Thunder Road Announces 2010 Schedule

Late Models to make appearance at Devil's Bowl

BARRE -- Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl in Barre released its event schedule for the 2010 season on Thursday. Eighteen race dates have been announced for the track, along with a date reserved on May 23 for the headline Late Model division to hold a race at the soon-to-be paved Devil's Bowl Speedway in West Haven. Details on the event are expected next week.

Among the marquee events returning to Thunder Road are the season-opening 12th annual Merchants Bank 150 on May 2 for the American-Canadian Tour, and the third annual Late Model/Modified doubleheader at the Mekkelsen RV Memorial Day Classic on May 30. The CARQUEST Vermont Governor's Cup -- which returns from a 150-lap format in 2009 to 100 laps in 2010 -- on June 24.

The ACT Tiger Sportsman Series opens its season with a 100-lap race on July 1, followed two weeks later by the Times Argus Mid-Season Championships. Other big events include the M&M Beverage Enduro 200 (August 8), the Late Model championship finale (August 26), and the Bond Auto Labor Day Classic (Sept. 5) and Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl (October 2/3) for the ACT Late Model Tour.

One noteable change is that early-June events have been moved from the traditional Thursday-night slot to Sundays. "We have decided to see if our fans and competitors feel that a couple of early-season twilight Sunday events might better fit their schedules. Recently, schools seem to be in session longer, and we are hoping that fans might enjoy the early Sunday regular point events to conclude their weekends in mid-June," said Director of Administration, Darla Hartt, in the track's official press release. Thursday events begin with the Governor's Cup 100 on June 24.

THUNDER ROAD INT'L SPEEDBOWL 2010 SCHEDULE -- BARRE, VT.

#-Day-Date-Event

1. Sun., May 2 -- Merchants Bank 150 (ACT Late Model Tour)
-- Sun., May 23 -- Devil's Bowl Speedway (Late Models)
2. Sun., May 30 -- Mekkelsen RV Memorial Day Classic (Modified Racing Series/Late Models)
3. Sun., June 13 -- Ferguson Waterworks
4. Sun., June 20 -- Harvest Equipment
5. Thu., June 24 -- CARQUEST Vermont Governor's Cup 100
6. Thu., July 1 -- ACT Tiger Sportsman Series 100
7. Sun., July 4 -- Pepsi Fireworks
8. Thu., July 8 -- Charter Communications
9. Thu., July 15 -- Times Argus Mid-Season Championships
10. Thu., July 22 -- Casella Waste Management
11. Thu., July 29 -- WDEV Radio/Calkins Portables Port-A-Potty Grand Prix
12. Thu., Aug. 5 -- Weekly Event
13. Sun., Aug. 8 -- M&M Beverage Enduro 200 (Street Stock/Warrior Special)
14. Thu., Aug. 12 -- Vermont ACE Hardware Stores
15. Thu., Aug 19 -- Weekly Event
16. Thu., Aug. 26 -- Late Model Championship Finale
17. Sun., Sept. 5 -- Bond Auto Labor Day Classic (ACT Late Model Tour)
18. Sat./Sun., Oct. 2/3 -- Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl (ACT Late Model Tour)

LaDuc Named Devil's Bowl Speedway Driver of the Year

Vermont Motorsports Magazine Driver of the Year Awards presented by Subway

Veteran stock car driver Tim LaDuc has won the Vermont Motorsports Magazine Devil's Bowl Speedway Driver of the Year Award presented by Subway, as voted by readers of Vermont Motorsports Magazine, an online news website. The popular Orwell driver finished third in 2009 championship standings in the headline 358-Modified division at Devil's Bowl Speedway in Fair Haven; LaDuc won the opening day event in May and was in the thick of the title hunt the entire year, finishing just 13 points behind Track Champion Kenny Tremont, Jr. of West Sand Lake, N.Y., a dozen points behind runner-up Todd Stone of Middlebury.

