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Wayne Helliwell Jr. landed the latest blow in the battle for the ACT Late Model Tour championship, extending his series point lead with the win in the White Mountain 150 at White Mountain Motorsports Park in North Woodstock, N.H., last Saturday night.
Helliwell inherited the lead late when leaders Brandon Atkins and Eddie MacDonald made contact, sending Atkins spinning and MacDonald to the back of the field following a black flag penalty on lap 115.
“We lucked out on some things and were in the right spot at the right time,” said Helliwell, who now has three wins in seven starts this season, running away with the win over the final 35 circuits on the banked quarter-mile.
Joey Polewarczyk, of Hudson, N.H., the defending ACT champion, finished second, while Travis Stearns, of Auburn, Maine, finished a season-high third.
But the night ultimately belonged to Helliwell, even if the day itself did not. The Dover, N.H., driver was baffled after practice.
“This is one of the toughest races we’ve had on the tour in a long time,” Helliwell said. “We made some big wholesale changes to the car in practice and learned some stuff in the heat race, which transferred over to the feature.
“But at the beginning of the race, I thought all the changes we made were the wrong ones, because the car just went backwards… As the race unfolded, it kind of came to us.”
ACT returns to Oxford Plains Speedway this Saturday night for its second visit of the season. Polewarcyk won the season opener there, one of his three wins this season.
Both Helliwell and Polewarczyk have three wins, six top five and seven top 10 finishes in seven races this season, with Helliwell owning a 17-point lead in the standings. Brad Babb of Windham, Maine, is the only other driver to win a race this season.
LAPERLE RIGHT AT HOME
Patrick Laperle of St-Denis, Que., made his first PASS North Series start of the season count on Saturday night.
Laperle led all but a handful of laps from the pole at Autodrome Chaudiere in Vallee-Jonction, Que., to score the win in the Habitations Danny Lagace 150 in his home province. Past series champions Cassius Clark of Farmington, Maine, and Travis Benjamin of Morrill, Maine, completed the podium.
DJ Shaw finished fourth, and series point leader Mike Rowe recovered from an early spin to finish fifth.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin finished seventh in the 22-car starting field.
DIFFERENT RACES, DIFFERENT FACES
Maine’s two premier racing facilities — Beech Ridge Motor Speedway and Oxford Plains Speedway — have developed an interesting trend of late.
Beech Ridge saw its fifth different winner in five Super Late Model races this season when Mike Fowler of Scarborough, Maine, won the 50-lap main event at the track on Saturday night. Meanwhile at Oxford, Shawn Knight, of Jay, Maine, became the seventh different winner in as many races when he won the 50-lap Super Late Model feature there the same night.
It was Knight’s first start of the season.
Elsewhere: Derrick O’Donnell put himself back in the early championship race at Thunder Road International Speedbowl in Barre, Vt., last Thursday, leading the final 15 laps of the 50-lap Late Model feature for the win. Scott Dragon and Nick Sweet stand tied for the division point lead, with O’Donnell — the Memorial Day Classic 100 winner — just 12 points back following the victory… Jason Durgan and Ron Proctor split the victories in a pair of Modified features at Devil’s Bowl Speedway in West Haven, Vt., last Friday night… Tommy Tombarello of Haverhill, Mass., won the 30-lap Supermodified feature at Lee USA Speedway for his second win of the season… Rookie Jared Soucy won the 350 Supermodified main at Star Speedway the following night…
UPCOMING
The Granite State Pro Stock Series returns to action this Saturday, June 27, with a 100-lap event at Star Speedway in Epping, N.H… The PASS North Series holds its second of four races in a 21-day stretch when it visits Lee USA Speedway on Friday night… The PASS Modified event scheduled to accompany the Super Late Models at Lee has been removed from the schedule. The division has been battling low car counts all season… The annual 125-lap Pro Series at Beech Ridge is slated for Saturday.
3 prostock races in 2 days at 3 tracks less then 55 miles apart. Piss poor scheduling at it’s best
Beech Ridge is just an extended Saturday night race. That would be like saying you can’t run pro stocks weekly at OPS, Beech Ridge and Wiscassett.
And if the boys who run on dirt can run two nights in a row, why can’t the boys running on asphault?? Lee Friday then Star Saturday sounds workable.