The Série ACT Castrol was back in action at Autodrome Chaudière on
Saturday night, and what a wild race it was.
At a track that looks and feels like a cross between Vermont's Thunder
Road and New Hampshire's White Mountain
Motorsports Park (and, thanks to the cows off Turn 3, sometimes smells
like the Devil's Bowl Speedway dirt track
in southern VT), the Castrol drivers were, shall we say, a little trigger-happy.
Seventeen yellow flags may have slowed the action, but the actual
racing itself was spectacular. No less than six
drivers were within an arm's reach of the Coors Light 100 victory when
the checkered flag fell, and the race-long,
side-by-side battle of eventual 1-2 finishers Donald Theetge and Yvon
Bédard was as good as you'll see anywhere.
A tip of the hat goes to rookie drivers Patrick Hamel and Spencer
MacPherson, who each showed the veterans that
their presence is not to be taken lightly. MacPherson ran as high as
fifth before a flat tire relegated him to
14th place, and Hamel marched from 24th starting position, then
recovered from a crash with Stéphane Descoste to
earn sixth place.
The Série ACT Castrol returns to Autodrome Montmagny Speedway for the
previously rained-out Montmagny 100, a two-
segment Monza-style race, on Sunday, June 29.
***
The ACT Late Model Tour fires back up at Maine's Oxford Plains
Speedway this Saturday (June 21) with the Dunkin'
Donuts 150. The race will serve as the final long-distance OPS
tune-up for the 35th Annual TD Banknorth on July
20. Post time for the 7th of 12 races on the 2008 ACT schedule is 6:30pm.
In case you've been in hiding the last seven years, the ACT events at
Oxford have been nothing short of
thrilling. The hometown boys have learned how to whip up pretty well
on the touring stars, and the all-time
series is almost even in terms of victories. Depending on how you
classify Eddie MacDonald, the last ACT regular
to win an actual ACT event at Oxford was Randy Potter, way back in April 2007.
This writer is hoping to see some great side-by-side action… and maybe
score a couple free donuts up in the press
box. The jelly kind with the whipped cream thing on the top.
***
Congratulations to Thunder Road winners Trampas Demers, Craig Bushey,
Brett Pierce, and Justin Gay! The four
drivers captured their first wins of 2008 on Ferguson Waterworks Night
last Thursday. Demers turned two months of
frustration around in a big way by scoring his fifth career victory.
Before the win, his best finish (combining
Thunder Road and American-Canadian Tour events) was just 14th.
Bushey was in the right place at the right time for the NAPA Tiger
Sportsman event, as Brendan Moodie received a
black flag for rough riding. Moodie and leader Mike Ziter got into a
scrape, Moodie got the boot, and Bushey
scooted in to steal the show.
Pierce, an Allen Lumber Street Stock rookie, out-dueled Vern Woodard
for the first 15 laps, then ran away to
record his first win. Gay easily walked away from Travis Hull to win
the Power Shift Online Junkyard Warrior main
event.
***
This week's "ACT Tracker" is chock full of results, and actually chock
full of winners. Ricky Rolfe, winner of
the ACT Late Model Tour's New England Dodge Dealers 150 at Oxford
Plains Speedway, scored his second-straight 40-
lap weekly event win. Don't look now, but Oxford is the next stop on
the ACT schedule, and Rolfe is on
fire. "We'll have something for 'em," said Rolfe of the incoming ACT
invaders. "It doesn't matter where we start
next week." Consider the notice served. Other ACT drivers in the
field at Oxford included rookie Joey Doiron
(8th), "Rocket" Roger Brown (9th), and Dale Verrill (11th).
Miles Chipman, who has made ACT-sanctioned appearances at Lee USA
Speedway and Thunder Road this year, took his
second weekly Lee victory of the year on Friday night. Doiron
finished 16th in that race, as well.
Tyler Cahoon, another ACT rookie, finished ninth at his home track,
White Mountain Motorsports Park on Saturday
night. He was followed to the line by Rick Thompson, Jr. (12th), Mike
Gosselin (17th), and Chris Bergeron (20th).
Tour drivers that ran the Ferguson Waterworks event at Thunder Road
included winner Trampas Demers, Joe Becker
(6th), John Donahue (7th), Phil Scott (8th), Cris Michaud (14th), and
Jamie Fisher (15th).
***
Did you know…?
-Eddie MacDonald really is the swing man in the "ACT vs. OPS" debate.
Long thought of as an "outlaw" driver that
races whatever, whenever, wherever, MacDonald ran a handful of events
both with ACT and Oxford in 2007. So was
his win in the Time Warner Cable 100 last year a triumph for the Tour
or for the home crowd? We'll let you
decide. Otherwise, the all-time series (at least since 2001) is tied
at six wins for each side. Ricky Rolfe
(twice), Shawn Martin (twice), Ryan Moore, and Travis Adams have
scored for the Oxford regulars, while Patrick
Laperle, Scott Dragon, Dale Shaw, Jean-Paul Cyr, Ben Rowe, and Randy
Potter have won while competing with ACT.
-If you want to get right down to it, ACT has three more wins at
Oxford than the OPS guys. Stacy Cahoon and Gary
Caron scored in 1995 (twice for Caron that year) at the 3/8-mile oval.
-Other than John Donahue's back-to-back Late Model victories at
Thunder Road in May, there has not been a repeat
winner yet. First-time winners to this point have been Street
Stockers Dave LaFleche and Brett Pierce, and
Warriors Neal Foster, Fred Schroeder, and Justin Gay.
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