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Gabe Brown Wins the War to Earn American-Canadian Tour Title
Alan Ward photo
Seekonk, MA — Thirty-seven American-Canadian Tour Late Models packed the pits at Seekonk Speedway on a sunny Saturday to start the month of November. Three rounds of action-packed qualifying whittled the entries to a thirty-car starting field for the Haunted Hundred championship finale event for both the American-Canadian Tour championship and the Brookside Equipment Sales Southern New England Triple Crown.
While both DJ Shaw and Jesse Switser earned a +4 in heat race qualifiers, ACT handicap rules stipulate former winners for the season cannot start better than 10th on the grid giving multi-time Seekonk champion David Darling the pole position with a +3. Darling led the first five laps but Erick Sands powered around the King of the Cement Palace to steal the lead on lap six. Sands kept his Seacoast Truck & Auto machine on the outside groove to hold the lead as fans watched in awe at the three-wide racing behind him.
Craig Weinstein brought out the first caution on lap 12 with a quick spin in turn two, the second caution on lap 41 saw Remi Perreault do a similar pirouette on the backstretch. All the while, the top ten was stacked with American-Canadian Tour frontrunners. With just Shaw and Gabe Brown in the mathematical fight for the overall championship, Brown kept his eye on Shaw from just outside the top-10 as Shaw made moves to join the top five.
At the same time, Kasey Beattie and Tom Carey III got physical in the fight for fifth, both the top runners in the Brookside Equipment Sales Triple Crown standings. The kettle eventually got screaming hot as contact off the front nose of Beattie’s #45NH sent Carey spinning in turn three to bring out the caution on lap 46 as both cars restarted on the tail end of the field to shake up the chase.
Similar no-holds-barred racing just twenty laps later saw a white-knuckle battle between Brown, Jesse Switser and Darling explode with Darling taking the brunt of it and a hard lick to the turn three wall ending his day as the highest running Seekonk driver at the time. Brown would be sent to the rear for his involvement by race control, again throwing the point battle up in the air!
In the final circuits, Erick Sands sailed away at the front of the pack, leaving Shaw, Joey Polewarczyk, Switser, Alexendre Tardif and Jimmy Renfrew Jr. to fight amongst themselves for top-10 positions as Brown tried to power his way out of the back. Under the checkered flag, and fifty-two attempts in the record books, former Rookie of the Year Erick Sands dominated his way to a first career American-Canadian Tour win and collected the Brookside Equipment Sales Southern New England Triple Crown for good measure with Joey Pole and DJ Shaw joining him on the podium.
Even after finishing twelve spots behind, Gabe Brown earned his first career American-Canadian Tour championship by 37 points over defending champion DJ Shaw with a large group of team members, family and supporters celebrating in Seekonk Speedway victory lane.
Jesse Switser and Alexendre ‘Fireball’ Tardif rounded out the top-five finishers in the Haunted Hundred for a well fought end to their 2024 seasons. Jimmy Renfrew Jr. returned to the Sullivan Construction #0NH machine to take sixth with Derek Gluchacki coming home seventh after fighting an ill-handling ride all afternoon. Longtime Seekonk driver Joshua Hedges took eighth with Rochester, New Hampshire’s Cam Huntress finishing ninth and former Seekonk Speedway champion Ryan Kuhn rounding out the top-10.
The American-Canadian Tour will officially end the season with the 2024 Banquet of Champions held at the Capital Plaza in Montpelier, Vermont on Saturday, December 14.
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.
