One of the biggest seasons in American-Canadian Tour (ACT) history launches on Saturday, April 18 as part of the first ever doubleheader between the ACT Late Model stock cars and the Pro All Stars Series (PASS) Super Late Models. More than 70 combined cars are expected at the Oxford Plains Speedway in Oxford, ME, and multiple ACT drivers will attempt to run both 150-lap events that afternoon.
Defending ACT Tour Champion Joey Polewarczyk Jr. of Hudson, NH leads the drivers looking to complete all 300 laps of feature racing on the 3/8th-mile oval. “Joey Pole” said that he and his team wanted to attempt the doubleheader as soon as they learned that it was on the schedule.
“It’s challenging just to run one car and try to get the car handling great for the race,” Pole noted. “But now the challenge is to get both cars – spending as much time as possible on both cars as you can to try and get them handling the best for a long run and a long race. But I feel really confident with my crew that we’ll be able to get both cars running well.”
Auburn, ME’s Travis Stearns also intends to race both a Late Model and a Super Late Model that day for Vermont-based Richard Green Racing. The team will use the opening practice session on Friday, April 17 to help dial in the ACT and PASS cars in search of a combined winner’s purse of almost $6,000.
Both Pole and Stearns are running the full ACT schedule this year, and hope to parlay a strong season-opening result into a run at the Tour championship. While Pole is looking to repeat as Champion, Stearns’ best finish in the final standings is sixth in 2013, and he believes his team is capable of more.
“I think we’re better than what we’ve shown (the last two seasons),” Stearns said. “We’ve shown speed at times in a lot of places. We’re just missing a little something. We’ve made some changes this year, personnel-wise, everything-wise. I’ve very optimistic. There’s no reason why we can’t be an ACT title contender.”
The opening event at Oxford is the first of three ACT-PASS doubleheaders during the 2015 schedule. The International 500, scheduled for the weekend of July 17-19 at the Airborne Park Speedway in Plattsburgh, NY, will see both series run 200-lap events while vying for more than $100,000 in posted awards. The third and final doubleheader will be a pair of 200-lap events on Saturday, September 12 at the Autodrome Chaudiere in Quebec.
Pole’s family-run team already plans to run both ends of all three combined events. Two-time ACT Champion Wayne Helliwell Jr., along with Brad Babb and eight-time ACT Champion Brian Hoar, have expressed interest in running the doubleheaders later in the season.
Regardless of what happens on the race track, Pole says that the fans will be the real winners of the ACT/PASS alliance.
“I think more so than anything else, it helps the fans who don’t have to choose where to go for the weekend,” Pole said. “There are ACT fans and PASS fans, but most people are just fans of racing and want to see both.”
The much-anticipated ACT/PASS doubleheader program at Oxford Plains Speedway will kick off on Saturday, April 18, with the pits opening at 7:30 am and a post time of 2 pm.
The American-Canadian Tour (ACT) will see the return of one of the Northeast’s most accomplished drivers this coming season. Wayne Helliwell Jr., the 2012 and 2013 ACT Champion, recently stated that he will be competing full-time on the Tour in 2015.
The Dover, NH veteran came out on top of duels with 8-time Tour Champion Brian Hoar in 2012 and Joey Polewarczyk Jr. in 2013, respectively. Helliwell won six races over those two years, including the 2012 Fall Foliage 200 at Airborne Park Speedway in Plattsburgh, NY and three victories at Devil’s Bowl Speedway in West Haven, VT.
Helliwell ran a partial ACT schedule in 2014, but will seek a third title this year on the 13-race Tour, which will visit tracks in five U.S. states and Canada. The former Lee USA Speedway Champion is looking forward to the challenge of the Tour competition.
“I think the competition is going to be even stronger than it has been,” Helliwell said. “You’ll have Joey (Polewarczyk Jr.) again, he’s always a contender. Jimmy Hebert, Ray Parent, and some of the newcomers will be strong as well. It’s never a ‘give me’ or ‘here you go’; it’s going to be really tough.”
