Lee USA: 2016 ACT Preview

By admin March 25, 2016 ACT, ACT LM Tour, Lee USA

Likewise, Eddie Mac has picked up checkered flags in virtually every division to ever hit the Lee high banks, dating back to his early career as a weekly Hobby Stock competitor, right up through the Late Model and Pro Stock ranks, where he was a consistent threat to win whenever he hit the track.

MacDonald was the 2014 winner of the Governor’s Cup, and is expected to be on hand again this year.  Eddie has also logged hundreds of laps aboard PASS Super Late Models and NASCAR K&N Series rides at the track he grew up at, owned by his parents Judy and recently-elected NEAR Hall-of-Famer Red.  The MacDonalds are celebrating their 30th year of operating Lee USA this season.

The current iteration of ACT Late Models has been in competition 13 times at “New Hampshire’s Center of Speed” for the season-opener, with 12 different winners adding their names to the Governor’s Cup during that time.  The only two-time winner was Brian Hoar, who grabbed the checkers in 2011-2012, but has since retired from racing.

Drivers from all six New England states and a couple of Canadian provinces typically make up the starting field for the Governor’s Cup 150, and this year is expected to be no exception, with upwards of 30 entries anticipated for the race.

In addition to the ACT Late Models, the highly-successful Northeast Mini Stock Tour will be contesting the first race of their 2016 points chase, with defending race winner and 2015 series champion Toby Wells looking to make it back-to-back wins.

Lee USA Speedway 2009 Roadrunner and 2014 Late Model Sportsman champion Niko Maniatis of Hooksett is among those expected the challenge for the NEMST win, coming off an impressive 2015 campaign that saw him victorious when the tour contested the tough road course at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park in CT.

2012 Ironman champ Jake Rheaume is another driver among the full field of entries expected for the NEMST season-opener, and after a solid fifth-place season in 2015 on the NEMST, his Lee USA experience puts him among the favorites to take home the win.

The Northeast Classic Lites will round out the program on opening day, the first of six appearances for the 5/8th’s scale racers at Lee USA Speedway this season.  Defending race winner “Hollywood” Dave Helliwell is rumored to be moving up to the EKeys4cars Supermodifieds for the 2016 campaign, leaving the door open for any of the expected 20+ entries to find the winner’s circle.

Lee USA will be swinging the gates open for a test and tune session on Saturday, April 9, open to teams from any track and/or division in advance of the season opener the next day.

The test and tune session will be followed by a full card of racing action on Sunday April 10, as New Hampshire’s Center of Speed opens up the northern New England racing season with the annual Governor’s Cup 150 for ACT Late Models along with the North East Mini Stock Tour and Northeast Classic Lites season openers.

For more information on this or any other upcoming event at Lee USA, log on to our website at www.leeusaspeedway.com, or find us on Facebook or Twitter.

Sources: Lee USA Speedway PR