LaDuc won the VMM/Subway Devil's Bowl Speedway Driver of the Year Award by earning 39% of the votes registered at Vermont Motorsports Magazine during a one-week open poll. Tremont finished second in the balloting with 19% of the vote, while Stone was third with 15%. Two-time Budget Sportsman winner C.V. Elms, III of North Haverhill, N.H. ranked high among the 14 drivers on the ballot, as Six-Cylinder Mini Stock champion Kayla Bryant of Rutland and Pro Street Stock champion Cale Kneer of Troy, N.Y.

Voting for the Vermont Motorsports Magazine Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl Driver of the Year Award presented by Subway is now open through 11:59pm on Sunday, November 22. Nominees on the 15-driver Thunder Road ballot include Late Model Track Champion Jean-Paul Cyr, Tiger Sportsman Champion Jimmy Hebert, and Street Stock Rookie of the Year Tucker Williams.

Driver of the Year polls will be held at the Vermont Motorsports Magazine website throughout the month of November; to vote, visit http://vtmotormag.blogspot.com. The VMM Driver of the Year Awards are presented by Subway of Barre, Montpelier, Waterbury, and Northfield. For more information on Subway, visit www.subway.com.

(PHOTO: VMM/Subway Devil's Bowl Speedway Driver of the Year Tim LaDuc. Photo by Dave D'Alessandro/CVRA)

ACT Late Model Tour Releases Partial 2010 Schedule

Tour returns to Québec; Director Curley asks for earlier start times

WATERBURY -- The American-Canadian Tour released most of its 2010 Late Model Tour schedule earlier this week, with 13 confirmed dates at nine venues in New England, New York, and Québec. Two more dates are expected to be added this month, according to the series' official press release.

Tentatively, the ACT Late Model Tour will open its season for the third-straight year at Lee USA (N.H.) Speedway, on April 18. The series then travels to Malta, N.Y. on April 25 for its first-ever visit to Albany-Saratoga Speedway, which is currently undergoing a major transformation from a clay surface to asphalt.

Barre's Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl will host three events, while Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh, N.Y. and Oxford Plains (Me.) Speedway will each have a pair of races. Single events will also be held at White Mountain Motorsports Park in North Woodstock, N.H., Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough, Me., Twin State Speedway in Claremont, N.H., and Riverside Speedway in Ste-Croix, Qué. Two dates have been reserved for non-championship events: the TD Bank 250 at Oxford Plains on July 18 and the third-annual "Showdown at Chaudière", an all-star race for the ACT Late Model Tour and Série ACT-Castrol, at Autodrome Chaudière in Vallée-Jonction, Qué. on August 28.

POINTS OF INTEREST

--No mention of a return date to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H. was made in the ACT press release, although it is widely believed that an announcement will be made in the near future. NHMS hosted the first-ever ACT Invitational, a 50-lap, non-points event, on Saturday, Sept. 19 during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series' Sylvania 300 weekend. The spectator crowd, estimated by some near 40,000, was reported to be one of the track's most successful Saturday draws in its 20-year history.

--The 200-lap event at Riverside Speedway (formerly Circuit Ste-Croix) on August 14 marks the first championship-counting ACT Late Model Tour event in Québec since a race at Autodrome St-Eustache in July 2007. The "Can-Am Confrontation by the Seaway" at Riverside will also be a combination event for ACT's two touring series, and is the first race since the 2007 St-Eustache event that will award championship points for both the U.S.-based ACT Late Model Tour and the Canadian-based Série ACT-Castrol. Riverside's 5/8-mile layout is the largest that either series will compete on in 2010.

--ACT president Tom Curley has asked track promoters to be conscientious of traveling race teams and fans in the upcoming season. "For 2010 ACT feature events, we have requested that the features be started no later than 8:30pm," said Curley. "We continue to try and accommodate the fans and teams of ACT racing in our efforts to make the tours friendlier to compete in and to attend." Some events were negatively effected by late start times in 2009, including a 100-lap feature at Twin State Speedway in September that began just before 11:30pm.

