DRUMMONDVILLE, QC – A nine-event Late Model stock car racing schedule has been released for the 2009 Série ACT-Castrol season in Québec and Ontario. American-Canadian Tour (ACT) President Tom Curley announced the schedule at the Série ACT-Castrol 2008 Banquet of Champions at the Best Western Hotel Universel in Drummondville, QC on Saturday night before the annual gathering of drivers, team members, and sponsors.<\/p>\n
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Five diverse tracks will host the Série ACT-Castrol in 2009, and as in 2008, the season will begin and end at the flat, 4\/10-mile Autodrome St-Eustache oval near Montréal. The series will open there with a 100-lap event on Saturday, May 23, and close with the 15th Annual St-Eustache 300 on Sunday, September 20. Autodrome Montmagny, a high-banked 3\/8-mile oval east of Québec City, will also host the series twice, with a 100-lap race on Saturday, May 30, and the annual Montmagny 250 on Saturday, July 4.<\/p>\n
Autodrome Chaudière, a high-banked 1\/4-mile oval in Vallée-Jonction, QC, will hold two 150-lap Série ACT-Castrol Championship events; the first on Saturday, June 6, the second on Saturday, August 8. Autodrome Chaudière will also host the second annual “Showdown at Chaudière,” a non-points, all-star invitational event for the top ACT drivers in Canada and the United States, on Saturday, August 29.<\/p>\n
The 3\/8-mile, semi-banked Capital City Speedway in Ottawa will host a 100-lap event for the third
consecutive season, on Saturday, June 13, as the track’s weekly Late Model competitors take on the touring Série ACT-Castrol teams.<\/p>\n
The 5\/8-mile, high-banked Riverside Speedway (formerly Circuit Ste-Croix) on the banks of the St. Lawrence River in Ste-Croix, QC, will return to the Série ACT-Castrol schedule for the first time in two years. Riverside Speedway will host a 100-lap event on Saturday, June 20, and a 150-lap contest on Saturday, August 22.<\/p>\n
In addition to the special “Showdown at Chaudière” event, the weekend of July 18\/19 has been reserved for the annual TD Banknorth 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway in Maine. Many Série ACT-Castrol competitors competed at the event in 2008, considered the richest one-day short track race in North America.
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Série ACT-Castrol 2008 Champion Alexandre Gingras of Val-Bélair, QC received $8,000 in post-season awards at the Banquet of Champions. Nineteen year-old Patrick Hamel of St-Édouard-de-Lotbinière, QC collected the Rookie of the Year award, while Stéphane Durand of Québec, QC and Éric St-Gelais of St-Nicolas, QC were named the winners of the Most Improved Driver and Sportsmanship awards, respectively.
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