{"id":19260,"date":"2015-07-05T12:14:56","date_gmt":"2015-07-05T16:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=19260"},"modified":"2015-07-05T12:14:56","modified_gmt":"2015-07-05T16:14:56","slug":"quebec-drivers-seek-to-keep-international-prize-north-of-the-border","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/quebec-drivers-seek-to-keep-international-prize-north-of-the-border\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebec Drivers Seek to Keep International Prize North of the Border"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"vlf_3048\"<\/a>Waterbury, VT \u2013 The third annual American-Canadian Tour (ACT) International 500, Saturday, July 18 and Sunday, July 19 at Plattsburgh, NY’s Airborne Park Speedway, is sure to see some the best racing in the history of the fast 1\/2-mile oval. The twin 200-lap events for the ACT Late Models and the Pro All Stars Series (PASS) Super Late Models has more than $110,000 in posted awards and $10,000 guaranteed to each winner. The event has drawn big interest from both the United States and Canada, creating a true International feel for for fans.<\/p>\n

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The top ACT Late Model drivers from Quebec are expected, including five former S\u00e9rie ACT Champions. 2014 ACT International winner and multi-time S\u00e9rie ACT Champion Patrick Laperle of St-Denis, QC is an early favorite to keep the top prize in la belle province. Laperle won last year’s event after a thrilling 30-lap battle with former Thunder Road Champion Nick Sweet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be awesome to get back-to-back wins,\u201d Laperle said. \u201cThe trophy would look really nice beside the other one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laperle is among those who attempting to capture both $10,000 winner’s prizes by running the ACT and PASS features. He recently won the 150-lap PASS event at Autodrome Chaudiere in Vallee-Jct., QC on June 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cAirborne has always been nice to me, so I decided I want to try a Super Late Model there,\u201d Laperle said. \u201cWith the race that we had at Chaudiere, we’d be crazy not to bring both cars. 400 laps in the same day will be tough, so maybe we won’t have as big a party on Saturday night!\u201d<\/p>\n

Defending S\u00e9rie ACT Champion Alex Labb\u00e9 is among the challengers to Laperle’s bid for another International win. Labb\u00e9 already has two S\u00e9rie ACT wins this season and previously captured the 2013 Fall Foliage 200 at Airborne.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would mean a lot to win this race,\u201d Labb\u00e9 said. \u201cWe’ve struggled a bit the last two years here \u2013 we were always fast in practice, but struggled to find speed in the race itself. It’s a big race, and there’s a lot of good cars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the race itself, Labb\u00e9 knows that a Canadian winning the International again would be a boost to S\u00e9rie ACT and Late Model racing in Quebec.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning this race would add a lot of prestige to our series,\u201d he said. \u201cWe all know our Tour is pretty strong, but if we can win against the U.S. drivers, it would prove even more how strong our Tour is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boischatel, QC’s Donald Theetge, a two-time S\u00e9rie ACT Champion, also plans on doing double-duty. Fellow former Champions Jean-Fran\u00e7ois D\u00e9ry and Karl Allard are expected to join Theetge in the ACT portion. Dany Trepanier, Jonathan Bouvrette, and Patrick Cliche, the current top-three in the S\u00e9rie ACT point standings, are also among the top challengers for the event, which is also the second leg of the S\u00e9rie ACT Airborne Triple Crown. Meanwhile, ageless veteran Claude Leclerc and first-year competitor Charles Harvey will both try to pull a big upset.<\/p>\n

The Quebec competitors will battle U.S. stars such as eight-time ACT Tour Champion Brian Hoar, two-time Tour Champion and current point leader Wayne Helliwell Jr., and 2013 International winner Joey Polewarczyk Jr. Other challengers include Maine’s Jeff White and Brad Babb along with young standouts Emily Packard, Brandon Atkins, and Kyle Welch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Waterbury, VT \u2013 The third annual American-Canadian Tour (ACT) International 500, Saturday, July 18 and Sunday, July 19 at Plattsburgh, NY’s Airborne Park Speedway, is sure to see some the best racing in the history of the fast 1\/2-mile oval. The twin 200-lap events for the ACT Late Models and the Pro All Stars Series […]<\/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":[55,14972],"tags":[8691],"class_list":["post-19260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-act","category-touring-series-news","tag-american-canadian-tour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19260","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=19260"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19262,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19260\/revisions\/19262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}