, another 200-lap feature at Rockford in late November that was won by Bjorn Green, who also took the inaugural championship that night in his distinctive pearl-colored No. 90 car.

Current divisions
FARC currently sanctions three different classes of national touring racing.

Lowe Dollar Series
The FARC Lowe Dollar Series is the marquee FARC division that grew from the initial 1973 ARLA championship. The Lowe Dollar Series tours around the nation, splitting the schedule between support events for TM Master Cup, ASCC, and other touring series, as well as standalone races primarily at short tracks, dirt tracks, and club circuits. Some international events are sprinkled into the calendar, with regular trips to Canada influenced by current tire supplier Duckroll Tires, which is headquartered near the Mosport Raceway in Bowmanville, Ontario. The Lowe Dollar Series is also the only FARC series to have the majority of races televised.

FARC continues to emphasize affordable racing in the Lowe Dollar Series, with the average cost of a competitive car not being much more than a late model. The current technical regulations for the Lowe Dollar Series car, introduced in 2017, feature muscle-car style composite bodies provided by Cromwell Race Works and a spec engine by Matteson Engineering. Very few teams build brand new cars, given that secondhand TM Master Cup and ASCC chassis are approved and can easily be made competitive. The ASCC East and West Series features cars with near-identical regulations, allowing for occasional cross-competition between drivers and teams, and a few combined points events starting in 2021.

Late Models
FARC sanctions two regional late model tours.

The Lacko Brakes Super Series primarily holds events between the upper Midwest and the East Coast, very much like the Lowe Dollar Series. Several drivers who previously succeeded in the Lowe Dollar Series now call the Super Series their home, such as 4-time Lowe Dollar champion Andy Pearson (2016 Super Series champion) and the Porteau brothers (Bobby Porteau captured two straight championships in 2017 and 2018).

The Bummin' Beaver Brewery Tornado Alley Tour races up and down the Midwest, regularly venturing west of the Mississippi. The legendary Rockford 200 now concludes the Tornado Alley Tour season on its traditional date in November.

FARC Truck Series
The FARC Truck Series tours the upper Midwest with short track trucks. The series an attractive home for drivers and lower budget teams that race as a hobby.

The Truck Series runs primarily in the Lower Midwest, with races in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Iowa.

FARC MPire Challenge
Introduced in 2021, the FARC MPire Challenge is officiated by longtime FARC partner MPire Rent-A-Car as a 5-race series using production cars driven by sweepstakes contestants who have never driven a race car before. Races are held in support of Lowe Dollar Series events, where the contestants compete for the chance to start the Lowe Dollar race in a car prepared by the MPire team. The MPire Challenge is the current incarnation of similar promotions held by MPire in the past, with varying degrees of success.

International involvement
FARC has enjoyed recent growth in the international market. The league has regularly held races in Canada since 1974, with occasional races in Mexico as well. The series now known as the Lowe Dollar Series raced in Japan in 2008, 2012 and 2013. A Russian race bankrolled by the breakout RUS Autosport team was held in 2013, and the series has held follow-up races in Russia occasionally. The series formerly raced in Europe in 2008 as a four-race exhibition, and in 2009 as part of the official schedule. The series no longer races overseas due to high travel and shipping costs, with the exception of the aforementioned Russian events because the Russian race organizers have outright paid participating teams to travel.

See also: List of FARC champions.