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Home track stock car favorite Ricky Rolfe of Albany Twp., ME held off a fast-closing Jean-Paul Cyr to win the American-Canadian Tour (ACT) New England Dodge Dealers 150 at Oxford Plains Speedway on Saturday. Cyr’s late charge was enough to bring him alongside Rolfe’s Race Basics/Swasey Excavation #51 Ford with less than ten laps remaining, but the former track champion won by about two car lengths.
“We lapped a lot of cars early, but when the field started to catch up, I had to try some new lines around the track,” said Rolfe. “We found that the upper groove was the place to be, and it worked.”
[Photo Gallery] by Leif Tillotson
Continue reading ‘Rolfe Holds Cyr Off for Oxford ACT Victory’
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Champion stock car driver Travis Adams will lead his home-track contingent to the American-Canadian Tour’s New England Dodge Dealers 150 at Oxford Plains Speedway on Saturday, April 26. Adams, of Canton, ME won the last ACT Late Model Tour event held at the fast 3/8-mile oval in October, and has captured three of the last five Late Model Track Championships there.
Long touted as a potential winner in ACT competition, Adams downplayed the situation until he finally broke through in 2007. “It’s like you’re just one of the competitive ones - ‘Oh, he’s a threat to win,’” he told writer Travis Barrett at a press conference on Tuesday, “but if you don’t win, I don’t really consider you a threat.” Adams dropped the self-imposed illusion following his October score, a race in which he battled former Oxford Plains Speedway ACT Late Model Tour event winner Scott Dragon of Milton, VT for nearly 150 laps. He also finished third at the Time Warner Cable 100 at OPS in August, and then became the fourth OPS regular to win an ACT race, joining Ricky Rolfe (2002), Ryan Moore (2001), and two-time winner Shawn Martin (2004 and ‘06).
Continue reading ‘Adams Leads Oxford Plains Drivers to ACT Event’
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Last July, it was only a proverbial “matter of time” before young Joey Polewarczyk won his first American-Canadian Tour Late Model stock car race. Many saw the potential for the rising star, and he delivered at Seekonk Speedway in August. Now he’s up to two ACT wins, having dominated Sunday’s 100-lap New Hampshire Governor’s Cup race. The 18 year-old Hudson, NH driver passed Lee USA Speedway legend Larry Gelinas for the lead on lap 10 and never looked back. At times before the race’s final caution period on lap 66, Polewarczyk more than a full straightaway lead.
On paper, that looks a little boring, but the fact is that the battles for position throughout the remainder of the field were excellent. Gelinas, John Donahue, Randy Potter, Cris Michaud, Scott Payea, and Eddie MacDonald put on a great show as they swapped positions, darting around lapped traffic. However, one lapped car, the driven by Donald Theetge, set up an outside-lane mistake by Donahue, costing him a chance at a podium finish. As Donahue and Payea ran door-to-door for third place on the previously mentioned lap 66, they split Theetge’s slowing car (the former Série ACT Castrol Champion had handling issues throughout the main event) - Payea filling the open hole on the inside lane, Donahue bravely daring to go three-wide up high. The result was Donahue looping the National Guard #26 Ford in Turn 4, bringing out the yellow flag.
Continue reading ‘ACTion News 4/23/08′
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Eighteen year-old stock car racing sensation Joey “Pole” Polewarczyk, Jr. blistered the American-Canadian Tour field at Lee USA Speedway on Sunday, taking his second career victory at the New Hampshire Governor’s Cup 100. The Hudson, NH ace took the lead from polesitter Larry Gelinas after starting third, and dominated the balance of the event to take the win in just over 46 minutes. Polewarczyk said that for 2008, his team is “all business.”
“We’re focused on winning the ACT Late Model Tour title,” he said. “We had a checkered flag design on the car last year, and we decided to leave it off this year, just black, nothing else. We’re all business.”
Continue reading ‘Teenager Polewarczyk “All Business,” Dominates ACT Race at Lee USA Speedway’
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Ontario chassis builder posts bonuses for winning drivers
$10,000 has been posted for American-Canadian Tour stock car drivers competing in McColl Racing Enterprises-built Late Models in 2008. The London, Ontario-based chassis manufacturer has entered into a contingency agreement to reward winning McColl drivers on the ACT Late Model Tour and the Série ACT Castrol.
