30 SEASON ENTRIES FILED FOR ACT'S LATE MODEL TOUR

Courtesy Marjorie Mulligan Fay

Waterbury, VT - Thirty drivers have filed 2006 season entries for the American-Canadian Tour's 12-race Late Model series. The competitors will visit eight different tracks ranging in size from a one quarter-mile to nearly a mile. The Tour's most southern stop will be at the one-third mile Seekonk Speedway, a slightly banked but very round oval in Seekonk, MA, while the northern-most venue is in St-Croix, Quebec near Quebec City. The 5/8th mile Circuit Ste-Croix is a high-banked track with fast, long straight-aways. At either end of the straights are two tight, very different corners, which will present unique challenges to the competitors.

Fred LaGoy of Morrisonville, NY was the first to file a season-long entry for the Tour. The veteran racer opted to come out of semi-retirement after seeing the 2006 ACT schedule. Since then, Late Model racers representing all six New England states as well as New York and the Canadian province of Quebec have served notice they will race with ACT in 2006. Many are returning veterans such as five-time and defending champion, Jean-Paul Cyr, second generation racer Brent Dragon, 1992 title holder, Dave Whitcomb, 2005 runner-up Dave Pembroke and the ageless Joey Laquerre, to name a few. The young guns are represented by such notables as Roger Brown, Jamie Fisher, Patrick Laperle, Joey Becker and Scott Payea, among others.

Newcomers to the dance include Maine's Steve Reny, Bobby Baillargeon and Mike Collins from New Hampshire as well as Walter Sutcliffe from Connecticut.

The 2006 ACT Late Model Tour kicks off on Sat/Sun, April 29/20 at Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl, Barre, VT with the eighth annual Merchants Bank 150. Cyr is the only driver in the previous seven events to repeat in the annual lid-lifter. Dave Pembroke from Montpelier is the defending race winner. Thunder Road will host two additional ACT Tour shows, both part of the $10,000 to-win ACTion Super Series, the Bond Auto Labor Day Classic 200 on Sat/Sun, Sept 2/3 and the annual New England Dodge Dealers Milk Bowl, Sept 30/Oct 1.

Other tracks on the 2006 slate include the 3/8ths mile Lee (NH) USA Speedway, White Mountain Motorsports Park, a ¼ mile high banked oval in N. Woodstock, NH, and Maine's Oxford Plains Speedway. Also, the D-shaped, half-mile semi-banked Airborne Speedway, Plattsburgh, NY and Quebec's slightly banked 7/8s mile Sanair Super Speedway tri-oval will each host an event.