ACT Canadian Stars to Invade New Smyrna Speedway in February
Quebec City racer Donald Theetge might have been the first Canadian to enter the American Canadian Tour (ACT) Goodyear Speedweek Cup event to be held at the New Smyrna Speedway in Florida, but the Canadian competitor list continues to lead the way toward the first-ever ACT events to be held during the World Series of Asphalt Short Track Racing in New Smyrna. The two 100-lap main events will be held on Sunday, February 13th and Monday, February 14th.
While many head to Daytona during Speedweeks in February, most asphalt short track fans can be found each night from February 10th-19th during the 10 days that is the World Series of Short Track racing in nearby New Smyrna, FL. The tradition of northern competitors heading to Florida from the days of Richie Evans, Jerry Cook, Bugsy Stevens and a host of the greatest from the Northeast Modified division to Late Model Canadian great Jr. Hanley— New Smyrna has always been the place to be during the heart of the northern winters.
ACT announced today that 2010 Castrol Champion Karl Allard has entered his Quebec City Larue Industrial team into the inaugural Goodyear Speedweek Cup event. Allard narrowly beat out another Quebec Champion, Patrick Laperle from Montreal, QC, who has also entered the two events. Laperle is one of the few ACT drivers to compete at New Smyrna in the past few years. His family team led most of the World Series standings in 2009 in the Late Model crate division before he was wrecked in the next to last night of competition. The Allard-Laperle rivalry will get an early start in 2011.
Other notable Canadian teams that will make the trek to New Smyrna include Quebec veteran Yvon ‘The Bullet’ Bedard and London, Ontario’s Jonathan Urlin. A large number of young Canadian teams have entered, including: Justin Holtom, Tim Dorning and Spencer Macpherson from the Ottawa region of Ontario, along with Castrol regulars Patrick Hamel and Kevin Roberge from Quebec.
“We are really excited about the pre-entries we have received. I don’t think we will have any problem filling our 26-car field with the support we are getting. Right now we have an equal number of Canadian and US teams who have entered, and we expect another half dozen entries by the January 10 deadline,” said Tina Gallison, Director of Administration for ACT.
The Goodyear Speedweek Cup will use the unique qualifying system of heat racing, and each 100-lap event will award points on two consecutive nights to determine the overall standings and the first winner of the Goodyear Speedweek Cup.
Sources: ACT PR