Any McColl chassis driver that wins two main events on the ACT Tour or two main events on the Castrol series will be given a product certificate worth $1,000. If a McColl driver wins three events on one series, the prize will be elevated to $2,500. Four wins is worth a whopping $5,000 in McColl Racing Enterprises chassis equipment, safety gear, and engine components.
Continue reading ‘McColl Racing Enterprises Offers $10,000 to ACT Teams’
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Lee USA Speedway Late Model stock car champion J.R. Baril will defend his home turf against the invading stars of the American-Canadian Tour as he attempts to break into the ACT win column at Sunday’s New Hampshire Governor’s Cup 200. The Haverhill, MA driver has won the last two Track Championships at the 3/8-mile seacoast oval, and is among the leading candidates to snap the five-year undefeated victory streak by ACT racers at the facility.
“I plan on giving those ACT guys all I’ve got,” said Baril. “We’re going to try to have some fun, but we’re also hoping for the win.”
Continue reading ‘Lee USA Speedway Champion Baril to Take on ACT Invaders’
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The 2008 American-Canadian Tour Championship season opens this Sunday at Lee USA Speedway with the New Hampshire Governor’s Cup 200 - the first of two doubleheader events for the ACT Late Model Tour and the open-wheel True Value Modified Racing Series this year. Thirty-six official entries have been received at the ACT office to date, and as many as 50 total Late Model teams are expected to try their hand.
The early favorites include a trio of Milton, VT hotshoes - seven-time ACT Champion Jean-Paul Cyr, perennial contender Brent Dragon, and rising star Scott Payea - New Hampshire’s own Randy Potter and young Joey “Pole” Polewarczyk, Jr., Canadian champions Patrick Laperle and Donald Theetge, and home-track icons J.R. Baril, Eddie MacDonald, Jeff Labrecque, Jr., Jeremy Harclerode, and former-track-champion-turned-ACT-rookie Ricky Wolf, Jr.
Continue reading ‘ACTion News 4/16/08′
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Seven-time and defending American-Canadian Tour Late Model stock car champion Jean-Paul Cyr of Milton, VT will trade in his fenders at Lee USA Speedway on Sunday, April 20. Cyr will run both halves of the “New Hampshire Governor’s Cup 200,” racing the 100-lap features for both the ACT Late Model Tour and the open-wheel True Value Modified Racing Series.
Although he is more widely recognized for his success in full-fendered Late Model racing, Cyr is a veteran of the ground-pounding modifieds. He raced with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour in 1998-99, capturing a pole position at Pennsylvania’s Jennerstown Speedway and a top-five finish at the Richmond Int’l Raceway in Virginia. Cyr will race for True Value Modified veteran driver/owner Gary Casella of Saugus, MA.
Continue reading ‘ACT Star to Race in TVMRS at Lee & Thunder Road’
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Five Star RaceCar Bodies of Twin Lakes, Wisconsin will again support the American-Canadian Tour stock car racing organization in 2008, providing award certificates to drivers at each of the 12 ACT Late Model Tour events in the U.S. and Canada, as well as at all nine races on the Série ACT Castrol schedule in Québec and Ontario.
Five Star will reward the 1st-place and 12th-place finishers at each event with a product certificate toward the purchase of parts and equipment from its extensive line of industry-leading components. In addition, Five Star will also continue with its season-end awards for both series, as well as for Late Model and NAPA Tiger Sportsman competitors in weekly events at Thunder Road Int’l Speedbowl in Barre, VT.
Continue reading ‘Five Star RaceCar Bodies Continues Support of ACT’
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We dug through some archives here at American-Canadian Tour headquarters, and it appears as though one year ago this week, this very ACTion News column space was reserved for a few pre-season predictions. (Like that little disclaimer in all the insurance ads, note that these are merely the cabin-fever-induced musings of a writer that happens to get some print every now and then. Please don’t take these predictions as Gospel, because, frankly, it’s just a shot in the dark.)
Last year’s first prediction: Phil Scott would either win the Thunder Road Track Championship of fail to finish inside the Top 5. Wrong on both accounts - The Sailing Senator ended the season strong in fifth place overall, with an exciting win on VT ACE Hardware Dealers Night in August.
