Many fans of northeastern short track stock car racing have been
wondering: "When will someone else win the
American-Canadian Tour title?" Jean-Paul Cyr has had a stranglehold
on the championship since 2003, and has been
the face of ACT for the last half-decade.
The heir-apparent may be here in the form of Scott Payea. The 26
year-old, who happens to be from Cyr's hometown
of Milton, VT, earned his second ACT Late Model Tour victory of the
year, the fourth of his career, and increased
his point lead over his cross-town rival at Waterford Speedbowl in
Connecticut on Saturday night. Payea's win was
also his fifth top-five finish in six ACT events this year.
"It'd be nice to win the title, it's my goal to eventually win it,"
said Payea after the Waterford win. "But for
now we just keep going to the next race to see what happens. We're
having fun right now, and everyone on this
team is enjoying what we're doing."
***
Can you wait for Thursday night at Thunder Road? Because we can't!
Ferguson Waterworks kicks off the 49th season
of Thursday night stock car racing tradition at "The Nation's Site of
Excitement" at 6:30pm. A full card of ACT
Late Models, NAPA Tiger Sportsmen, Allen Lumber Street Stocks, and
Power Shift Online Junkyard Warriors is on tap,
along with the annual visit by the New England Antique Racers.
General admission is just $9.50 for adults, $3 for
kids (6-12), and just $20 for a family of four!
Also on Saturday, the Série ACT Castrol gets back into gear with the
Coors Light 100 at Autodrome Chaudière in
Vallée-Jonction, QC. They say Chaudière is like Québec's version of
Thunder Road – beautiful scenery, great
crowds, and lots of side-by-side action… sort of a "can't miss" isn't
it? Post time is 6:30pm.
***
A nice surprise awaited the American-Canadian Tour staff as they
rolled into Waterford Speedbowl on Saturday
morning – a whopping 38 Late Model teams were in the pit area
intending to run the Nutmeg State 100. The field
was expanded from 26 starters to 30 to accommodate the
larger-than-expected turnout, and the racers didn't
disappoint.
Without the benefit of power steering, Donald Theetge drove from ninth
(last) in his heat race to finish fourth,
transferring into the feature race and earning an event-high "+5"
handicap to start on the pole. That Theetge was
able to turn a lap was something of a surprise, as his Auto Frank et
Michel/le Centre Honda #80 Chevrolet battled
severe power steering issues throughout the day. The "plus/minus"
pole was his second of the season and the third
of his career. Bruce Thomas, Jr., the 2007 Waterford Speedbowl Track
Champion, earned a "+4" in his heat start
alongside Theetge.
There was plenty of passing in the Nutmeg State 100 as well, as half
of the top ten finishers started outside the
top ten, including 8th-place finisher Jonathan Urlin. The Ontario
rookie passed 16 cars from his 24th-place
starting position for his best career ACT Late Model Tour finish.
Thomas and ACT point leader Scott Payea waged a sensational
back-and-forth battle during the middle stages of the
race. In fact, the lead changed hands five times in six laps just
before and just after the halfway point before
Payea finally took over for good. From there, he sped to his second
win of the year. Thomas was second over
former ACT Champion Brad Leighton, who made his first main event start
of the year. Waterford jack-of-all-trades
Ron Yuhas, Jr. finished fourth in his ACT debut, just ahead of another
hard-charging rookie, Nick Sweet. For good
measure, Yuhas also finished sixth in the SK Modified 35-lapper and
sixth in the 30-lap non-points Late Model
feature that night.
***
First-year ACT Late Model Tour driver Mark Hudson of Norton, MA missed
qualifying for the Nutmeg State 100 by just
one position, but made up for it later in the night by notching a
career-first victory in the Waterford 30-lap
Late Model main. It was his third "weekly" event of the year at
Waterford Speedbowl; his other two finishes were
10th-place runs (May 10 and May 31). He also finished 13th in a
regular show at Lee USA Speedway on May 30.
That brought to mind an idea, one that we'll do our best to keep track
of throughout the summer – We're going to
start a little "ACT Tracker" in this column space, keeping an eye on
the ACT fraternity in weekly events at tracks
throughout the region. Also in action in the weekly event at
Waterford were ACT's Mark Anzalone, Jr. and
Jim "Scruffy" Linardy, who finished seventh and eighth, respectively.
Thunder Road regular Chip Grenier did a
little moonlighting at New Hampshire's White Mountain Motorsports Park
on Saturday as well, taking 5th in the
weekly Late Model division's 50-lap main event.
Stay tuned this year as we keep watch on our racers!
***
Did you know…?
-ACT rookies Nick Sweet and Jonathan Urlin made some major strides at
Waterford: With Sweet's 5th-place effort, he
jumps from 17th in points into a three-way tie for seventh overall
with Ron Henry and Donald Theetge. Jonathan
Urlin, with an 8th-place result, jumps from 27th in points to 18th.
-The ACT Late Model Tour has now seen 94 drivers compete so far this
season. Drivers that made their first
feature event start of the year at Waterford were: Bruce Thomas, Jr.
(2nd), Brad Leighton (3rd), Ron Yuhas, Jr.
(4th), Joe Curioso (24th), Richard Staskowski (26th), Allen Coates
(28th), Tim Jordan (29th), and Ed Reed, Jr.
(30th).
-With 38 cars attempting to qualify at Waterford Speedbowl, the 2008
season's average attendance through six
events (halfway already!) is a whopping 42.2 cars per event, up from
an average of 38.6 cars per event at this
time last year.
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