Sep 26, 2016 | American Canadian Tour, Maine Racing News, More Maine Racing News, NE Racing News, NHMS, Touring Series News
RPM 360 photo
Loudon, NH – Eddie MacDonald reigned supreme once again at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday, September 24, taking the lead from Jimmy Hebert with five laps to go in the Eighth Annual Auto Parts ACT Invitational en route to his fifth career victory in the event.
Rowley, MA’s MacDonald started 31st on the grid and was running third to Williamstown, VT’s Hebert and Hinesburg, VT’s Bobby Therrien when the event’s fourth caution came out for a four-car wreck in which both Aaron Fellows and Mark Jenison made hard contact with the turn one wall. Therrien got the jump on the initial restart, but the advantage was erased when Brian Tarbell spun in turn two, bringing the caution back out before a lap was completed and thus sending Hebert back to the point.
On the second restart attempt, MacDonald dove three-wide to the inside entering turn one, completing the third-to-first pass on the backstretch. Though Hebert and Alex Labbe dogged MacDonald following a final caution for Jonathan Bouvrette’s backstretch spin on lap 46, “The Outlaw” held strong to take home the win and an $8,100 payday.
(more…)
Sep 26, 2016 | American Canadian Tour, Maine Racing News, More Maine Racing News, NE Racing News, NHMS
Loudon, NH – Lempster, NH’s Kyle Welch and Williamstown, VT’s Jimmy Hebert will lead the field to the green for the Eighth Bond Auto Parts ACT Invitational at Loudon’s New Hampshire Motor Speedway Saturday, September 24.
Welch is competing in his fourth Invitational and will be looking for his first top-10 finish. Hebert led the majority of the 2015 Invitational before finishing fifth.
A pair of Vermont drivers, John Donahue and Bobby Therrien, will start in row two. Donahue is a winner this season at Barre, VT’s Thunder Road, while Therrien captured the ACT Late Model Tour season opener at Maine’s Oxford Plains Speedway. Jeff Marshall, Ryan Olsen, Tyler Cahoon, Quinny Welch, Chris Riendeau, and Josh Masterson will complete the top-10 on the grid.
(more…)
Sep 19, 2016 | American Canadian Tour, Beech Ridge, Maine Race Tracks, More Maine Racing News
By: Dick Casey
For the fifth time this season, Eddie MacDonald, starting on the pole, finished second in the Fall Foliage 150 at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough, Maine on Saturday. The scheduled two day event reduced to one day due to predicted inclement weather on Sunday also reduced the American Canadian Tour’s 200 lap feature to 150 laps.
Eddie Mac won the pole position with a +3 rating after finishing third from his sixth starting position in the first of two heats. The #17 EXIT Realty/Hancock Electric Chevy posted the second fastest time in two of the three fifteen minute practices and a fifth fastest in the other practice.
Usually a second place run, with five for the season along with two wins, would be enough to gain ground in the race for championship points. However, point’s leader Nick Sweet dominated the race after taking the lead from Eddie Mac on lap 63 then lapped the field to the seventh position to increase his point lead over Eddie Mac and second place driver Scott Payea. Sweet now leads the Rowley, Mass. veteran by 26 points and 23 points over Payea with Thompson Motor Sports Park the final point’s race of the ACT season to be run as part of the World Series of Racing. The Bond Invitational event scheduled for this Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, a race Eddie Mac has won four times, is a non-point ACT race.
(more…)
Sep 18, 2016 | American Canadian Tour, Beech Ridge, Maine Race Tracks, Maine Racing News, More Maine Racing News, NE Racing News
Scarborough, ME – American-Canadian Tour (ACT) point leader Nick Sweet showed he’s still the man to beat in the 2016 championship chase, taking the lead from Eddie MacDonald just before the halfway point and motoring away to a dominating win in the Fall Foliage 150 at Scarborough, ME’s Beech Ridge Motor Speedway on Saturday, September 17.
Barre, VT’s Sweet rode in the third position for the first stages of the penultimate event of the year as title challengers MacDonald and Scott Payea battled side-by-side for the top spot. Following the race’s second and final caution for Spencer Morse’s spin on lap 40, Sweet came to life, eventually going around the outside of MacDonald on lap 63 and never looking back. It was Sweet’s third ACT Late Model Tour of the season and second of his career at Beech Ridge.
Rowley, MA’s MacDonald, the number-three point driver entering the day, started on the pole and led the first 18 laps before number-two point driver Payea got to his outside. The two proceed to fight side-by-side for nearly 20 laps, swapping the lead multiple times while at times separated by mere inches at the line.
(more…)
Sep 9, 2016 | American Canadian Tour, Maine Racing News, More Maine Racing News, NE Racing News, NHMS
Waterbury, VT – The 2016 American Canadian Tour (ACT) has announced the forty-three (43) teams that will make up the 8th annual Bond Auto ACT Invitational race at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS) Saturday, September 24, 2016.
ACT teams from all six New England states and the Province of Quebec will compete in the 50-mile race on the traditional Fall NASCAR weekend in Loudon, NH. The field will be led by Rowley, Massachusetts’ four-time winner of the event, Eddie MacDonald.
Joining “The Outlaw” will be former winners of the event, including Joey Polewarczyk, Jr., (Hudson, NH), Ray Parent, (Tiverton, RI), and Wayne Helliwell, Jr., (Dover, NH). “Eddie (MacDonald) is always the favorite, but with the handicap system ACT uses to line up the 50-lap dash, things can be unpredictable. Last year it looked like nobody was going to be able to run down Jimmy Hebert of Williamstown, VT who had an early breakout, and a very fast car. It looked like nobody was going to be able to catch him until something broke and put him out of contention. It is a fun race for us, and a lot of fun for race fans to watch,” said three-time Thunder Road International Speedbowl winner Nick Sweet from Barre, VT.
(more…)
Sep 5, 2016 | American Canadian Tour, Maine Racing News, More Maine Racing News, NE Racing News, Thunder Road
Scott Dragon of Milton shows off his “King of the Road” trophy in Victory Lane after clinching the Late Model Championship with a second-place finish in the 38th Coca-Cola Labor Day Classic. (Alan Ward photo)
Barre, VT – Nick Sweet of Barre continued his domination of the Coca-Cola Labor Day Classic, but it wasn’t enough to deny Scott Dragon of Milton his first Thunder Road Late Model track championship. Sweet led the final 117 laps on his way to his third straight win, and his fourth overall, in the 38th edition of the 200-lap holiday event, but Dragon’s runner-up finish was enough to give him the “King of the Road” crown by one point over Sweet.
Thunder Road crowned two other first-time champions in the final regular-season event of the year: Stephen Donahue of Graniteville won Bond Auto Tiger Sportsmen title, while Jamon Perry of Hardwick took the Allen Lumber Street Stocks championship.
Dragon led Sweet by eight points in the overall Late Model standings after the qualifying heats. Once Sweet moved into the lead, Dragon had to finish second place to earn the title. He saved it until late in the event, passing Tyler Cahoon of Danville for the runner-up position on lap 195.
(more…)
