53 Late Model Teams Invited to Two-Day Practice at NHMS

19 Vermonters to participate in test session

LOUDON, N.H. -- Travis Barrett of Green-White-Checker is reporting that a list of 53 Late Model teams from the American-Canadian Tour and its affiliate tracks and series have been invited to a two-day test session at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H. on Aug. 25/26.

Included on the list are 19 Vermont-based drivers, including ACT Invitational qualifying event winners Eric Williams, Scott Payea, Dave Pembroke, Brent Dragon, John Donahue, and Brian Hoar. Dragon won a Série ACT-Castrol event at Riverside Speedway in Ste-Croix, Qué. to earn his invitation, while Williams, Payea, Pembroke, Donahue, and Hoar got theirs by winning ACT Late Model Tour events.

Drivers invited from Thunder Road in Barre include point leader Jean-Paul Cyr, former track champions Phil Scott, Jamie Fisher, Cris Michaud, and Dave Whitcomb, and weekly regulars Eric Chase and Nick Sweet.

St. Johnsbury driver Stacy Cahoon has been invited from White Mountain Motorsports Park in No. Woodstock, N.H. At-large invitees from the ACT Late Model Tour include Tyler Cahoon, Chip Grenier, and Pete Potvin, III, while Série ACT-Castrol regular Trampas Demers of South Burlington has also been invited to the test.

A handful of drivers on the list have experience at the 1.058-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway, including Pembroke, Hoar, Scott, Chase, and Cyr. Pembroke and Scott were invovled in the first-ever ACT test at NHMS in April. Chase made his NASCAR Camping World Series East debut there in June, while Cyr has raced there in Camping World and Whelen Modified Tour events.

Hoar brings the most experience to the table, having won the New Hampshire Motor Speedway track championship in 2006 in the Camping World Series East division, and still holds the single-lap qualifying record for the series there, which he set in 2002.

Other notable invitees include qualifying event winners Brad Leighton, Patrick Laperle, Joey Polewarczyk, Jr., J.F. Déry, Donald Theetge, Sean Kennedy, and Eddie MacDonald, former Castrol champion Alexandre Gingras, and "potential point champions" Travis Adams of Oxford Plains (Me.) Speedway, Quinny Welch of White Mountain Motorsports Park, Guy Caron of Twin State Speedway in Claremont, N.H., Wayne Helliwell, Jr. of Lee USA (N.H.) Speedway, Bruce Thomas, Jr. of Waterford (Conn.) Speedbowl, Ryan Vanasse of Seekonk (Mass.) Speedway, and Dan McHattie of Kawartha Speedway in Fraserville, Ont.

Qualifying events are still to be held at Twin State, Thunder Road, Riverside, Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh, N.Y., Autodrome Chaudière in Vallée-Jct., Qué., and Wiscasset (Me.) Raceway. ACT officials will approve the 36 teams that will race in the ACT Invitational on Sept. 19, in conjunction with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sylvania 300 weekend, following the two-day test and qualifying events.