Continue reading ‘ACTion News 4/09/08′
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Driver to attempt ACT/NASCAR double duty weekend
Stock car driver “Outlaw” Eddie MacDonald has lofty goals. The Rowley, MA driver plans to run the American-Canadian Tour Late Model Championship season opener – the prestigious New Hampshire Governor’s Cup – at his home track, Lee USA Speedway, on Sunday, April 20. Ordinarily for MacDonald, that would mean a simple 40-mile drive north across the Massachusetts/New Hampshire border.
This time, it’s going to be a bit different. About 2,000 miles different.
Continue reading ‘ACT Opener Anything But Ordinary For “Outlaw” MacDonald’
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At the risk of sounding like we know what we’re talking about, we’ll predict a warm spring, parking lots that aren’t soggy, and the images of eight-foot-high snow banks becoming merely a memory. This, of course, will lead to fantastic openings at race tracks across the northeast, pit areas jam-packed with race cars, grandstands overflowing with screaming fans, and action on the asphalt like you’ve never seen before.
Those snow banks are still sitting outside the window here at American-Canadian Tour headquarters in Waterbury, VT, and the mercury in the thermometer is still barely visible. But the joke’s on them – spring IS coming, and so is the racing season.
Continue reading ‘ACTion News 3/19/08′
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Fourteen of the northeast’s top stock car drivers have pledged their support for the Autism Puzzle Foundation’s 3rd Annual Benefit Dinner and Silent Auction on Saturday, April 12 at 5:00pm. Racers from the American-Canadian Tour (ACT) and Barre, VT’s Thunder Road Int’l Speedbowl will serve as dealers at the Autism Puzzle Foundation’s “Casino Night” fundraiser at the Barre Auditorium. The event will benefit both the Autism Speaks and the Autism Puzzle Foundation charities, as proceeds will go directly to national scientific research and local education and assistance.“We are getting busy preparing for our event, and we’re excited about having ACT join us the year,” said Randy Lamberti of the Autism Puzzle Foundation. “The drivers will be dealing at each of the games during the evening. We have ten blackjack tables as well as craps, roulette, and a wheel of fortune.”
Continue reading ‘American-Canadian Tour Drivers Volunteer for Autism Benefit’
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Leading auto maker Toyota will begin its entry into grassroots short track stock car racing through its Courtesy Toyota dealership in Berlin, VT with the American-Canadian Tour (ACT) Late Model Championship series and at Thunder Road Int’l Speedbowl in Barre, VT in 2008. Toyota is now the Official Vehicle of ACT and Thunder Road.
The new ACT Toyota Tundra and Toyota Tacoma Official Safety Trucks and the new ACT Toyota Camry Official Pace Car will be unveiled at the season’s first event at Lee USA Speedway in New Hampshire on Sun., April 20. The Tundra, Tacoma, and Camry vehicles will also be on display at Courtesy Toyota’s home opener on Merchants Bank 150 weekend in downtown Barre City, VT and at Thunder Road. The new vehicles will be on display in the annual Merchants Bank Car Show in Barre City on Sat., May 3, and in action at the Merchants Bank 150 on Sun., May 4. Toyota and Pepsi will also sponsor the Thunder Road scoreboard throughout the 2008 season.
Continue reading ‘Toyota Enters Short Track Racing With ACT’
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Bassett Racing Wheel will rejoin the American-Canadian Tour (ACT) stock car racing organization in 2008, continuing a long and successful partnership with the sanctioning body in the northeastern United States and Canada. Bassett is the leading manufacturer of auto racing wheels in the U.S., and has a style of wheel for virtually every type of stock car. Bassett is also an industry leader in research and development, safety, and innovation.ACT drivers will be rewarded by Bassett throughout the year; the second-place finisher in each of 12 ACT Late Model Tour events throughout the U.S. and Canada will receive certificates, as will the second-place finisher in each event of the nine-race Série ACT Castrol in Québec and Ontario. Bassett will also give awards at the conclusion of each series’ season, with the top three championship drivers receiving a certificate toward the purchase of Bassett Racing Wheels. There will also be a random draw at each series’ Banquet of Champions, rewarding a lucky driver with four free, powder-coated wheels.
Continue reading ‘Bassett Racing Wheel Rejoins American-Canadian Tour’
