{"id":20175,"date":"2019-04-23T06:00:07","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T10:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maineracing.com\/wp\/?p=20175"},"modified":"2019-04-22T18:01:36","modified_gmt":"2019-04-22T22:01:36","slug":"new-act-schedule-means-busy-start-to-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/2019\/04\/new-act-schedule-means-busy-start-to-season\/","title":{"rendered":"New ACT Schedule Means Busy Start to Season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>New ACT Schedule Means Busy Start to Season<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/act-logo.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20272\" width=\"240\" height=\"83\"\/><figcaption>American Canadian Tour<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Waterbury, VT<\/em>&nbsp;\u2013 The American-Canadian Tour (ACT) will finally get rolling on its point-counting season on Sunday, April 28 at Maine\u2019s Oxford Plains Speedway. Once the season starts rolling, it will be a fast and furious start to the ACT Late Model Tour campaign with a trio of events in short order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The rescheduling of both the Oxford 150 and the Community Bank N.A. 150 at Barre, VT\u2019s Thunder Road due to leftover winter snow has created a quick and action-packed start to the Northeast racing schedule. The events will now be held on back-to-back weekends, with the Oxford event on April 28 and ACT traveling to Thunder Road on Sunday, May 5. Just six days after that, ACT heads to N. Woodstock, NH\u2019s White Mountain Motorsports Park for the Caron Fabrication Spring Green 119 on Saturday, May 11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The stretch of three events in 14 days means that teams will have to be on the ball early. With little time off between events, they must stay out of trouble on the track both to assure a solid finish and avoid long nights in the shop between races. It also means teams and fans may know by mid-May who the early frontrunners are for the $10,000-to-win ACT championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOnce you\u2019re on the track, you kind of keep that in the back of your head,\u201d Graniteville, VT\u2019s Chip Grenier said. \u201cI think most racers are still going to race the race that\u2019s unfolding in front of them. I\u2019m not a points racer, so for me I don\u2019t actually mind it. It might actually be beneficial to me compared to some of the guys that may not go out and be as aggressive for the first race.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What is already known is that some of the top ACT Late Model racers in the region are expected at all three events. Defending ACT Late Model Tour Champion Scott Payea of Colchester, VT and three-time champion Wayne Helliwell, Jr. of Dover, NH will both be in attendance. The two drivers are early favorites to make a title run and look to get off to solid starts at tracks where both have had continued success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many top regulars from the 2018 season are returning for 2019. Williamstown, VT\u2019s Jimmy Hebert, Lebanon, NH\u2019s Rich Dubeau, Milton, VT\u2019s Dylan Payea, and Lanoraie, QC\u2019s Claude \u201cThe Ironman\u201d Leclerc are looking to build on top-7 points finishes from a year ago. Grenier had several great runs in 2018 and is optimistic for a strong start and a strong season after finding some additional power during offseason work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe found some things over the winter with our ignition wiring, and I\u2019m thinking I was down 25 horsepower last year compared to everyone else,\u201d Grenier said. \u201cThat\u2019s going to be a significant change, which believe it or not, will probably hurt me at Oxford, because I was able to flat-foot it around that place before. But at Thunder Road, it will be beneficial. So I\u2019m hoping to see a better finish this year than what we\u2019ve had the past few years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All of last year\u2019s full-time rookies are back for another season, including Payea, Graniteville, VT\u2019s Christopher Pelkey, and Duxbury\u2019s Reilly and Peyton Lanphear. In returning, they aim to build upon the growth they showed throughout their first season with ACT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Notable new names are joining the ACT Tour this year as well. Defending Seekonk Speedway Late Model Champion Ryan Kuhn of E. Bridgewater, MA has committed to the full season as have former S\u00e9rie ACT champions Jonathan Bouvrette of Blainville, QC and Jean-Fran\u00e7ois D\u00e9ry of Quebec, QC. Young Legend Car standout Trenton Goodrow of Carver, MA has joined the Tour along with 2018 Canadian Stock Car Championship Rookie of the Year Jean-Phillippe Bergeron of St-Donat-de-Montcalm, QC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition to those entered for the full season, four drivers have filed individual entries for each of the first three events. Hinesburg, VT\u2019s Bobby Therrien; Graniteville, VT\u2019s Stephen Donahue; Groveton, NH\u2019s Quinny Welch; and Newmarket, NH\u2019s Bryan Kruczek have all had success in weekly and\/or touring Late Model racing. A strong start for any of them could lead to a full-season campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The green flag flies on the ACT Late Model Tour season Sunday, April 28 at 1:30pm. The Oxford 150 at Maine\u2019s Oxford Plains Speedway is part of a packed program that also includes the Pro All Stars Series (PASS) Super Late Models, PASS Modifieds, Honey Badger Street Stock Series, and North East Mini Stock Tour. Admission is $25 for adults, $12 for kids ages 6-12, and $60 for a family of four (two adults, two kids).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New ACT Schedule Means Busy Start to Season Waterbury, VT&nbsp;\u2013 The American-Canadian Tour (ACT) will finally get rolling on its point-counting season on Sunday, April 28 at Maine\u2019s Oxford Plains Speedway. Once the season starts rolling, it will be a fast and furious start to the ACT Late Model Tour campaign with a trio of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1305,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-act","category-latest-touring-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20176,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20175\/revisions\/20176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}