{"id":18810,"date":"2015-05-13T06:37:39","date_gmt":"2015-05-13T10:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=18810"},"modified":"2015-05-13T08:42:48","modified_gmt":"2015-05-13T12:42:48","slug":"labbe-leads-canadian-contingent-into-airborne-spring-green","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2015\/05\/labbe-leads-canadian-contingent-into-airborne-spring-green\/","title":{"rendered":"Labbe Leads Canadian Contingent into Airborne Spring Green"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"vlf_3048\"<\/a>Waterbury, VT\u2014The American-Canadian Tour (ACT) U.S. Late Model Tour and the Quebec-based S\u00e9rie ACT head to Airborne Park Speedway in Plattsburgh, NY this Saturday, May 16 for the Spring Green 115. The combination event is the 2015 season opener for the Canadian series, and a full contingent of Quebec competitors is expected to make the trek across the border.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Defending S\u00e9rie ACT Champion Alex Labbe of St-Albert, QC leads the Canadian charge into the fast \u00bd-mile oval. The 2013 Fall Foliage 200 Airborne winner got an early start to 2015 by finishing fourth in the New Hampshire Governor\u2019s Cup 150 at Lee USA Speedway on April 26.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to try to defend our title this year, and I\u2019m pretty confident,\u201d the 22-year-old said. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be a lot of good cars, and a lot of tough guys that are going to come back. It\u2019s going to be really interesting, but I\u2019m sure we can defend it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event marks the return of the Spring Green to Airborne after being run at West Haven, VT\u2019s Devil\u2019s Bowl Speedway the past four years. It\u2019s also the first of four combination events this season between ACT\u2019s U.S. and Quebec Tours.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fun thing,\u201d Labbe said of the events. \u201cI\u2019m sure we\u2019re going to have more cars, and Airborne is a nice track to race with a lot of cars. There\u2019s a lot of places to pass and it gives a great show.\u201d
\nThe 115-lap event is a prelude to the 3rd Annual ACT International on July 18 and 19, which will bring together the ACT Late Models and the Pro All Stars Series (PASS) Super Late Models for a pair of 200-lap, $10,000-to-win races. In addition, it\u2019s the first event for the Triple Crown, which posts more than $10,000 for the top-performing S\u00e9rie ACT 100%ers in the three ACT-sanctioned events at Airborne.
\nLabbe is not the only Quebecer who will be a threat. Jonathan Bouvrette just missed a victory in last Spring\u2019s 100-lap Airborne event, losing to Ray Parent in a photo finish. 2013 S\u00e9rie ACT Champion Jean-Fran\u00e7ois D\u00e9ry finished fifth in both previous ACT Internationals. Two-time S\u00e9rie ACT Champion Donald Theetge, along with multi-time winners Patrick Cliche and Dany Trepanier, should also be competitive.
\nThe ACT U.S. Tour will counter with their own talented group led by New Hampshire veterans Wayne Helliwell Jr. and Joey Polewarczyk Jr. Two-time Tour Champion Helliwell leads the point standings, with defending ACT Champion \u201cJoey Pole\u201d 19 markers behind. Both drivers are past winners of the Fall Foliage 200 at Airborne.<\/p>\n

Veteran Jeff White has also impressed in his second full season on the ACT Tour and is currently tied for third in points with Brad Babb. White finished eighth in last spring\u2019s Airborne event in his second trip to the speedway, then improved to fifth in the Fall Foliage 200.
\n\u201cI like (Airborne),\u201d White said. \u201cIt\u2019s a driver\u2019s track. You can run different lanes, and it\u2019s just a lot of fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up racing at one track (Oxford) all my life, so I think it\u2019s fun to go to all these different places,\u201d he added. \u201cWe just keep working with our notes that we take every time we go. I like mixing it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Young drivers such as Babb, Emily Packard, and Travis Stearns have impressed early in the season and will factor into the final outcome. Meanwhile, Jimmy Hebert will try to rebound from a wreck at Lee USA Speedway and a disappointing showing at Thunder Road. Kyle Welch is also looking for redemption after losing multiple top-10 finishes to late-race malfunctions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Waterbury, VT\u2014The American-Canadian Tour (ACT) U.S. Late Model Tour and the Quebec-based S\u00e9rie ACT head to Airborne Park Speedway in Plattsburgh, NY this Saturday, May 16 for the Spring Green 115. The combination event is the 2015 season opener for the Canadian series, and a full contingent of Quebec competitors is expected to make the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[55,190,14972],"tags":[15684],"class_list":["post-18810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-act","category-lee-usa-new-hampshire","category-touring-series-news","tag-waterbury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18812,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18810\/revisions\/18812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}