American Canadian Tour
Eddie MacDonald battled from a difficult 20th starting position in the 40th American Canadian Tour Labor Day Classic at Thunder Road in Barre, Vermont on Sunday, September 2, to post an acceptable sixth place finish in the 200 lap event. A slick outside groove in the heat cost the EXIT Realty/Hancock Electric Chevy a decent starting position in the feature.
“I was really happy with the car in the race and we were constantly moving forward but the finish in our heat really cost us,” said Eddie Mac after the race. “The second groove was really slick and no one could run out there. I started fourth in the heat but a caution put me on the outside for the restart and I fell back to seventh. I got back to fifth on the last two laps (of the 15 lap qualifier) but that gave us a -1 rating and we started 20th.”
When the green flag waved the Rowley, Mass. veteran racer began his charge to the front in the Freddie Peterson owned Chevy. On the 23rd circuit on the high-banked Vermont bullring, Eddie Mac rode in the 14th spot and into 9th by the next caution on lap 61. On the lap 125 caution, Eddie Mac made it to the pits for right side tires and restarted 10th. By lap 167, Eddie Mac ran in the fifth spot and was finally passed by Payea with ten laps to go to finish sixth.
”As I said before, I was really happy with the car but we just started too far back,” said Eddie. “The -1 rating started us 20th out of 26 cars so that was a big hurdle to overcome. If I had been able to stay in fourth in the heat we would have a 0 rating and we would have started near the top ten. The bottom groove was the only one working so you had to stay down and my car handled well in the turns. We pitted for tires (Lap 125) and we were a little tight after that but Payea was able to get by me when I really got loose at the end. The Thunder Road regulars finished in the top four spots and never stopped for tires. They really have this place figured out because it is a handful.”
“It was a lot of fun to have a good car here and to bring it home in one piece,” said Eddie Mac. “The crew did their usual great job today and they are the reason we run as good as we do. Rollie (LaChance) had a great set up in the car and although you always want a better finish, we did well today. Thanks to Derek Beatrice from EXIT Realty and Kenny and Scott Thompson from Hancock Electric for their continued support, as well as Rob Grimm from Grimm Construction. We hope to finish the season with great finishes at White Mountain and Thompson.”
Next on the schedule is the $10,000 to win Late Model race on September 16 at White Mountain Motor Sports Park and the ACT series finale at Thompson Motor Sports Park on October13.
