Legendre Ready for Hickory, Eyes PASS South and National Series

HICKORY, N.C. -- Steven Legendre is quickly making his mark on the southern Super Late Model scene. After his first two starts in 2010, the 17 year-old Danville High School student is proving himself to be a contender in the Pro All Stars Series Super Late Model ranks against northern stars Ben Rowe, Johnny Clark, and Brad Leighton, and southern shoes Jeff Choquette, Preston Peltier, and Jay Fogleman.

Despite their home base in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, Legendre and his crew chief-father, Kendell, have decided to tackle the PASS South schedule, running at tracks in the Carolinas, Virginia, and Tennessee. Steven is also chasing the five-race PASS National Championship from Maine to Florida, and will run a pair of PASS North events at his home track, White Mountain Motorsports Park in North Woodstock, N.H.

Legendre heads to North Carolina this week for Saturday's Easter Bunny 150 at the legendary Hickory Motor Speedway, a race that counts for both South and National points. In his two previous starts this year, Legendre drove from 20th to finish sixth in the National opener at New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway and 18th-to-third in the South lid-lifter at Dillon (S.C.) Motor Speedway.

"Hopefully we can keep it going," Legendre says. "I've never been to Hickory. I guess it's pretty bumpy, sort of like Unity [Raceway in Maine]."

While Hickory and Unity may be rough, Legendre has been nothing but smooth since he first strapped in. He won more than a dozen times in White Mountain's youth division, took a win in only six Strictly Stock starts, and was a two-time Late Model winner and the Rookie of the Year in 2008. He posted a respectable three top-tens in his first PASS North season last year, and has aligned himself with Fogleman's Shark Racing Development for 2010. He's also the lead driver for Ford Racing's Detroit-based PASS crate engine program.

The teenager finds himself fourth in the PASS National Championship standings, third in PASS South, and potentially looking at a season's worth of headlines.

"We had a good run at Dillon and New Smyrna," Legendre said. "We're doing things a little differently, but it's working. Down south, everybody runs Hamke chassis and Chevrolet engines, but we've got a Jody Lavender chassis and a Ford. I haven't been to most of the tracks we're racing on this year, but we've made it work so far. We've had a lot of help from Jody Lavender, Jay Fogleman, and Mike Delahanty from Ford Racing."

Legendre said he wants to finish in the top-five in PASS South standings, but thinks he has an even better chance at doing well in the National points. Two of the National races are at Thompson, Conn., and Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough, Me., with the finale at Newport, Tennessee. Luckily for Legendre, the South schedule goes to Newport two months before the National event and he'll be able to get some good notes for his return.

"It was important to get a good start at New Smyrna. Since the National thing is only five races, one bad race will hurt you a lot," he said. "My first top-ten last year was at Thompson, and I was running second in the 300 at Beech Ridge before we had a tire problem. We're already planning on doing all the southern races anyway, so it's not like it's going to be a problem for us to get there.

"We're off to a good start. If we have one bad week we'll have a hard time playing catch-up, but I think if we can get through Hickory we'll be in good shape."

(PHOTO: Danville, Vt.'s Steven Legendre at Dillon Motor Speedway in South Carolina. Photo coutresy www.stevenlegendre.com)

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

BREAKING NEWS: Pope Out, Dickey In at Beech Ridge

HUDSON, N.H. -- Joe Polewarczyk, Sr. confirmed on Friday afternoon that BDI Racing development driver Michael Pope of Dublin, Ga. will not be in the Joey Pole Racing entry at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough, Me. for Saturday's ACT Late Model Tour event.

Pope, a PASS South Super Late Model driver, ran as a teammate to Polewarczyk's son, Joey Jr., at last weekend's TD Banknorth 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway and, according to a BDI Racing press release on Tuesday, was scheduled to drive the same car at Beech Ridge, but will be replaced in the car by Steve Dickey instead.

Pope crashed in a consolation race at Oxford, then failed to qualify for the race in one of the last-chance events.

Dickey, of Londonderry, N.H., is a former Hobby Stock champion at Lee USA (N.H.) Speedway, and is a long-time crew member for the Polewarczyk team. Dickey competed in the Late Model class at Lee USA in 2004, and made one ACT Late Model Tour appearance at Barre's Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl in 2005.

Pope will be racing at the Red Bud 300 at Anderson Speedway in Indiana with the CRA Super Series.

"I think [Pope] learned the hard way that racing up here in the north is nothing like what he's used to down south," Polewarczyk, Sr. said. "He and Bob Dillner (of BDI Racing) decided to focus on their deal in Indiana instead this weekend.

"Steve should be good. He's a good little driver and knows these cars, so we'll have fun with him this weekend. But the focus is still on winning the ACT championship with Joey."

Polewarczyk, Jr. is currently second in ACT Late Model Tour points, 23 points behind leader Scott Payea of Milton.