The ACT Thompson 75 certainly lived up to its top billing at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park.
Jimmy Hebert held off all challengers to take his first win at Thompson. The Williamstown, Vermont native took the checkers by 2.1 seconds over Woody Pitkat.
Over the final three restarts, Hebert and Ryan Kuhn spent several laps side-by-side racing for the top spot. Due to American-Canadian Tour rules mandating that the leader restart on the inside, Kuhn, the second-place driver on each restart, was able to drive off in the preferred lane at Thompson.
“I was probably madder than the ones actually wrecking,” Hebert said of the late-race yellows. “It would take me four or five laps for my tires to come up to get enough dig on the bottom to get by [Kuhn]. I knew once I could, I could set sail, but I was just hoping for not a caution with three to go.”
The two swapped the lead six times over the final 25 laps. Each time Kuhn appeared to have the lead in hand, however, Hebert was able to drive back on the bottom of the racetrack after a few laps and retake the top spot.
“I knew the outside lane was the place to be,” he said. “I was trying to be as clean as I could… In [turn] three I could kill everyone on the bottom, it seemed like. I just slid off the brake and the car rolled right by him.”
Kuhn got bumped back to fifth on the final sprint to the finish line, but that doesn’t deter him going forward this season.
“It gives me a lot of confidence,” Kuhn said. “Moves us up in the points a bit… If I could do anything different, it would be to time the restarts a little bit better, but other than that, I don’t think I could do much different.
“We got a killer motor in the car, and it feels like it pulls down the straightaway.”
The full results can be found below:
- Jimmy Hebert
- Woody Pitkat
- Bryan Kruczek
- Scott Payea
- Ryan Kuhn
- Jonathan Bouvrette
- Rich Dubeau
- Derek Gluchacki
- William Wall
- Ryan Morgan
- Jake Johnson
- Dylan Payea
- Mathieu Kingsbury
- Nicholas Johnson
- Christopher Pelkey
- Stephen Donohue
- Claude Leclerc
- Michael Wray
- Peyton Lanphear
- Mike Benevides
- Jason Larivee Jr.
- Reilly Lanphear
- Tom Rosati
- Matt Lowinski-Loh
- Tom Carey III
- Trent Goodrow
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