{"id":4696,"date":"2011-03-30T20:10:03","date_gmt":"2011-03-31T01:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=9076"},"modified":"2011-03-30T20:10:03","modified_gmt":"2011-03-31T01:10:03","slug":"ford-blue-oval-challenge-lots-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/ford-blue-oval-challenge-lots-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford Blue Oval Challenge Has Lots Of New Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ford Blue Oval Challenge Has Lots Of New Competition<\/strong><\/p>\n

Waterbury, VT \u2013 The Ford Blue Oval Challenge for ACT Late Model teams will see some administrative changes and a whole lot more competition in the upcoming 2011 race season.<\/p>\n

The American Canadian Tour (ACT) and Ford Sportsman Circle Track Racing, a division of Ford Racing, announced today the second year of the \u201cBlue Oval Challenge\u201d for the Ford competitors racing in ACT events or at ACT affiliated Late Model tracks.
\n
\n\u201cA year ago we designed the Ford Blue Oval Cup program to make sure we covered all the ACT touring events, special events, and the affiliate tracks throughout the Northeast and Provinces of Canada. The events at the New Smyrna Speedway in Florida provided a great start to the 2011 season, and needless to say, Ford was delighted that Joey Polewarczyk, Jr. (Pole) won the Goodyear Cup driving a Ford,\u201d said Mike Delahanty, Program Manager-Sportsman Circle Track Racing for the Ford Racing Technology Division of Ford Racing.<\/p>\n

The popularity of the Ford program will be in evidence throughout the region with the start of the coming season. The number of Ford teams to compete in ACT racing this coming year has more than doubled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have gotten a very impressive list of championship caliber teams who have decided to switch to Ford and run for the Blue Oval Challenge this coming season,\u201d said Nick Bigelow, ACT Media Director.<\/p>\n

Last season Ford had some very high profile teams with New Hampshire-based teams Joey Pole and Wayne Helliwell, Vermont champions Cris Michaud, Joey Laquerre and John Donahue, along with Maine veteran Glen Luce and first year sensation Austin Theriault.<\/p>\n

In 2011, seven-time ACT Champion Brian Hoar in the RPM Rick Paya team, and Dave Pembroke a former Thunder Road and Milk Bowl champion, both from Vermont, will be competing in Fords. Former Castrol Edge and ACT Champion, Patrick Laperle, one of the most feared racers throughout the Northeast, has a Ford in his stable of cars.<\/p>\n

Veteran Seekonk Speedway Pro Stock racer Ray Parent from Tiverton, RI and former NASCAR North and Busch East regular Tom Carey, Jr. from New Salem, MA will also unveil Ford programs at the ACT opening event at the New Hampshire Governor\u2019s Cup 150 to be held at Lee USA Speedway on April 17, 2011.<\/p>\n

Ford contingency programs are in place for all ACT US and Castrol Edge touring events and special events, including the recently concluded New Smyrna Goodyear Cup; the New Hampshire Motor Speedway third annual ACT Invitational, to be held over the NASCAR Chase weekend on September 23-25th; the All-Star Showdown at Chaudiere, pitting the best of the US against the best of the Castrol Edge S\u00e9rie; the richest race of them all, the TD Bank 250 at the Oxford Plains Speedway in Maine; and the 49th running of the People\u2019s Bank Milk Bowl at Thunder Road. All will help to make the Ford Blue Oval Challenge the richest contingency in ACT racing. ACT competitors planning to participate in the Ford Blue Oval program will find registration forms available to them on the ACT website, located under the \u201cForms\u201d tab. <\/p>\n

ACT statistician Nick Bigelow has worked on making the yearly Blue Oval Challenge point system more compatible with the various kinds of events that are eligible, including touring and weekly races. For more information visit the ACT web site at www.acttour.com and go to the \u2018Forms\u2019 tab on the left side panel for details.<\/p>\n

The first points given toward the overall $35,000 in posted contingency awards has Joey Pole as the early leader by virtue of his win at the New Smyrna Goodyear Cup last February. Approved ACT Ford programs at the following weekly tracks will be eligible to be included in the 2011 Blue Oval Challenge: Thunder Road Speedbowl, Barre, VT; White Mountain Motorsport Park, N. Woodstock, NH; Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, ME; Seekonk Speedway, Seekonk, MA; Waterford Speedbowl, Waterford, CT; Twin State Speedway, Claremont, NH; Riverside Speedway, Groveton, NH; Canaan Fair Speedway, Canaan, NH, Devil\u2019s Bowl Speedway, West Haven, VT; Albany-Saratoga Speedway, Malta, NY; Kawartha Speedway, Peterborough, ON; Capital City Speedway, Ottawa, ON.<\/p>\n

The winner of the Blue Oval Challenge will receive $5,000.00 at the annual ACT Banquet of Champions at the end of the 2011 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ford Blue Oval Challenge Has Lots Of New Competition Waterbury, VT \u2013 The Ford Blue Oval Challenge for ACT Late Model teams will see some administrative changes and a whole lot more competition in the upcoming 2011 race season. The American Canadian Tour (ACT) and Ford Sportsman Circle Track Racing, a division of Ford Racing, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[55,126],"tags":[15778],"class_list":["post-4696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-act","category-new-england","tag-act"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4696","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}