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Alan Ward photo
Barre, VT — This Saturday, August 27th the American-Canadian Tour is ready to roll back down Route 26 in Oxford, Maine to Oxford Plains Speedway for one of the biggest weekends of the season. The ACT Tour headlines a packed Saturday ‘Night Before the 250’ program alongside the New England Supermodified Series, Modified Racing Series and more! Following last Saturday’s CAN-AM 200 at Quebec’s Autodrome Montmagny, the American-Canadian Tour is halfway through a grueling three-week grind at three unique racetracks with teams ready to settle back into familiar territory at the Vacationland home of ACT.
Following his $4,000 third-place finish on Saturday, Center Conway, New Hampshire’s D.J. Shaw has an iron stronghold on the season long points standings. Although the star has had only two podium finishes this season, Shaw’s worse finish was ninth at Vermont’s Thunder Road in May and holds an average finish of 5th after seven events. Even more staggering, since teaming up with Arny Hill in 2020, the A.H. Fence Ford Mustang has had just one finish outside the top-10 in nearly thirty events together. Being at the Shaw and Blood family hometrack on Saturday, the Oxford Plains 125 may be one of D.J.’s most meaningful wins if the combo can pull it off.
Shaw’s closest competitor is leading Rookie of the Year candidate Alexendre ‘Fireball’ Tardif who currently stands 124-points behind in second on the standings. Tardif has been on a tare in his inaugural full-fledged American-Canadian Tour season since getting his first top-5 at Autodrome Chaudiere in June. Tardif nabbed his first podium with a third-place trophy at the last Oxford 125-lap event in July, backing it up with his first runner-up finish at Montmagny on Saturday. By our count, Tardif is missing just one trophy on his mantle and he may just snag his first ACT gold on Saturday.
Once again in search of a comeback, Blainville, Quebec’s Jonathan Bouvrette is on the hot seat. Bouvrette’s absolute rollercoaster season has seen the highest of highs and lowest of lows. After traveling to the first three events of the year, the #41QC failed to start each event from early wrecks and part failures. Then he was right back on top, taking the Claude Leclerc 150 at Autodrome Chaudiere in June and a top-10 at Oxford in July. After his hard wreck with teammate, and friend, Mathieu Kingsbury at Montmagny on Saturday, he’s still pushing hard to have everything together in time.
Along with all the Tour regulars, including Erick Sands, Cody LeBlanc, Derek Gluchacki and the Swallow Brothers, many familiar faces are expected to join in on the fun. Senoia, Georgia’s Bubba Pollard is returning to American-Canadian Tour competition alongside pseudo-teammate Mike Hopkins in his own bad-fast Port City mount. North Haverhill, New Hampshire’s Ryan Olsen will be on the hunt for his first ACT win while young Tanner Woodard, the Thunder Road and White Mountain Flying Tiger star, is looking to gain some more experience behind the wheel of his family-owned Late Model. New Gloucester, Maine’s Dave MacDonald returns to his Oxford Plains Speedway home track along with a litany of others.
The American-Canadian Tour returns to Maine’s Oxford Plains Speedway for the eighth event of the 2022 season with the Oxford Plains 125 on Saturday, August 27th. A large field of international stars is expected to battle hard as the American-Canadian Tour headlines the ‘Night Before the 250’ program on Saturday of the 49th annual Oxford 250 weekend. Joining the Stars and Cars of the American-Canadian Tour will be an absolutely stacked program including the New England Supermodified Series, Modified Racing Series, New England Dwarf Car Series, PASS Modifieds Wicked Good Vintage Racing Association, Oxford Street Stocks and Limited Sportsman.
Pit Gates open Saturday at 8:00am with Post Time at 4:00pm. Pit Passes are set at $50 on Saturday while General Admission is $35 for adults, $15 for juniors with three-day prices for both Pits and Grandstands available at the Oxford Plains Speedway gates.
For more information about the American-Canadian Tour, contact the ACT offices at (802) 244-6963, media@acttour.com, or visit www.acttour.com. You can also get updates on Facebook and Twitter at @ACTTour.
