American-Canadian Tour release: Sweet and Hamel Take ACT Top Rookie Honors

WATERBURY, VT – Two freshman Late Model stock car drivers have earned
2008 Rookie of the Year titles in
the premier touring divisions of the American-Canadian Tour, as Barre,
VT's Nick Sweet and Patrick Hamel of St-
Édouard-de-Lotbinière, QC earned their laurels on the ACT Late Model
Tour and the Série ACT-Castrol, respectively.
Sweet, 23, graduated to the ACT Late Model Tour from the NAPA
Tiger Sportsman division at Thunder Road in
his hometown of Barre, VT. After winning the Sportsman championship
in 2007, Sweet and his family team began
competing on the 12-race ACT Late Model Tour in the northeastern U.S.
and Canada.
Sweet experienced some growing pains in the first three events,
posting 30th-place finishes at Lee USA
(NH) Speedway and Thunder Road, and failing to qualify at Oxford
Plains (ME) Speedway, but began to his stride by
finishing tenth at New York's Airborne Speedway in the
STJAuto.com/Fortier's Community Car Home #88 Pontiac in
May. He followed that up in successive events with a sixth at Thunder
Road's Mekkelsen RV Memorial Day Classic
and a fifth at Waterford (CT) Speedbowl, then earned top-tens at
Ontario's Kawartha Speedway, White Mountain
Motorsports Park in New Hampshire, Oxford Plains, and in the
Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl at Thunder Road. Sweet's
second-place finish at Oxford's New England Dodge Dealers 150 in
September was the best result of his young career.
Overall, Sweet finished an impressive ninth in ACT Late Model
Tour championship standings and earned the
Rookie of the Year title over fellow Vermonter Tyler Cahoon of St.
Johnsbury by 38 points, 121-83. Jonathan Urlin
of London, ON finished third in rookie standings, followed by Ricky
Wolf, Jr. of Northwood, NH and Matt White of
Northfield, VT.
At only 19 years old, Hamel's performances were equally as
impressive on the Série ACT-Castrol. After
winning the 2007 Série Super Sportsman touring championship in Québec,
the teenager, father Michel, and their
closely knit team stepped up to the Série ACT-Castrol for the full
eight-race schedule. Instantly, success became
the norm.
In his debut performance, the "Canadian Cowboy" grabbed an
eighth-place showing at Autodrome St-Eustache
near Montréal, a flat, 4/10-mile oval. At the high-banked Autodrome
Chaudière 1/4-mile in Vallée-Jct., QC, Hamel
finished sixth and won the Kenyon Racing Products Hard Charger Award
for improving his position the most of any
driver during the race (18 positions), then continued to show his
versatility in the Hamel Construction, Inc. #51
Chevrolet by earning another sixth at Autodrome St-Félicien, a quirky
half-mile tri-oval in northern Québec. His
best finish of fourth came at Chaudière in August, followed by
back-to-back eighth-place finishes at the fast
Autodrome Montmagny 3/8-mile. Hamel also posted a tenth-place finish
in the Coors Light 200 "Showdown at
Chaudière," an invitational all-star race for the top ACT Late Model
Tour and Série ACT-Castrol drivers in
September. Sweet finished 18th after running in the top-five for most
of the race.
All told, Hamel finished seventh in the Série ACT-Castrol
championship standings. He outdistanced fellow
19 year-old Spencer MacPherson of Carleton Place, ON by 19 points,
97-78, to win the Rookie of the Year title.
Justin Holtom of Ottawa, ON and Jonathan Urlin rounded out the freshman field.
Hamel will be honored at the Série ACT-Castrol Banquet of
Champions in November, while Sweet will accept
his award at the ACT Banquet of Champions in January. Banquet dates
and details will be announced soon.