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Alan Ward photo
Barre, VT — The American-Canadian Tour will wrap up the 2022 season with the three-race Southern New England Swing throughout three Saturdays in October. These final three events in Connecticut and Massachusetts will wrap up the Tour’s 37th season of Championship Stock Car Racing in a new and exciting way. It all starts this Saturday, October 8th with the Sunoco World Series 75 at Thompson Speedway.
Following last weekend’s non-point, three-segment Vermont Milk Bowl at Thunder Road, the American-Canadian Tour regulars are ready to settle back into the championship season starting with Thompson Speedway. The 2022 Sunoco World Series 75 will be the 15th American-Canadian Tour event in the sanctioning body’s illustrious history. The ‘Irish Angel,’ Maine’s Dick McCabe won the first event for the Tour when it was still under the NASCAR banner in 1981 with ACT’s Iron Man, Quebec’s Claude Leclerc, getting the first official American-Canadian Tour win on the Thompson highbanks in 1986.
After a 22-year drought, the stars and cars of the ACT Tour returned to Thompson for the Sunoco World Series back in 2015. That famous and emotional event has proven to be eight-time champion and all time wins leader Brian Hoar’s final ACT start as he walked away with his 42nd win. In the six events since, Thompson has proved to be anyone’s best guess as far as the winner’s circle goes. Those with plenty of experience on the 5/8-mile oval and those without have both had their day in the sun.
The most recent of those sunbathers was former ACT Rookie of the Year Derek Gluchacki. Gluchacki cut his Late Model teeth on the Thompson highbanks and has been pulling a full-time double duty schedule in 2022 both on the Tour and locally at Thompson. The current track Late Model point leader stole away his first American-Canadian Tour win at his hometrack last year and seems poised to make it two-in-a-row as he tries to battle back in the Tour standings.
Top Rookie Alexendre ‘Fireball’ Tardif is ready to make his third attempt at taking the Thompson Speedway win after taking on both the local championship event and the ACT World Series feature back in 2019. Tardif has rolled an up-and-down season in his first full turn on the American-Canadian Tour and looks to use Thompson to shore up his second-place points run.
D.J. Shaw has taken down three wins in Pro All Stars Series competition at Thompson Speedway over the years but has yet to take down an American-Canadian Tour win at the second-largest circuit on the Tour. Shaw has been on a roll with two wins in 2022 and currently stands atop the heap, 168 points ahead of Tardif searching for his first ACT Tour championship after two consecutive seasons of runner-up awards.
With many Thompson locals on the ‘wait-and-see’ pattern with their 2022 Track Championship event on Friday, officials expect several local stars to join the ACT 75 lap fray on Saturday including Tom Carey III. However, early entries do include 2022 Seekonk Speedway Late Model champion and former Thompson Speedway winner Mark Jenison and New London-Waterford Speedbowl standout Doug Curry.
The American-Canadian Tour begins a three-race ‘Southern New England Swing’ at Thompson Speedway on Saturday, October 8th as part of the 60th Sunoco World Series presented by Budweiser. Alongside the ACT Tour 75 lap main event, the Epic Saturday showdown also features the Pro All Stars Series Super Late Models, the $10,000 to win Outlaw Open Modified Sunoco 100, the New England Supermodified Series (NESS), Round #2 of the Weston’s Automotive Triple Crown Series for the Sunoco Modifieds, Track Championship action for the local Mini Stocks, the New England Pro-4 Modified Harry Kourafas Memorial 22 and Qualifying for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Sunoco World Series 150 presented by Phoenix Communications.
The epic eight-division Saturday showdown is just $35 for adults and $10 for kids aged 12-6 with Grandstand Gates opening promptly at 12:00-noon. Three and two-day (Saturday & Sunday) tickets are also available at the gate. The 60th Sunoco World Series presented by Budweiser will be broadcast live on Racing America pay-per-view, all except for Sunday’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event which will be shown exclusively on FloRacing.
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.
For general Thompson Speedway inquiries, call (860) 923-2280, email oval@thompsonspeedway.com or visit www.thompsonspeedway.com. You can follow Thompson Speedway on Facebook and Instagram at @ThompsonSpeedway or on Twitter at @ThompsonSpdwy.
