{"id":8603,"date":"2012-08-30T18:37:15","date_gmt":"2012-08-30T22:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maineracing.com\/wp\/?p=8603"},"modified":"2012-08-30T18:37:15","modified_gmt":"2012-08-30T22:37:15","slug":"american-canadian-tour-tests-at-the-magic-mile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/2012\/08\/american-canadian-tour-tests-at-the-magic-mile\/","title":{"rendered":"American-Canadian Tour Tests at \u2018The Magic Mile\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>More than two dozen teams gear up for Sept. 22 ACT Invitational<\/p>\n

LOUDON, N.H. (August 29, 2012) \u2013 A picturesque day provided the perfect setting for American-Canadian Tour teams as they turned practice laps at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

More than 25 teams from five New England states and two Canadian provinces spent most of the morning and afternoon gathering as much information as possible for the Bond Auto ACT Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 22 at \u201cThe Magic Mile.\u201d
\n<\/p>\n

The Bond Auto ACT Invitational will be the third of four races on a jam-packed Sept. 22 slate. It will be preceded by the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour F.W. Webb 100 and NASCAR K&N Pro Series East G-Oil 100, and followed by the U.S. Legends Car International Series race. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series SYLVANIA 300, the second race the in Chase for the championship, will run the following day on Sunday, Sept. 23 at 2:00 p.m.<\/p>\n

Among the ACT drivers in the field on Wednesday were two-time Invitational champion Eddie MacDonald of Rowley Mass., 2010 Invitational champion Joey Polewarczyk Jr., of Hudson, N.H., and current points leader Wayne Helliwell Jr., of Dover, N.H.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe season has been going unbelievable,\u201d said Helliwell, who has three wins and seven top 10s in eight starts this season. \u201cI couldn\u2019t ask for more, the icing on the cake would be to come here and run really, really strong \u2013 and I think we have the car to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese cars are wider, lighter and have less power (than the K&N Series),\u201d added MacDonald, who will also run in the K&N G-Oil 100 on Sept. 22. \u201cBut you can run these (ACT) cars three- and four-wide and that makes it a lot of fun come race day. It\u2019s probably one of the best races here all weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fastest lap times of the test session were laid down by Dan McHattie (31.730 seconds, 120.037 mph) of Peterborough, Ontario, Jean-Paul Cyr (31.805) of Milton, Vt., and Polewarczyk (31.806).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe car has been handling well and has done everything we want it to do,\u201d said Polewarczyk, who currently sits fourth in points. \u201cThis is really the only opportunity to work on these cars because when it comes to Cup weekend it gets really busy and we have only a small practice session. We got to get everything where we need to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 350 horsepower late-models were running at a top speed of between 150-160 mph down the front and back stretch, nearly 100 mph faster than what the cars normally run at short tracks like Lee USA Speedway, Thunder Road and Oxford Plains.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll pass Cup cars in the corners, which is a great thrill for these guys. When we were testing with Goodyear one year we did that with Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick,\u201d said ACT president Tom Curley. \u201cBut as soon as they start turning the corners that\u2019s the end of the dance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a lot of fun. The veterans love it because they\u2019ve been here, but for the younger kids it\u2019s a thrill of a lifetime to come here and race where the big boys do.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of those youngsters was 15-year-old Emily Packard of East Montpelier, Vt.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very different from what I\u2019ve been racing this year. It\u2019s a lot bigger, a lot faster,\u201d said Packard, whose lap times were in the top half of the field on Wednesday. \u201cI\u2019m having a lot of fun at it and I\u2019m really enjoying myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

A field of over 60 teams from nine different states and provinces is anticipated for the Bond Auto ACT Invitational on Sept. 22 at \u201cThe Magic Mile.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tickets for the action-packed SYLVANIA 300 NASCAR weekend can be purchased by stopping by our Ticket Office, visiting the speedway website at www.nhms.com, or calling our Ticket Hotline at (603) 783-4931.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than two dozen teams gear up for Sept. 22 ACT Invitational LOUDON, N.H. (August 29, 2012) \u2013 A picturesque day provided the perfect setting for American-Canadian Tour teams as they turned practice laps at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Wednesday. More than 25 teams from five New England states and two Canadian provinces spent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,878,18,6,20,4],"tags":[42,123,1339],"class_list":["post-8603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-canadian-tour","category-maine-race-tracks","category-maine-racing-news","category-new-england-racing-news","category-nhms","category-latest-touring-news","tag-act","tag-loudon","tag-nhms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8603","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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8603\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}