by Jay | Mar 17, 2016 | ACT, Lee USA, New, New Hampshire, Touring Series News
Alan Ward photo
Waterbury, VT – The American-Canadian Tour (ACT) opens its 25th season of ACT Late Model racing, along with the 33rd season of racing at Lee USA Speedway, with the New Hampshire Governor’s Cup 150 on Sunday, April 10. The traditional ACT season opener often sets the tone for what to watch throughout the season, and the 2016 edition should be no exception.
ACT competition at the 1/3-mile speedway has historically been hard to predict. The previous 13 ACT Late Model Tour events at Lee have seen 12 different winners, with Brian Hoar’s back-to-back Governor’s Cup wins in 2011 and 2012 standing as the only repeat triumph. Former Lee USA Champion Wayne Helliwell, Jr. of Dover, NH became the latest ACT winner at the track when he captured the 2015 Governor’s Cup, the first of his four wins en route to the 2015 ACT Championship.
Surprise performances at the event also abound, and performances by these drivers have frequently led to even bigger things for them. Williamstown, VT’s Jimmy Hebert was the surprise winner of the 2013 Governor’s Cup, which kick-started a breakout season that saw him finish third in ACT points. In 2015, Windham, ME’s Brad Babb scored a then career-best runner-up finish at Lee. Babb went on to win two races and finish third in the final 2015 standings.
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by Jay | Mar 14, 2016 | IndyCar, New
Juan Pablo Montoya Scores Second Consecutive Victory on Streets of St. Petersburg
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (March 13, 2016) – Juan Pablo Montoya has a pattern that works on the Streets of St. Petersburg. Starting fourth for the second consecutive year brought the driver of the No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet to a repeat appearance at the top of the victory podium for the opening round of the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season.
Montoya took the lead for the final time on the 85th lap of the 110-lap/198-mile race around the 1.8-mile, 14 turn street circuit through downtown St. Petersburg.
Teammate Simon Pagenaud started and finished second to give Chevrolet a one-two finish in the first of 16 races on the 2016 schedule.
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by Jay | Mar 14, 2016 | NASCAR, New
Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Jimmy JohnÕs Chevrolet SS, celebrates his eighth Phoenix win Sunday, March 13, 2016 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Arizona. He won by a hundredth of a second, closest finish in NASCAR Sprint Cup History. This was Harvick’s 500th consecutive series start, a feat accomplished only by 14 others throughout the history of NASCAR. (Photo by Gregg Ellman for Chevy Racing)
KEVIN HARVICK WINS AT PHOENIX
Avondale, Ariz. (March 13, 2016) – Kevin Harvick earned the victory in the Good Sam 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR) in an exciting overtime finish. The driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS pulled his car into Victory Lane at the 1.0-mile track for a record-setting eighth time in his NSCS career, and has now won five of the last six races at the Arizona venue. A gutsy call by crew chief, Rodney Childers, to stay on-track while most of the leaders pitted, resulted in the closet margin of victory in PIR history. Harvick took home the win by 0.010 seconds ahead of Carl Edwards (Toyota).
“I just like racing here,” said Harvick in Winner’s Circle. “It’s just one of those places where I feel like I’ve been here enough times to where I can move around and find something to make our car work. I knew he (Edwards) was better through (Turns) 3 and 4. That was not the car that I wanted to see behind me. I knew I could beat him down there and I tried to protect the bottom in (Turns) 3 and 4 and I just missed the bottom with all the rubber build-up on the tires and everything. But, all in all, I knew I was going to be on defense down there. I got up too high and wasn’t able to stay on the bottom like I wanted to and then he got into me, like he should have, and I needed to get a good run off the corner and I was going to have to get into his door and it worked out, just barely. I just want to thank Jimmy John’s, Busch, Chevrolet, Mobil 1 and everybody at Stewart-Haas for everything that they do.”
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by Jay | Mar 11, 2016 | ACT, New, Touring Series News
Eric Lafleche/Victory Lane Radio photo
Waterbury, VT – The 2016 American-Canadian Tour (ACT) season begins in just a month’s time on Sunday, April 10, when the ACT Late Model Tour travels to Lee USA Speedway for the New Hampshire Governor’s Cup 150. The annual event will kick off a milestone season for ACT in both the United States and Canada.
The upcoming season will mark the 25th year of competition for the ACT Late Model Tour, which was created in 1992. Meanwhile, the Quebec-based Série ACT is entering its 10th season, having been born in 2007 out of the former Série National Late Model Sportsman division.
Both Tours continue to be among the most sought-after racing series in the Northeastern United States and eastern Canada. ACT will visit 15 different race tracks during the 2016 season, traveling from the banks of the St. Lawrence River to the eastern shores of Long Island Sound. The 13-race U.S. Tour schedule will be contested at 11 different tracks, matching the most in Tour history. Nearly 160 different drivers attempted to qualify for at least one ACT-sanctioned event in 2015, and with a number of changes and additions to the schedule in 2016, that number may grow even larger.
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by Jay | Mar 10, 2016 | K&N Pro Series East, NASCAR, New
Dominique Van Wieringen, No. 30 Durobyte / NASCAR Technical Institute Ford
Mobile 150 presented by the Mobile Sports Authority Fast Facts
NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Race No. 2, Mobile 150 presented by the Mobile Sports Authority, Mobile (Ala.) International Speedway, Mobile, Alabama
Race Information: Event: Mobile 150 presented by the Mobile Sports Authority, Saturday, March 12 at 7:30 p.m. Local Time Track: Mobile (Ala.) International Speedway Qualifying: Saturday, March 12 at 2:00 p.m. Local Time Track Length: 0.5-mile paved oval.
Back To Work: After nearly a month off from competition, the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East returns to action this weekend at Mobile (Ala.) International Speedway, the first race at the historic Alabama track for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East tour.
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by Jay | Mar 9, 2016 | ACT, New, New England
American Canadian Tour
EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. – This season will bring big changes for Emily Packard and her family-run 9ME Northstar Fireworks/Packard Fuels sponsored race team. Just finalized, Emily Packard Motorsports and Joey Pole Racing have agreed to form a partnership for a minimum of 9 American Canadian Tour races for the upcoming 2016 season. “I am really excited, and believe that this is a step in the right direction,” said Emily. “This is a big change for me, I have spent the last 7 years working with my previous crew chief, and now with this deal we start with a clean slate.”
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