Laperle Wins Castrol Opener

ST-EUSTACHE, QUE. -- Patrick Laperle won the 2009 Serie ACT-Castrol season opener at Autodrome St-Eustache near Montreal on Sunday. The St-Denis-sur-Richelieu, Que. driver, who won the 2007 Castrol championship and 2008 ACT Late Model Tour title, won the caution-filled 100-lap event over fellow former Castrol champion Donald Theetge of Boischatel, Que. and young Brandon Watson of Stayner, Ont. Unofficially, Ontarian Pete Vanderwyst and Quebec racer Martin Lacombe completed the top five. The St-Eustache 100 was postponed one day by rain.

Laperle's victory gives him a guaranteed starting berth for the inaugural ACT Invitational at the 1-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H. this September. Laperle is the first Canadian to qualify for the race, joining Brad Leighton of Center Harbor, N.H., Eric Williams of Hyde Park, and Milton's Scott Payea. The fifth qualifier will be decided later today at Maine's Oxford Plains Speedway with the completion of the ACT Late Model Tour's New England Dodge Dealers 150.