2010 Full Season Entries: 25th ACT Season Sees near Record Full Season Entry List
The American Canadian Tour (ACT) will celebrate 25 years of Championship Stock Car Racing with one of its largest number of pre-season full season entered teams. The balance of veteran champions and new teams joining the US touring division represents five New England states and two provinces of Canada. ACT statistician Nick Bigelow said, “I have reviewed past seasons and this looks like the most diverse and best count ACT has had in the past half dozen seasons.”
A fourteen race schedule will carry teams from the shores of Connecticut at the historic Waterford Speedbowl to new tracks located as far north as Quebec City, (the newly renovated 5/8th mile Riverside Speedway in Ste-Croix), and west to the newly paved 4/10th mile Albany Saratoga Speedway in Malta, NY, just outside the New York capital city.
Veteran title chaser Brent Dragon from Milton, VT said, “This is a great schedule for those of us that like touring. New tracks are always interesting and with two new tracks on the schedule just undergoing renovations and paving (Albany-Saratoga and Riverside-Ste Croix), along with my favorite recently renovated half mile Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh, NY, I hope this is the year I can finally win an ACT Championship.”
“Dragon has been a perennial top three finisher on the tour for many years, and feels with the longer tracks on the 2010 schedule, he has just gotten the edge he might need to finally win the title. Brent Dragon has completed the most races of any driver in the 18 year history of the ACT Late Model division,” continued Bigelow.
Joining the list of likely contenders is defending Champion Brian Hoar from Williston, VT. Hoar found his magic championship form when he joined Rick Paya’s RPM Engines team in 2009. Strong performances to end the season brought Hoar his 6th ACT Championship title. Hoar clearly is the favorite to beat in 2010.
Other strong teams who have full season entries are Scott Payea, led by co-owner and veteran crew chief, Chris Companion. Joey Polewarczyk (‘Pole’) from Hudson, NH is primed and eager to take a run for the ACT title. Now a seasoned competitor of ACT touring and the youngest of the new breed of racers, Joey ‘Pole’ has switched to Ford power plants for the 2010 campaign. Turner, Maine veteran Glen Luce, beginning his third year of ACT Tour racing, will join ‘Pole’ on the Blue Oval Ford team. Brian Craig will crew chief the Luce effort. “Now that we have been around the ACT circuit for a couple years, I think we have a pretty good chance to contend for the title. It was a challenging learning curve for our team getting used to the different tracks, and it sure was a lot different than running sprint races on Saturday night at our home track Oxford Plains Speedway, but I am hoping that with our new Ford program we will have some success,” said Luce.
One of the early favorites to challenge for the 2010 ACT title is Graniteville, Vermont’s John Donahue. Donahue was the most successful racer during the last third of the 2009 season, winning races at White Mountain Motorsport Park, and realizing a lifelong dream of winning the Chittenden Milk Bowl at Barre, Vermont’s Thunder Road. That momentum certainly makes the Kendall Roberts-Dale Shaw led team a threat to win the 2010 title.
Joining the list of filed entries includes top veteran runners such as New Hampshire’s Randy Potter, Vermonters Jamie Fisher and Eric Chase, and Maine’s Ricky Rolfe. Tyler Cahoon and Pete Potvin round out some returning young stars that completed the entire 2009 season.
Other veterans and former champions: legendary and ageless Joey Laquerre, from Barre, VT will drive a Seth Holbrook prepared car. Former White Mountain Motorsport Park Champion Quinney Welch, from Lancaster, NH has also entered the full schedule of events for the 2010 season.
The highly anticipated season will also see the return of seven-time ACT Champion JP Cyr of Milton, VT in the father/son team race car of Gary and Kyle Caron. Richard Green will be fielding two cars with veterans Joey Becker and former Airborne Champion Mark Lamberton behind the wheels.
Two teams will travel from Canada to tackle the 2010 ACT US season. 2009 Série ACT Castrol Champion Donald Theetge has submitted his full season entry to run on the American-based Tour. Also making a return is former ACT Pro Stock Tour competitor Derek Lynch. Lynch, the winner of the Oxford 250 in 1994 has decades of experience. He has competed previously in the NASCAR North/Busch East Series and for the past two years has raced in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series throughout Canada. He also is the track manager of the Kawartha Speedway outside Peterborough, ON, Canada.
Some new faces running their first full ACT Tour seasons are multi-time Oxford Plains Speedway Champion Travis Adams, Jeff Zuidema with Thompson Int’l Speedway Championships in his portfolio, and Thunder Road regular and former Sportsman Champion at both Thunder Road and Airborne Speedway, Craig Bushey.
Massachusetts racers Jimmy ‘Scruffy’ Linardy and Mark Hudson; along with Vermonter David Paya have sent in full season entries. Over 30 teams are expected to start the season as full time entrants, a record number of teams to begin the new campaign.
The Rookie of the Year battle has two of the most talented young Late Model stars in the region with 17 year-old Beech Ridge racer Bradley Babb from Maine driving the Sallie Bolduc machine. Babb will have former ACT Pro Stock driver and father, Bobby Babb, crew chief the car. Another young star of the Twin State Speedway battles, from the Granite State, Chris Riendeau, is going to compete for the ACT Rookie of the Year honors on a full time basis as well.
The 2010 ACT Tour season kicks off on Sunday, April 18 at Lee USA Speedway in Lee, NH with the NH Governor’s Cup 150. The winner will be the first to receive an invitation for the second annual ACT Invitational at New Hampshire Motor Speedway to be held on Saturday, September 18th during the first weekend of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase for the Championship.
Sources: ACT PR