ACT Heading to Hickory This April for Twin 125-Lap Events
Series Making Inaugural Visit to Historic North Carolina Track
Waterbury, VT – The American-Canadian Tour (ACT) is heading south to get an early start on the 2021 racing season. Officials announced today that a pair of ACT Late Model events have been scheduled at North Carolina’s Hickory Motor Speedway for Friday, April 2, and Saturday, April 3.
The 125-lap events are part of a doubleheader organized by the Pro All Stars Series (PASS). The trip will be ACT’s first-ever visit to the historic 0.363-mile speedway.
Friday, April 2 is the ACT Hickory 125 along with the 2020 PASS Super Late Model Easter Bunny 150, which was pushed back a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Saturday, April 3 features the ACT Easter Bunny 125 and the 2021 Easter Bunny 150. Post time is 5:00pm each day.
Both the Friday and Saturday events will have separate qualifying, features, and purses. The events will not count for points towards the ACT Late Model Tour championship.
“We’re getting more excited about this event every day,” ACT managing partner Cris Michaud said. “When Tom Mayberry of PASS invited us to be part of the event, we were immediately intrigued. However, we wanted to make sure there was enough interest from teams before committing. The response we got was incredibly positive and convinced us to say yes.”
“Hickory is one of those bucket-list tracks for a series,” Michaud went on. “It’s like the trip to Richmond Raceway two years ago or the first ACT Invitational at New Hampshire Motor Speedway back in 2009. Almost every short track racing fan has heard of Hickory. We’re honored PASS would even consider having us at the event, and we think it’s going to be a great show.”
The entry forms for both Easter Bunny 125s are now available at www.acttour.com/forms. The early-entry deadline is March 1, 2021. Event schedules and other information will be announced soon. Details are subject to change pending the course of the ongoing pandemic.
Hickory Motor Speedway opened in 1951 and is known as both “The World’s Most Famous Short Track” and “The Birthplace of the NASCAR Stars”. The NASCAR Cup series held 35 events at the track between 1953 and 1971. The NASCAR Xfinity Series then held 42 events at Hickory from 1982 through 1998. Hickory was also a regular stop for the NASCAR Modified and Late Model Sportsman National Championships, Grand National East Series, Dash Series, X-1R Pro Cup Series, and other tours throughout its history. PASS has sanctioned both PASS South and PASS National Championship Series events at the track since 2006.
Hickory began its life as a ½-mile dirt track and went through multiple configurations before adopting the current 0.363-mile paved layout in 1970. Past winners at the track include legends such as Junior Johnson, Dale Earnhardt, Harry Gant, Richie Evans, Bobby Allison, Jack Ingram, Tommy Houston, and Bubba Pollard.
The full 2021 ACT schedule can be found at www.acttour.com/actusschedule. The ACT Late Model rules are also posted on the Tour website at www.acttour.com/rules.
For more information, contact the ACT offices at (802) 244-6963, media@acttour.com, or visit www.acttour.com. You can also get updates on Facebook and Twitter at @ACTTour.
Sources: ACT PR
(IMG_2278.jpg): The ACT Late Models will make their inaugural visit to North Carolina’s Hickory Motor Speedway this April for a pair of events. (Daniel Holben photo)