Despite his partial schedule last season, Helliwell still captured a win in the Merchant’s Bank 150 at Thunder Road Speedbowl in Barre, VT, along with five top-5 finishes. His efforts helped his Bruce Bernhardt–owned team finish second in the 2014 ACT owner’s point standings. Helliwell also won the 6th Annual Bond Auto ACT Invitational at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in September.
A bumper crop of title contenders is shaping up for the 2015 ACT season. Helliwell will have to dethrone 2014 ACT Champion and fellow New Hampshire native Polewarczyk, his closest challenger in 2013. Vermont’s Jimmy Hebert and Rhode Island’s Ray Parent finished second and third in the 2014 standings and are both chasing their first championship. Maine drivers Travis Stearns, Ben Ashline, and Brad Babb are expected to be factors as well. Young up-and-comers such as Emily Packard, Brandon Atkins, and Kyle Welch will also try to stake their claims as title contenders.
“Joey (Polewarczyk) and Wayne (Helliwell) obviously right off the bat, you know those two are going to be right there,” Stearns said. “You might as well consider them in the title hunt no matter what. There’s a lot; you never know. Jimmy (Hebert) runs great, Ray (Parent)…I honestly think there’s six or seven teams that could be right in the hunt. That’s a lot of what I like about the ACT Tour. I think it’s underrated for some of the caliber of people we have there.”
Helliwell, Polewarczyk, and the rest of the ACT stars will begin the 2015 championship battle on Saturday, April 18 at the Oxford Plains Speedway in Oxford, ME. The event will be part of the first-ever doubleheader between the ACT Late Models and the Pro All Stars Series (PASS) Super Late Models, with each series running 150-lap features. The PASS Modifieds, Wicked Cool Midgets, and Oxford Street Stocks are also on the card. Front gates open at 9:30 am with a post time of 2:00 pm.
The Open Meeting of the Racing History Preservation Group and its North East Motor Sports Museum will be held on May 9 at 2pm in Concord, NH at a private auto racing museum. Those in attendance will learn about progress made toward groundbreaking, committees that will determine what will go into the museum for which those in attendance can volunteer to have real input on what’s to be displayed. Following the meeting, those in attendance will see photography of auto racing museums around the country followed by a visit to the site of the new North East Motor Sports Museum. The annual Open Meeting meeting is open to paid members only. If you’d like to be there, log onto NEMSmuseum.com and join today.
Jimmy Ryan is coming home to Devil’s Bowl Speedway. One of Vermont’s most popular open-wheel Modified stock car drivers for many years, “Flyin’ Ryan” plans to end his hiatus from driving in 2015. He has recently taken delivery of a Teo Pro Car chassis, a brand new Chevrolet “602” crate engine, and has reclaimed his familiar car number 60 with the registration office.
Ryan plans to compete on both asphalt and clay, running in the Bond Auto Parts Modified division of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series (NWAAS) on the pavement, and in the Liberty Street Discount Beverage & Deli Sportsman Modified class in the five-race Optical Expressions of Berlin Dirt Track Series.
The Whiting, VT veteran’s most recent season of driving was five years ago. Ryan is highly regarded as a dirt track specialist – he was a frequent winner on the former half-mile clay track at Devil’s Bowl and was a two-time champion at Bear Ridge Speedway – but he won twice during the first year of the new pavement era at Devil’s Bowl in 2010 and picked up another asphalt victory at Albany-Saratoga Speedway that season.
Ryan says that his desire to race never went away, but a busy work schedule kept him out of the car. Though he is hesitant to officially throw his hat in the ring as a full-season championship chaser, he concedes that he will likely be having too much fun to skip any races.
“I’ll be at the opener on the asphalt on May 9th for the 100-lapper. After that, we’ll see where it goes,” Ryan said with a laugh. “I’ve been telling everyone that I’m not planning on running every race, but no one seems to believe that. They’re probably right.”