Montmagny, QC — The international showdown for the American-Canadian Tour at Autodrome Montmagny sent teams in droves from both the province of Quebec and the Northeast United States. The CAN-AM 200 attracted thirty-six teams in all, breaking the record for the highest car count at Montmagny in their twenty-seventh season of competition just outside Quebec City.

Following heat race and consolation round qualifying, heavy rains moved in with a track drying effort allowing the field to go green after 9:30pm. The thirty-six-car-field was scored under caution until the green flag flew on lap 30 with a dried track ready for racing action. Quebec City’s Dany Gariepy and William Larue brought the field to green with Gariepy leading the early goings over Larue, ACT rookie Jeremy Sorel and defending champion D.J. Shaw. The field spread out across the 3/8-mile oval prior to the first caution on lap 41 for fire under the hood of Erick Sands’ Seacoast Truck & Auto machine.

Gariepy faced heavy lap traffic on his way to the lap 101 competition caution but held true to the halfway point in a long green-flag run. On the return to green following the five-minute competition caution, a pair of champions stared down Gariepy from behind. Serie ACT Quebec champion, and point leader, Raphael Lessard and defending ACT champion D.J. Shaw re-entered the picture in Gariepy’s rear-view mirror. Lessard made the move under Gariepy to steal the lead on lap 105 and stared down a grueling 95 lap run to the finish.

That run would slow under caution for a lap 136 backstretch dust-up between Maxime Gauvreau and Serie ACT Quebec rookie Vincent Rivard. While Lessard took off with the restart, Gabe Brown, Shaw and Louis-Philippe Lauzier dug deep for a three-wide battle for third through turn two and across the backstretch. As the drive continued, not even lane-switching lapped traffic fazed Lessard as he continued to grow his lead over Gariepy and Brown.

The last thing Raphael Lessard wanted to see was the flashing of a yellow light with the caution coming on lap 188 for Jonathan Desbiens as he sat facing the wrong direction atop turn two. Lessard launched on the restart leaving Brown and Gariepy to battle for second with Shaw, Lauzier and Will Larue fighting for fourth and a chance to catch a podium position. Larue would overdrive turn three to spin himself on lap 195 to call out the final caution and one last chance for Brown and Gariepy. Raphael Lessard kept pace at the front of the pack over the final five laps to claim his second career $10,000 CAN-AM 200 win with the American-Canadian Tour followed by first-time ACT podium finisher Dany Gariepy and Gabe Brown in third.

Former Serie ACT Quebec champion Alex Labbe finished fourth with Louis-Philippe Lauzier rounding out the top five. Defending CAN-AM 200 victor Derek Gluchacki took sixth followed by D.J. Shaw, Patrick Cliche, Jesse Switser and Michael Lavoie in the top-ten.

The American-Canadian Tour returns to action on Saturday, August 3rd with the 7th annual Milton CAT Midsummer Classic 250 at White Mountain Motorsports Park in N. Woodstock, New Hampshire. The $10,000 to win, 250 lap affair has quickly become one of the most popular events in New England and American-Canadian Tour teams from across the Northeastern United States and Quebec are expected to make a run for the win on Saturday, August 3.

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.

The CAN-AM 200

Autodrome Montmagny – Montmagny, QC

Saturday, July 20, 2024

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS

1. 48QC Raphael Lessard St-Joseph, QC

2. 37QC Dany Gariepy Quebec City, QC

3. 47NH Gabe Brown Center Conway, NH

4. 21L Alex Labbe St-Albert, QC

5. 72QC Louis-Philippe Lauzier St-Pacome, QC

6. 03MA Derek Gluchacki Dartmouth, MA

7. 04VT DJ Shaw Center Conway,NH

8. 44QC Patrick Cliche Levis, QC