PHOTO: The American-Canadian Tour is headed to New Hampshire Motor Speedway twice in 2011. (Eric LaFleche/VLFPhotos.com photo)
LOUDON, N.H. — New Hampshire Motor Speedway will host the American-Canadian Tour twice in 2011, both organizations confirmed on Thursday.
The Waterbury-based Late Model series has been added to a “Short Track Saturday” program at the Loudon, N.H., superspeedway in conjunction with the IZOD IndyCar Series weekend on August 12-14; ACT will share the stage with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at the “Magic Mile” in on Saturday, August 13.
ACT will also compete at the “Magic Mile” on Saturday, September 24, 2011 at its third annual ACT Invitational, held in conjunction with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ Sylvania 300 weekend.
The 2011 season will be the first that ACT competes at the track twice in the same year. Vermont Motorsports Magazine first reported the possibility of a 2011 ACT double in August of this year.
While the format of the ACT Invitational is expected to remain the same with the 43-car starting field determined through a series of qualifying races and invitations, the August event — dubbed the “All Star” event — appears to have a more traditional format and will see teams attempting to qualify for a starting position.
The All Star event will be open to all ACT affiliate track Late Model teams in the U.S. and Canada based on four criteria. All teams must have ACT-legal equipment, must rank inside the top-15 at an ACT affiliate track by the race’s entry deadline, must officially enter the race before the set deadline, and must have their entry approved by their home track and ACT officials.
In addition, teams from the U.S.-based ACT Late Model Tour and the Quebec-based ACT Castrol Edge Series will be eligible to enter and go through the approval process, and, according to an ACT press release, each of the touring divisions will receive points from the event toward the 2011 championships.
“The past two years, the ACT Invitational has provided entertaining and exciting racing for our fans here,” said NHMS vice president and general manager Jerry Gappens. “When we added the IZOD IndyCar Series to our 2011 schedule, I wanted to make Saturday a ‘Short Track Showdown’ that showcases stars from around the northeast. The format and number of teams we expect to be at NHMS for the August 12-14 weekend is unprecedented. It should be very exciting for our fans and for the teams of the ACT.”
“Obviously, we are very excited about this announcement,” said ACT president Tom Curley. “This will certainly be different than [the] ACT Invitational race on September 24. After a couple years of watching how exciting and respectful the Late Model teams have been at New Hampshire, we wanted to give more Late Model teams an opportunity to race there. We expect to have as many as 100 teams trying to qualify for what will be a very unique short track kind of race on the ‘big track.’”
Qualifying procedures and purse details for the ACT Late Model All Star event will be released in the future.
