(Press Release from American-Canadian Tour)
The American-Canadian Tour (ACT) will be heading south this spring. ACT and Pro All Stars Series (PASS) officials announced today that the ACT Late Models have been added to the Inaugural PASS Commonwealth Classic at Virginia’s Richmond Raceway on Saturday, March 30 at 1:00pm.
The ACT Commonwealth Classic 65 will be the debut for ACT-type Late Models at the famed ¾-mile speed-plant. The non-point event will pay $5,000 to win and $750 to start, making it one of the largest purses of the year for Northeast Late Model drivers.
ACT joins a packed card of racing for the PASS Commonwealth Classic. The PASS Super Late Models will hold a 100-lap, $10,000-to-win event as part of the 2019 PASS National Championship. Open shows for tour-type Modifieds, 8-cylinder Street Stocks, and 4-cylinder Mini Stocks will also be on the docket.
The Commonwealth Classic had originally been scheduled for this past October before rain forced its postponment. While ACT was not initially on the card, the rescheduling opened to the door for the Northeast’s top Late Model racers to make the trip south. PASS promoter Tom Mayberry recently reached out to ACT managing partner Cris Michaud about the possibility of ACT joining the show, and the two sides quickly reached an agreement.
“We can’t thank Tom Mayberry enough for this,” Michaud said. “Truthfully, ACT racing at such a historic track as Richmond wasn’t even something that was on my radar. I was as surprised as anyone when Tom contacted us about it. But we immediately realized what a great opportunity he had presented for our series. When we proposed the idea to our teams, they were just as excited about it as we were. We’re looking forward to showing fans in Virginia what ACT racing is all about.”
Located just outside the downtown of Virginia’s capital city, Richmond Raceway opened in 1953 and immediately became a destination for the country’s top stock car drivers. The track has hosted more than 200 events combined in NASCAR’s top three series, both on its original ½-mile configuration and the current ¾-mile D-shaped layout that debuted in 1988. The track has also hosted the Verizon IndyCar Series, K&N Pro Series East, Whelen Modified Tour, and other top touring series.
An open practice day for all divisions competing in the PASS Commonwealth Classic has been schedule for Friday, March 29 from 11:00am to 5:00pm. Optional hauler parking will take place on Thursday, March 28 from 12:00 to 4:00pm.
Entry forms, the full schedule of events, and other information for the ACT Commonwealth Classic 65 will be released shortly. For more, contact the ACT offices at (802) 244-6963, [email protected], or visit www.acttour.com.
Same day as the NWMT event at South Boston. Sheesh!
Blame NASCAR for that when, PASS rescheduled the Richmond race before NASCAR scheduled Myrtle Beach….Richmond would be a better race
South Boston will be great! I went there years ago (around 2009/2010) when they had double header events. K&N Pro Series and Whelen Southern Modified Tour. Saw that event twice, 2 K&N race and 2 Modified races. Very boring, nobody could pass in both the K&N and Modifieds. They repaved south boston and few years ago and had K&N races there the past couple of years. The racing has been amazing. The new surface made a huge difference. The better modified tour (northern tour does bring the better drivers) along with the new track surface should be awesome.
I was planning on going to the Richmond race in October… IMO the forecast looked good enough to try to get it in… The entry list had some awesome names on it. A lot of them probably wouldn’t even bother with the rescheduled race anyway. The October race was after their season was already finished, so they had all winter to get their equipment ready before the tour starts. Even if this Richmond race wasn’t scheduled the same day as NASCAR, the teams probably wouldn’t bother showing up since its already mid season for them… Maybe the SLM race at Richmond will be good…
Probably low modified car count. The WMT and twin LMSC races at South Boston will be better a show, and cheaper… This year the K&N pro series twin 100 races and twin races for the LMSC was i think $15 day of show and $10 if you bought ahead over the phone… Not sure that the modified tour race will be as cheap, but it will be cheaper than Richmond i’d bet.
They had said all along that the March 30 2019 Richmond date wasn’t confirmed yet. South Boston and the WMT have had their schedules out for a while. PASS should have changed their date…
NASCAR’s announcement for the tour race at SoBo was October 31. The PASS rescheduled date was “made official “December 21. Not sure how the blame for this one falls on NASCAR.
The opposite may actually happen. With Tour guys not likely to show do to SB being a reg Tour event so outside teams from the south and the north both may decide to go now. They still have a shot at 20 cars I think. I know two NY Mod teams looking at it.