--Big Bigelow of the Caledonian-Record (Vt.) is reporting that there will be no "Pick 10" championship format in 2010, and that all point-counting events on the schedule will count toward the ACT Late Model Tour championship.

--Two tracks that have hosted multiple ACT Late Model Tour events, Connecticut's Waterford Speedbowl and Kawartha Speedway in Ontario, have not yet been included in the 2010 ACT schedule. Kawartha has held one ACT event each year since 2007, while Waterford rejoined the schedule in 2008 and '09 after a four-year absence; Waterford recently staved off foreclosure for the second time. Both tracks operate with a weekly Late Model division under ACT-legal rulebooks.

--The 100-lap event at Albany-Saratoga will be the 200th championship-counting race for the ACT Late Model Tour, which began in 1992.

--Two major events at Thunder Road -- the Merchants Bank 150 and the Bond Auto Labor Day Classic 200 -- remain on the ACT Late Model Tour schedule. The third event, however, will not be the Mekkelsen RV Memorial Day Classic, as it was in 2009, but rather the Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl, which closes the ACT championship on October 2/3.

ACT LATE MODEL TOUR 2010 SCHEDULE (as of Nov. 9, 2009)

#-Day-Date-Track-Location-Laps

1. Sun., April 18 -- Lee USA Speedway, Lee, N.H. -- 150
2. Sun., April 25 -- Albany-Saratoga Speedway, Malta, N.Y. -- 100
3. Sun., May 2 -- Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl, Barre -- 150
4. Sat., May 8 -- Airborne Speedway, Plattsburgh, N.Y. -- 100
5. Sun., May 16 -- Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Me. -- 150
6. Sat., June 19 -- Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Me. -- 150
7. Sat., June 26 -- White Mountain Motorsports Park, North Woodstock, N.H. -- 150
-- Sun., July 18 -- Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Me. -- 250 (non-points)
8. Sat., July 24 -- Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough (Portland), Me. -- 150
9. Fri., July 30 -- Twin State Speedway, Claremont, N.H. -- 100
10. Sat., Aug. 14 -- Riverside Speedway, Ste-Croix (Québec City), Qué. -- 200 (Tour/Castrol combo)
-- Sat., Aug. 28 -- Autodrome Chaudière, Vallée-Jonction, Qué. -- 200 (non-points)
11. Sun., Sept. 5 -- Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl, Barre -- 200
12. Sun., Sept. 12 -- Airborne Speedway, Plattsburgh, N.Y. -- 300
13. Sat./Sun., Oct. 2/3 -- Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl, Barre -- 150

Placey Voted Bear Ridge Speedway Driver of the Year

Vermont Motorsports Magazine Driver of the Year Awards presented by Subway

Stock car racer Tom Placey has won the Vermont Motorsports Magazine Bear Ridge Speedway Driver of the Year Award presented by Subway, as voted by readers of Vermont Motorsports Magazine, an online news website. The 25 year-old won the 2009 Hornet division championship at the 1/4-mile Bear Ridge Speedway dirt track in his hometown of Bradford on the strength of a whopping 11 feature event victories in 17 starts.

Placey won the VMM/Subway Bear Ridge Speedway Driver of the Year Award by earning an impressive 51% of the votes registered at Vermont Motorsports Magazine during a one-week open poll. Limited Late Model champion Dan Eastman of Thetford Center finished second in the balloting with 17% of the vote, while Piermont, N.H. driver Chris Donnelly, a six-time winner in the headline Sportsman Modified class, was third with 8% of the vote. Other high-ranking drivers among the 15 nominees on the poll included Sportsman Modified champion Gary Siemons, Sportsman Coupe champion Josh Harrington, and Hornet Queen champion Misty Bell.

Voting for the Vermont Motorsports Magazine Devil's Bowl Speedway Driver of the Year Award presented by Subway is now open through 11:59pm on Sunday, November 15. Drivers on the Devil's Bowl nomination roster include Modified track champion Kenny Tremont, Jr., Budget Sportsman star Frank Hoard, III, and Pro Street Stock champion Cale Kneer.

