Dave Whitcomb will rejoin the American-Canadian Tour for the first time in five years as the 2009 season begins at New Hampshire's Lee USA Speedway in just over a month. Whitcomb was the inaugural ACT Late Model Tour champion in 1992, and has track titles at Barre's Thunder Road and Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh, N.Y. He says he'll try to make the most of a run at the full ACT schedule after a five-year layoff from full-time Tour participation, when he finished eighth in point standings in 2004."We're going to hit the opener at Lee, and then there's Thunder Road and the first race at Airborne, so why not try it?" said the Essex Junction driver. "We'll start the season and see how it goes."
Whitcomb has been racing for over 35 years; he notched his first career victory at the former Catamount Stadium in Milton in 1973, and his name has long been synonymous with Vermont's top asphalt racing stars. He said the bulk of his focus will remain on the weekly Thursday-night events at Thunder Road, but like so many Late Model racers in the northeast, there is now one more big goal: the inaugural ACT Invitational at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in September.
"I kind of want to go just to have a good time at (touring)," he said. "I'm still putting my heart into Thunder Road, and besides, that's where (sponsors) Ferguson Waterworks and Sun Ray Security and Vermont Central Vacuum want me to race... But I'd like to try to go to New Hampshire if we can get into that. That's a big deal."
Whitcomb has two ACT Late Model Tour victories to his credit, the first coming during his 1992 championship season at Maine's Beech Rodge Motor Speedway, the second in perhaps the most memorable ACT race of all-time in a three-wide photo finish at Airborne Speedway's 1996 Fall Foliage 200. Whitcomb won the regular season finale at Thunder Road in August for his 20th career "weekly" Late Model feature victory.
(Photo Courtesy Thunder Road)
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