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Alan Ward photos
Barre, VT — Not since 1985 has Stafford Motor Speedway held the American-Canadian Tour, and that all ends this Saturday afternoon. On April 29th, the modern stars and heroes of the international touring series will invade the iconic Connecticut oval during their huge annual season opener, the 51st NAPA Spring Sizzler weekend for the first time in 38 years.
The American-Canadian Tour first visited Stafford Speedway during the inaugural season of the now-45-year-old circuit way back in 1979. A hotly contested battle between Fairfax, Vermont’s Hector Leclair and Kennebunkport, Maine’s Dick McCabe in a race to the rain-cancellation saw the former take the checkered flags en route to his second-in-points season behind Beaver Dragon. McCabe, the ‘Irish Angel’ would go on to take the 1982 and 1983 Tour championships and became the bridesmaid of Stafford, never winning at the half-mile but never finishing outside the top-five at Stafford in all four events he entered during the era.
Following Leclair, fellow Vermont and Catamount Stadium-standout Mike Berry took down the 1980 win while two icons would take down the remaining three ventures for ACT at Stafford. Quebec’s all-time greatest stock car racer Jean-Paul Cabana in his iconic #5A took Stafford wins when the ACT event was part of their Fall Final weekends in 1981 and 1982 while 6-time ACT champion Robbie Crouch took down the final ACT win in 1985.
Now, 38 years later, a new crop of Northeast stars and regional heroes are ready to join the wins list. After taking down his second consecutive Northeast Classic win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway just two weeks ago, Derek Gluchacki leads the American-Canadian Tour into Stafford Speedway. Along with defending champion D.J. Shaw, former champions Jimmy Hebert, Joey Polewarczyk and Brian Hoar and multiple New England short-track champions including Jason Corliss, Brian Tagg, Quinny Welch, Gabe Brown and Stafford’s-own Adam Gray.
Alongside the ACT spectacular on Saturday, April 29th will be the NAPA Auto Parts Duels for Open Modified qualifying rounds into Sunday’s 51st Spring Sizzler, Street Stocks, Limited Late Models and the Vintage All-Stars. For full schedule and pricing visit www.staffordmotorspeedway.com.
For more information, contact the ACT offices at (802) 244-6963, media@acttour.com, or visit www.acttour.com. You can also get updates on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at @ACTTour.