Driver of the Year polls will be held at the Vermont Motorsports Magazine website throughout the month of November; to vote, visit http://vtmotormag.blogspot.com/. The VMM Driver of the Year Awards are presented by Subway of Barre, Montpelier, Waterbury, and Northfield. For more information on Subway, visit http://www.subway.com/.

(PHOTO: VMM/Subway Bear Ridge Speedway Driver of the Year Tom Placey. Photo by Justin St. Louis/VMM)

ACT Releases 2010 Castrol Series Schedule

WATERBURY -- The American-Canadian Tour announced a 12-race schedule for the Série ACT-Castrol, the Québec/Ontario-based sister series to the ACT Late Model Tour, on Tuesday. Included on the schedule is the "Can-Am Confrontation by the Seaway" at Riverside Speedway in Ste-Croix, Qué., a 200-lap combination championship event for the Série ACT-Castrol and ACT Late Model Tour on August 14. The last point-counting combination event for the two series was at Autodrome St-Eustache in 2007.

The 2010 Castrol schedule opens and closes at St-Eustache near Montréal, with a 100-lapper on May 22 and the annual St-Eustache 300 on September 26. The series will travel twice each to Autodrome Montmagny and Autodrome Chaudière, has a total of three each events at Riverside at St-Eustache, and will make single stops at Captial City Speedway in Ottawa, Ont. and the quirky Autodrome St-Félicien in the Lac St-Jean region of northern Québec. Dates have also been reserved for the TD Bank 250 at Maine's Oxford Plains Speedway on July 18 and the third-annual "Showdown at Chaudière" all-star race on August 28. A return to New Hampshire Motor Speedway is also expected for 2010, which would include several Série ACT-Castrol drivers.

Donald Theetge of Boischatel, Qué. beat Patrick Laperle by one point to win the Série ACT-Castrol championship in 2009. Trampas Demers of South Burlington competed in seven events in 2009 and finished 15th in points, while Milton's Brent Dragon became the first American-born driver to win a Castrol race when he took an event at Riverside in June. The 12-race slate for 2010 is the longest schedule for the series in three years, after a nine-event campaign this year and just eight races in 2008.

SÉRIE ACT-CASTROL 2010 SCHEDULE

#-Day-Date-Track-Location-Laps

1. Sat., May 22 -- Autodrome St. Eustache, St-Eustache (Montréal), Qué. -- 100
2. Sat., May 29 -- Autodrome Montmagny, Montmagny, Qué. -- 100
3. Sat., June 5 -- Autodrome Chaudière, Vallée-Jonction, Qué. -- 150
4. Sat., June 12 -- Capital City Speedway, Ottawa, Ont. -- 100
5. Sat., June 19 -- Riverside Speedway, Ste-Croix (Québec City), Que. -- 100
6. Sat., July 3 -- Autodrome Montmagny, Montmagny, Qué. -- 250
7. Sat., July 10 -- Autodrome St-Félicien, St-Félicien, Qué. -- 135
-- Sun., July 18 -- Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Me. -- 250 (non-points)
8. Mon., July 26 -- Riverside Speedway, Ste-Croix (Québec City), Que. -- 100
9. Sat., July 31 -- Autodrome St. Eustache, St-Eustache (Montréal), Qué. -- 100
10. Sat., Aug. 7 -- Autodrome Chaudière, Vallée-Jonction, Qué. -- 150
11. Sat., Aug. 14 -- Riverside Speedway, Ste-Croix (Québec City), Que. -- 200 (Castrol/Tour combo)
-- Sat., Aug. 28 -- Autodrome Chaudière, Vallée-Jonction, Qué. -- 200 (non-points)
12. Sun., Sept. 26 -- Autodrome St. Eustache, St-Eustache (Montréal), Qué. -- 300

Vermont Motorsports Magazine "Driver of the Year" Voting to Begin Monday

VMM Driver of the Year Awards presented by Subway

Voting for the first-ever Vermont Motorsports Magazine "Driver of the Year" awards opens on Monday, November 2. The awards have been created to recognize the efforts of stock car drivers in and around the Green Mountain State, and selections will be made by fan votes from a list of nominees in five categories. The Driver of the Year awards will be presented by Subway of Barre, Montpelier, Waterbury, and Northfield.

