(Press release from the American Canadian Tour)
“Outlaw” Eddie MacDonald of Rowley, MA led flag-to-flag in the caution free American Canadian Tour 100 at New Smyrna Speedway in New Smyrna Beach, FL on Sunday, February 15. MacDonald earned the pole position after racing from 9th to 2nd in his heat race to give him a +7 in ACT’s unique plus/minus handicap system.
MacDonald led the 26 car field to the green and held off defending Série ACT Champion Alex Labbe through the early stages of the event. He set a blistering pace, but couldn’t shake Labbe, Travis Stearns and Wayne Helliwell, Jr. during the first half of the race.
Another Quebecer in Patrick Laperle challenged MacDonald through the second half of the race. Laperle marched from his 14th starting postion to take over the second spot just past the halfway mark. He made it to MacDonald’s back bumper, but couldn’t make a move for the lead. He chased MacDonald through heavy lapped traffic and appeared to be in position to make a challenge on several occasions, but couldn’t get it done.
MacDonald and Laperle took the checkered flag in the top two spots, while Helliwell made a last lap pass to claim third. Stearns ran up front throughout the event and claimed fourth, while defending ACT Champion Joey Polewarczyk, Jr. worked his way from the 16th starting position to complete the top five. Labbe fell back to sixth followed by Aaron Fellows, Ray Parent, Luke Hinkley and Brad Babb rounding out the top ten.
The 100 lap event was completed caution free in 33 minutes and 42 seconds. A total of 23 of the 26 starters were on the track for the checkered flag. Only the top ten remained on the lead lap.
All 26 cars survived the first of three nights of American Canadian Tour racing at New Smyrna Speedway. Emily Packard will join the field tomorrow to bring the count up to 27. The first of two American Racer Challenge Cup 100 lap events will be run on Monday, February 16. Heat races will roll out at 7:30pm. The second and final American Racer Challenge Cup 100 will be run on Tuesday, February 17. Drivers will combine their two finishes in the American Racer Challenge Cup events on Monday and Tuesday to decide the overall Challenge Cup winner.
ACT 100 Unofficial Results
New Smyrna Speedway – New Smyrna Beach, FL
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Pos. (Start) Driver, Hometown, Laps Completed
1. (1) Eddie MacDonald, Rowley, MA, 100 Laps
2. (14) Patrick Laperle, St-Denis, QC, 100 Laps
3. (5) Wayne Helliwell, Jr., Dover, NH, 100 Laps
4. (3) Travis Stearns, Auburn, ME, 100 Laps
5. (16) Joey Polewarczyk, Jr., Hudson, NH, 100 Laps
6. (2) Alex Labbe, St-Albert, QC, 100 Laps
7. (7) Aaron Fellows, Croydon, NH, 100 Laps
8. (6) Ray Parent, Tiverton, RI, 100 Laps
9. (10) Luke Hinkley, Claremont, NH, 100 Laps
10. (11) Brad Babb, Windham, ME, 100 Laps
11. (26) Nick Sweet, Barre, VT, 99 Laps
12. (8) Tom Carey, Jr., New Salem, MA, 99 Laps
13. (12) Rowland Robinson, Jr., Steuben, ME, 99 Laps
14. (9) Brandon Atkins, Au Sable Forks, NY, 99 Laps
15. (13) Jimmy Hebert, Williamstown, VT, 99 Laps
16. (21) Josh Demers, Montpelier, VT, 99 Laps
17. (25) Pete Yetman, Peru, MA, 99 Laps
18. (4) Jeff Rocco, Wallingford, CT, 99 Laps
19. (18) Keith Rocco, Berlin, CT, 99 Laps
20. (23) Daniel Descoste, St-Joseph, QC, 99 Laps
21. (15) Donald Theetge, Boischatel, QC, 99 Laps
22. (19) Dylan Smith, Concord, NC, 98 Laps
23. (24) Brandon White, Kahnawake, QC, 66 Laps
24. (17) Kyle Welch, Newport, NH, 35 Laps
25. (22) Edward Leclerc, Jr., Taunton, MA, 7 Laps
26. (20) Jean-Pierre Ouimet, Terrebonne, QC, 1 Laps
Lap Leaders: Eddie MacDonald, 1-100.
Time of Race: 33:42
Wow the Rocco’s struggled… Surprises me that Keith was so slow. Maybe they can turn it around tonight. Hopefully the new motor Keith is getting for tonights race has a little more in it, or Junior cant figure out the chassis……….
Keith and Jeff being slow doesn’t surprise me at all. ACT use a professional tech crew that goes thru these cars not the speedbowls “yeah you’re good to go” crew. Notice they had no cautions, try to get a mod race to do that.
Andy, Keith lost a lot of track time due to the blown engine. They will be much better tonight I am sure.
you can only go up from getting lapped. what happened to Jeff? he was fast for most of the day, started 4th and dropped like a stone.
To my knowledge, Jeff has never raced a LM. Those cars are a lot about momentum especially at a track like that with such little power. That is a sister car to Keith’s as far as I was told as that was the old #3 of Morgan so it’s a good car. Must not have been able to keep up with the setup from day to night. It got down into the mid 40s last night, that’s a fairly large temperature swing to keep up with. I’m not sure if he is racing with Keith’s crew, or has his own crew. Keith has picked up substantial speed today from what I have been told after the 2nd round of practice, still trying to get the setup right.
Pretty sure the professional tech team has only checked tread width and left side weight since we got here Saturday. So if them guys are cheating I guess we will have to wait for them to tech somthing.
One of the most boring races I’ve ever seen
Yeah if they aren’t breaking and causing chaos its got to be boring.
Andy, side by side racing is pretty important too, not much of that last night
Much better effort for Keith tonight thought the result doesn’t show it. Ran up among the top 5 for quite a while. Contact in the 3 wide likely knocked the toe in from the hit and the car looked very tight towards the end. One more shot, this is much higher competition than the Bowl. He’s not doing terrible.
When they went 3 wide it definitely looked like Keith turned right on LaPerle and LaPerle knew it after by giving him the cut throat sign across his neck. Tomorrow night is going to be interesting if he returns the favor.
Keith turned right after bumping into the car on the inside. LaPerle will likely watch the video and see. I wonder if his spotter alerted him that on that corner exit they were 3 wide which is likely why Rocco came up. Rocco can be a hard nosed rough driver, but I have never seen him turn right and intentionally junk someone especially for minimal contact like that. Rocco was a pinball in a very tight spot right there. That’s part of the racing game, sadly the 91 went for a ride but I would promise you it wasn’t intentional. There was no reason for it to be so.
. If Rocco was gettin pinballed that bad he couldn’t control his car he should have lifted… But I blame the spotter for not letting him know they were 3 wide on exit of 4 and had the whole front stretch to counter before he turned right going into 1. laperle has been known up in Canada to returning favors.
Typical ACT racing – start up front & finish up front. ACT is a shell of what it used to be.