Barre, VT — Of the many incredible performances on the American-Canadian Tour this summer, Officials had to choose just five events that stood out among all others. 2024 was ultra-competitive with the ACT Tour seeing just one repeat winner in fourteen events, including the non-point Vermont Milk Bowl presented by Northfield Savings Bank! In those fourteen events, four deserving first time winners stood tall to showcase a growing field of young talent that is sure to keep Northeast race fans on their toes for years to come, several of them making their mark at our end of the season wrap up!

Saturday, May 4 – Thunder Road Int’l Speedbowl (VT) – 26th Community Bank 150

The home of the American-Canadian Tour, Barre, Vermont’s Thunder Road International Speedbowl brings us our first stop. Following the celebration of life for ACT and Thunder Road founder Ken Squier, the ACT faithful went head to head with the hardnosed local talent that calls Thunder Road home on Thursday nights in a rare under-the-lights outing on the Barre highbanks. After an incredible battle between Derrick O’Donnell and Jimmy Hebert, Marcel Gravel joined the fight in the late goings. A smash-bang affair between the three in turn four sent all three home on the wrecker and opened the doors for hometown boy Chris Pelkey with six laps remaining. Pelkey, a former full-time runner on the international tour, sped away with the 26th annual Community Bank 150 win and his first ACT checkered flag to kick off an eventual runner-up season in the track championship standings!

Saturday, June 8 – Seekonk Speedway (MA) – 49th Spring Green 124

The ACT Tour rolled into Seekonk Speedway for the 49th Spring Green 124 to kick off the month of June. A seasonably warm day made things red-hot on the track between top young-gun Gabe Brown and rookies Kaiden Fisher and Kasey Beattie. All three fought tooth and nail for the lead, often running two and three wide on the sweeping turns of the Cement Palace throughout the 124-lap contest. In the end it was Beattie that showed the way, first fending off Seekonk top-runner Jacob ‘Rowdy’ Burns then besting Brown, Fisher and Erick Sands to lead the final seventy-one laps to his first ACT victory that helped seal his bid for the Rookie of the Year title.

Saturday, August 3 – White Mountain Motorsports Park (NH) – 7th annual Milton CAT Midsummer Classic 250

The true highlight of the summer season came once again on the first weekend in August at White Mountain Motorsports Park. The 7th annual Milton CAT Midsummer Classic 250 once again did not disappoint with thirty-nine cars attempting to qualify for the $10,000-to-win contest. From the drop of the green flag it was the D.J. Shaw-show as the 2006 King of the Mountain track champion and defending ACT champion set the pace before battling with Gabe Brown towards the halfway point. In the final circuits, tires going away underneath his Bar Harbor Bank & Trust Mustang, Shaw saw a mirror full of defending track champion Kasey Beattie and former White Mountain winner Tom Carey III. In the final laps, Beattie pulled to Shaw’s rear bumper to show he was ready for anything but a bobble with Carey gave Shaw the inches he needed to become the first repeat winner in the young history of New England’s newest premier event!

Saturday, August 24 – Oxford Plains Speedway (ME) – The Oxford 125

The second event at Oxford Plains Speedway for the 2024 season blew away all expectations right from the get-go as forty-three American-Canadian Tour teams packed the pit area to headline the Saturday Night Before the Oxford 250 program! Starting on the pole, Erick Sands took off like a rocket sled on rails around the tricky Maine oval until the lap 106 caution saw Gabe Brown beat him back to the line just once. It seemed like Sands held all the cards until Derek Gluchacki made his way to the front, powering underneath to lead lap 116 and never looked back to become the only repeat winner on the ACT Tour in 2024 following his third-consecutive Northeast Classic win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in April.

Saturday, November 2 – Seekonk Speedway (MA) – The Haunted Hundred

After June’s incredible performance, the Haunted Hundred had big shoes to fill in November’s championship event and Seekonk Speedway once again did not disappoint. Back in the limelight, Derry, New Hampshire’s Erick Sands showed his growing strength behind the wheel with Seekonk’s tricky surface becoming an obvious favorite of the 2021 Rookie of the Year. Sands drove around multi-time Seekonk and Massachusetts State NASCAR Champion David Darling to lead lap 6 and never looked back to lead ninety-five laps en-route to a dominant win that also secured him the Brookside Equipment Southern New England Triple Crown and the 2024 Most Improved Driver Award!

While a midrace penalty call sent Gabe Brown to the rear, Brown never gave up and drove back up through the field to keep his points lead and nail down his first career American-Canadian Tour championship title after coming ever so close the year prior.

The American-Canadian Tour has officially closed out the 2024 season. Next week we look at our five most anticipated events of 2025 and some more exciting news as we start out the New Year in January. The 2025 Schedule of Events for the international tour is available online at www.acttour.com.

For more information about the American-Canadian Tour, contact the ACT offices at (802) 244-6963, media@acttour.com, or visit www.acttour.com. You can also get updates on Facebook and Twitter at @ACTTour.

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