Joey Polewarczyk Jr. celebrates victory in the American Canadian Tour feature Saturday at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl (Photo: New London-Waterford Speedbowl)
WATERFORD – During the offseason Joey Polewarczyk Jr. and his family owned team decided he would run a part-time schedule with the American Canadian Tour and focus on helping to develop rookie driver Ryan Olsen.
And when the 2016 schedule was announced for the division, there was one event Polewarczyk knew immediately he’d be putting on his limited schedule.
The return of the American Canadian Tour to the New London-Waterford Speedbowl in 2016 was a must for the Hudson, N.H. driver.
“No better track than this,” Polewarczyk said of the Speedbowl. “This track is my all-time favorite track. It’s just a fun place to race. … This was one that I was definitely coming to no matter what.”
And Polewarczyk showed why he loves the place so much Saturday.
Polewarczyk dominated in rolling to victory in the 100-lap American Canadian Tour feature Saturday at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl.
“I really don’t know what it is about this place,” Polewarczyk said. “You can run both grooves. Obviously the outside is a little bit of a proffered line, on restarts especially. It just suits me. It just suits my driving style. You can really let it roll in and not use a lot of brake and get right back to the throttle. I wish we came here a lot more often.”
Eddie MacDonald of Rowley, Mass. was second and Scott Payea of Milton, Vt. third.
Polewarczyk started third behind pole-winner Payea and second place starter Dillon Moltz. Polewarczyk went to the front past Payea on a lap 13 restart, but Payea grabbed the top spot back on a lap 17 restart.
But all the drama at the front was over after Polewarczyk went to the lead on the lap 19 restart. He was never challenged again out front.
“The car was just spot on,” Polewarczyk said. “It wasn’t exactly where we needed to be in practice, but my team worked hard on it and got it back.”
MacDonald got by Payea for second with just under 15 laps remaining. MacDonald flattened the outside wall just before taking the checkered flag in second.
“I was a little too free to catch Joey,” MacDonald said. “But he was fast. Definitely a lot of fun out there. I don’t know what happened on that last lap.”
Pole was also working on Packard’s car, but apparently the relationship has soured.
Like I said before, the most important aspect of ACT Tour racing is starting spot. I guess that played out again tonight.
Thought the ACT guys put on a pretty good show . The management did a nice job of keeping things moving along with the threat of rain. With all the work they have put into the place it looks pretty good.
I think the only fans disappointed were the Waterford regulars, they got a first hand look at how weak the Bowl’s late model division is.
Well, that’s a bit harsh. I remember seeing the ACT Tour last year at Thompson, and there were a bunch of regulars there who also entered the ACT race. And none of them even got close to the top 10, with only a couple even finishing on the lead lap. I don’t think anyone anywhere in the Northeast could take their weekly racing Late Model to an ACT race and run competitively with the teams and drivers who run full time on the tour. The ACT Tour is the closest LM division we have to weekly racing in the south where future Nascar stars are born. And don’t forget, Dillon Moltz grew up racing at the Bowl and won a LM championship there. And look at what he did driving for a team that runs full time on the ACT Tour, he finished 4th.
I had a good time. Shame the rain scared off so many people. But I could not pass up a 100 Lap, 30 car Late Model race and a 53 Lap SK Mod race. It was a good fast event. And I got home before 11PM.
I just wish the ACTour would do away with their restart rule. I can’t stand that lap down cars start ahead of lead lap cars. It kills anyone who is in the top 10 to make it threw the filed to win or get a good top 5. I’m sure if we did not have all those lap down cars we would have had a closer finish.
Ilias i guess you don’t remember William Wall finishing 8th in that race and that was on the lead lap. Actually only the top ten in the race were on the lead lap.