I'm doing my my best to pretend winter isn't happening, and the Mountaineers and Thunder Road/ACT are doing their part, too.
Yesterday I blogged about the Mountaineers' Hot Stove Banquet and today the 2012 ACT schedule arrived in my email. See, winter schminter.
Here's the release from the American-Canadian Tour:
"The American Canadian US Tour (ACT) 2012 schedule will feature ten (10) point-counting events at nine different tracks. In addition, there will be four ‘special’ non-point counting events that most ACT teams will put on their 2012 calendars.
Lee USA Speedway in Lee, New Hampshire will continue the tradition of opening the ACT Late Model race season with the New Hampshire Governor’s Cup 150 on Sunday, April 15, 2012.
Thunder Road Int’l Speedbowl in Barre, VT will host the 14th annual Merchants Bank 150 lap event to open the 53rd season at the “Nation’s Site of Excitement” on Sunday, April 29, 2012. Thunder Road will present a second event over Labor Day weekend with the 34th Bond Auto Labor Day Classic 200 scheduled for Sunday, September 02, 2012.
Devil’s Bowl Speedway, under the new management team of Mike and Alayne Bruno in West Haven, VT will open their season with the historic Spring Green 112 lap championship race on Sunday, May 06, 2012. The freshly paved wide half mile has become a favorite of the ACT teams over the past two years, since the conversion from dirt to asphalt.
White Mountain Motorsports Park was a charter member of the ACT Late Model touring program. Saturday, June 23, 2011 will be the 15th consecutive year that a Tour event will be held at the scenic facility in the heart of the White Mountains.
The Pine Tree State will host two events in 2012. Oxford Plains Speedway will open their season featuring a solid challenge by the very competitive weekly Late Model teams when the Tour arrives for a Sunday, May 20th 150 lap battle. Local racer, Jeff White from Winthrop, ME, stunned the ACT regular teams with a dominant win during the opening event in 2011. He went on to win the Oxford Plains Speedway Championship. The Beech Ridge Motor Speedway near the Portland seacoast will once again host a mid-summer 150 lap race on Saturday, July 28, 2012.
The Tour will head north of the border during August. A return to the SANAIR Super Speedway has teams from both the Castrol Series and the US excited for the 2012 season. The very fast tri-oval design was opened by ACT in the early mid-eighties and hosted numerous events over the decades of the 80’s and 90’s. The 100-mile combination event (also an ACT Castrol Series point race) is scheduled for Saturday, August 11, 2012. The return of the $40,000 Can-Am 200 to the 5/8th mile Circuit Riverside Speedway along the St. Lawrence River across from Quebec City will be presented on Saturday, August 25, 2012.
The final point-counting event in 2012 will again be the Fall Foliage 200 at the fabulous and very competitive half mile Airborne Park Speedway in Plattsburgh, NY. The season finale will be held on Saturday, October 06, 2012.
Teams from the ACT Late Model ranks in both the US and Canada will once again have some non-point must participate events in 2012. The TD Bank Oxford 250 will have the best Late Model teams in the region competing for the 2012 bragging rights in what has been billed as the nation’s richest one day short track event. Qualifying begins at high noon on Sunday, July 22, 2012.
The $40,000.00 5th annual Showdown at Chaudière will once again challenge the best of the ACT Castrol teams against the best of the ACT US teams. A favorite event for the season’s best competitors will take place on Saturday, September 8, 2012.
New Hampshire Motor Speedway will host NASCAR Cup Chase weekend over September 21-23, 2012. The 4th ACT Invitational will provide both weekly and ACT Tour teams with the opportunity to compete at the ‘Magic Mile’ during NASCAR Cup weekend again in 2012.
The 50th People’s United Bank Milk Bowl will take place at Thunder Road on Saturday and Sunday, September 29-30, 2012. Plans for a very special 50th Milk Bowl are already in the works, including a Late Model ‘mini-milk bowl’ for non-qualified teams.
2012 ACT US SCHEDULE
EVENT DATE DAY TRACK LAPS NOTE
1 APR 15 SUN LEE USA SPEEDWAY 150
2 APR 29 SUN THUNDER ROAD 150
3 MAY 06 SUN DEVIL’S BOWL 112
4 MAY 20 SUN OXFORD PLAINS 150
5 JUN 23 SAT WHITE MOUNTAIN 150
JUL 22 SUN OXFORD PLAINS SPEEDWAY 250 250
6 JUL 28 SAT BEECHRIDGE MOTOR SPDWY 150
7 AUG 11 SAT SANAIR SUPER SPEEDWAY 100 [combo]
8 AUG 25 SAT CIRCUIT RIVERSIDE SPDWY 200 [combo]
9 SEP 02 SUN THUNDER ROAD 200
SEP 08 SAT AUTODROME CHAUDIÈRE SHOWDOWN 200 [combo]
SEP 22 SAT NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPDWY INVITATIONAL 50
SEP 29-30 SA/SU THUNDER ROAD MILK BOWL 150
10 OCT 06 SAT AIRBORNE SPEEDWAY 200
Schedule Subject to Change"
Happy Racing Season!
-Anna Grearson