The awards will be given in the following categories: one each for the fan-voted Driver of the Year at Bear Ridge Speedway in Bradford, Devil's Bowl Speedway in West Haven, and Thunder Road International Speedbowl in Barre; one "On The Road" award for a Vermont driver that competes on a touring series or at an out-of-state track; and one final award for the Vermont Motorsports Magazine 2009 Driver of the Year presented by Subway.

Among the 15 nominees for Bear Ridge Speedway Driver of the Year are Sportsman Modified champion Gary Siemons of Orford, N.H., Sportsman Coupe champion Josh Harrington of Topsham, and Limited Late Model champion Dan Eastman of Thetford Center. Devil's Bowl Speedway's 14 nominees include Modified champion Kenny Tremont, Jr. of West Sand Lake, N.Y., five-time Budget Sportsman winner Frank Hoard, III of Manchester, and Pro Street Stock champion Cale Kneer of Troy, N.Y. Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl's 14 nominees include Late Model champion Jean-Paul Cyr of Milton, Tiger Sportsman champion Jimmy Hebert of Williamstown, and Street Stock Rookie of the Year Tucker Williams of Hyde Park.

"On The Road" nominees include American-Canadian Tour champion Brian Hoar of Williston, St. Johnsbury's Stacy Cahoon, the Late Model champion at New Hampshire's White Mountain Motorsports Park, and multi-track stars Chris Riendeau of Ascutney, Josh Sunn of White River Junction, and Chris Wilk of Mendon. The nominees for the final 2009 Driver of the Year award will be the top vote-getters from each of the four individual categories, vying for the title as Vermont's top stock car racer.

"There are hundreds of talented drivers racing in and around our state that give race fans so much satisfaction every summer. Now the fans have a chance to give back to the drivers," said VMM Editor Justin St. Louis. "Every one of the racers nominated deserves recognition, but it should be very interesting to see who the fans select as the final nominees for the overall Driver of the Year award."

Voting for the Driver of the Year awards begins on Monday, November 2. Voting will be open for one week in each category, with the final Vermont Motorsports Magazine 2009 Driver of the Year presented by Subway award vote open from Monday, November 30 to Sunday, December 6. Winners will be announced following the final tallying of fan votes.

Founded in February, Vermont Motorsports Magazine is the unofficial home for online news in asphalt and dirt stock car racing in and around the Green Mountain State, covering events at all three Vermont tracks as well as facilities throughout New England and upstate New York. VMM can be found at http://vtmotormag.blogspot.com/, and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/vtmotormag. For more information on Subway, visit http://www.subway.com/.

ACT Not Likely to Visit Devil's Bowl in 2010

WEST HAVEN -- The American-Canadian Tour announced in August that it would hold its first event on the born-again Albany-Saratoga Speedway asphalt in 2010, and ACT President Tom Curley has been overheard saying his series will visit "one or two" new tracks next year.

But don't expect Devil's Bowl Speedway in West Haven to be one of them.

Devil's Bowl, the sister track to Albany-Saratoga under the CVRA umbrella, has begun the transtition from dirt to a new asphalt surface, but, according to Curley, won't host the ACT Late Model Tour. At least not this year.

"The [Devil's Bowl] announcement was a big surprise to me," Curley said on Monday. "We have not talked about an ACT race there [with promoter Jerry Richards] and our schedule for 2010 is very full on both sides of the border already. In fact [we] plan to announce it within a couple of weeks, along with the rules."

Curley was at Albany-Saratoga on Sunday to watch an asphalt race and take notes in preparation for his series' first visit at the track. While the Devil's Bowl bombshell was unexpected, he did leave the door open for the future.

"It certainly is interesting news and obviously ACT would consider being part of their future plans," Curley said.