Brian Hoar: ACT Late Model Tour
Airborne Speedway/Milk Bowl Race Preview
THE STORY
Brian Hoar of Williston, Vt., looks for his second weekend sweep of the season when the ACT Late Model Tour competes on back-to-back days this weekend. First, ACT wraps up its season with the Fall Foliage 200 at Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh, N.Y., on Saturday, October 8 before heading east to stage the 49th annual Milk Bowl at Thunder Road International Speedbowl in Barre, Vt. Hoar clinched a record eighth series championship after winning both the All-Star Showdown at Chaudiere and the Can-Am 200 on back-to-back days in Quebec in mid-September. Hoar is a two-time champion of the prestigious and unique Milk Bowl – which was rained out last weekend – and a past winner of the Fall Foliage 200, a combination event for the ACT Late Model Tour and the ACT Castrol Series.
THE FACTS
WHO: Brian Hoar, Williston, Vt.
TEAM: RPM Motorsports No. 37 GossCars.com Dodge
CREW CHIEF: Rick Paya, Georgia, Vt.
BEST CAREER AIRBORNE SPEEDWAY FINISH: 1st (multiple times)
LAST RACE AT AIRBORNE SPEEDWAY: 2nd (September 2010)
BEST CAREER MILK BOWL FINISH: 1st (2 times)
LAST MILK BOWL FINISH: 2nd (October 2010)
WHAT: ACT Late Model Tour Fall Foliage 200 (season finale)
WHERE: Airborne Speedway, Plattsburgh, N.Y. (.500-mile flat oval)
WHEN: 1 p.m., Saturday, October 8
WHAT: 49th annual Milk Bowl
WHERE: Thunder Road International Speedbowl, Barre, Vt. (.25-mile oval)
WHEN: 12 noon, Sunday, October 9
ACT LATE MODEL TOUR
LAST RACE: 3rd annual ACT Invitational, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Loudon, N.H. (6th)
POINTS POSITION: 1st
DID YOU KNOW?
Brian Hoar won back-to-back Milk Bowl championships in 1999 and 2000, part of a stretch in which he also captured four consecutive pole positions for the event.
RPM Motorsports and Brian Hoar each collected their eighth ACT Late Model Tour championships this season, with Hoar winning eight as a driver and Rick Paya winning eight as a car owner – including five with driver Jean-Paul Cyr.
Brian Hoar has 33 career victories, the most by any driver in ACT history.
Brian Hoar has finished second in each of the last two Fall Foliage 200s.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
BRIAN HOAR, Driver of the No. 37 GossCars.com Dodge, on tackling a doubleheader weekend this weekend: “It’s going to be a long weekend. It’s going to be a tough weekend. We’ve got two really big events, very similar to when we went up to Canada (in September). At Airborne, it’s 200 laps, and we’ve got a lot of work to get done. It’s a big deal to us – we want to finish off the points deal strong.
“We’re going to try to run same car for both races, so that could be tough. Of course, personally, the pressure’s on because they’re our two big local races.”
On whether he changes his approach to racing with the ACT championship already decided: “No, I don’t think so. I don’t think (go-for-broke is) my style, anyway. I race a certain way, and that’s how I’ve been successful. We’ve had one of the cars to beat over there (at Airborne) the last couple years, so we’re going over there to try to win. But like I always say, if I can’t win, I want to be second; if I can’t be second, I want to be third; and so on.
“I just like to go out and try and put pressure on everybody else.”
On what the Milk Bowl means: “It’s a big deal. It’s one of those ones that’s just a tough, tough race. I’ve always said that winning in 1999 and 2000 – those were a couple of my biggest wins in my career. I still stick to that.
“It’s just a tough place. I haven’t pulled off being truly successful at Thunder Road in a couple of years… Vermont Motorsports Magazine has a media poll on who people think is going to win, and I wasn’t ranked at all, and it shows that I haven’t been all that successful. We’ve got to step up our game.
“On a side note, my daughters want to see me in Victory Lane at the Milk Bowl. In their minds, that is ‘The Race.’ There is no other race for them. It has all the stuff going on with it, it has all that prestige. To them, it’s all about me winning that one race – if for no other reason than they just want to see me kiss the cow.”