Touring Series News
Riverside, ACT To Honor John Clark With Tiger Memorial 101
PHOTO: Riverside Speedway and ACT honor the late John Clark with a 101-lap Tiger Tour race on Saturday. (File photo)
GROVETON, N.H. -- Riverside Speedway and the American-Canadian Tour will honor one of their own on Saturday with the first annual “John Clark Memorial 101”, the final event for the Bond Auto/WIX ACT Tiger Tour.
For more than 35 years, Williamstown, Vt., native Clark was a popular figure in the Flying Tiger and Tiger Sportsman divisions at Thunder Road Int’l Speedbowl in Barre and Riverside in Groveton, N.H. Clark was a track champion at Riverside and also won ACT Tiger Tour races at Airborne (N.Y.) Speedway and Canaan Fair (N.H.) Speedway. He passed away in December 2009 after a battle with cancer.
Riverside promoter Jean LeBlanc named the race in Clark’s honor, and LeBlanc and ACT/Thunder Road president Tom Curley announced on Monday that the race distance would changed to 101 laps as a tribute to Clark’s long-time car number, 01.
“Johnny was the guy that turned me from a mid-pack racer into a front-runner,” said LeBlanc, who raced against Clark at Riverside for several years. “He helped me with things like suspension, but he also helped me become a better driver. He did that with everybody. Johnny was just the nicest guy and such a great racer for so many years.”
LeBlanc said that the idea for the 101-lap tribute came at the urging of area race fans. “Tom Curley and I couldn’t believe we didn’t think of it ourselves, but it just shows how much our fans loved him,” said LeBlanc. “He was the best.”
Jason Bonnett of St. Albans holds a slim nine-point advantage (250-241) over Hinesburg’s Tom Therrien entering the ACT Tiger Tour finale. Therrien won the opening round of the four-race series at White Mountain (N.H.) Motorsports Park in June, while Bonnett won the most recent event at Canaan in August. Tony Rossi, who last weekend was crowned the 2010 Thunder Road Tiger Sportsman champion, sits third overall, 38 points behind Bonnett. Joe Steffen won the series’ event at Thunder Road in July.
The $1,000-to-win John Clark Memorial 101 is part of Riverside’s “Fall Free For All” which includes a 100-lap Late Model race, a 50-lap Street Stock feature, and 100-lap Enduro. Racing begins at 1:00pm on Saturday.
