Derek Gluchacki wasn’t able to make either of the American-Canadian Tour shows north of the border last year. After Sunday, he has to wonder what he left on the table.
Gluchacki outdueled Mathieu Kingsbury in the final 28-lap sprint to earn the checkers in Sunday’s $10,000-to-win CAN-AM 200 at Autodrome Montmagny.
And in doing so, the North Dartmouth, Mass. contender completed an American sweep of the Tour’s two Canadian dates.
Gluchacki was among the cadre of drivers who, stymied by lingering travel restrictions across the border, were unable to commit to the ACT Tour’s points races in Canada last year. With those restrictions lifted, a stronger contingent of American racers made it to June’s race at Autodrome Chaudière, with Jimmy Renfrew, Jr. taking the win.
A similar crowd was on hand at Montmagny for only the third Tour event at the track just east of Quebec City, despite a one-day postponement due to rain. Gabe Brown nabbed the outside of the front row, but Quebec’s William Larue brought the field to green, dueling with Tour regular Jonathan Bouvrette in the opening laps.
Bouvrette poked his nose out front to take the lead on lap 70, but Larue took the top spot back on a restart. Kingsbury, who was biding his time in third, emerged as a contender after a halftime break, challenging Larue for the lead.
After starting tenth, Gluchacki came into the picture in the second half, displacing Kingsbury and testing Larue’s mettle for several laps. Larue finally yielded with 52 laps to go, with Gluchacki taking command.
Trouble for Bouvrette with 28 laps left brought out the caution and gave Kingsbury a shot at the lead, but Gluchacki was resilient, hanging on for his second points-paying ACT Tour win of 2023 and his third win of the season.
Kingsbury, a full-time Tour competitor in 2019, was second with Renfrew coming home third.
Points leader DJ Shaw overcame handling issues to finish fourth, followed by Canadian veteran and former Tour champion Patrick Laperle.
Maxime Gauvreau was sixth at the stripe. Raphael Lessard drove from the back of the pack to finish seventh, ahead of teammate Larue. Outside polesitter Brown was ninth and rookie Tanner Woodard rounded out the top ten.
Gluchacki’s win is a shot in the arm for a team that expected far more than fourth in the Tour championship standings halfway through the year. Despite a win at Hickory Motor Speedway in the pre-season lidlifter and another win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway to open the points schedule, the small team has faced enough bad luck to leave them several points back of Shaw, who remains as consistent as ever.
With Shaw still riding a top-ten streak dating back to 2021, winning is the only guarantee to make up ground in the title race. And, by a few positions, Gluchacki managed that at Montmagny.
The Montmagny race is a reassurance for ACT itself. Nine teams have attempted all seven races this year; excluding Quebecer Jonathan Bouvrette, that means eight of them have made the trip to Canada twice in 2023. The cross-border element virtually assured Shaw of last year’s championship. This year, a number of racers remain in the hunt.
For Gluchacki to gain ground, he’ll need a few more wins and some bad luck for Shaw. Only one of those can be counted on.
Fortunately for the Bay Stater’s championship hopes, he has some good tracks coming up.
Unofficial Results
American-Canadian Tour CAN-AM 200
Autodrome Montmagny
1. (03MA) Derek Gluchacki
2. (9QC) Mathieu Kingsbury
3. (00NH) Jimmy Renfrew, Jr.
4. (04VT) DJ Shaw
5. (91QC) Patrick Laperle
6. (17QC) Maxime Gauvreau
7. (48QC) Raphael Lessard
8. (55QC) William Larue
9. (60ME) Gabe Brown
10. (68NH) Tanner Woodard
11. (37QC) Dany Gariepy
12. (77NH) Bryan Wall, Jr.
13. (21QC) Alexendre Tardif
14. (78QC) Michael Lavoie
15. (72QC) Louis-Philippe Lauzier
16. (36NH) Erick Sands
17. (66QC) Simon Roussin
18. (21TN) Jean-François Déry
19. (44QC) Patrick Cliché
20. (41QC) Jonathan Bouvrette
21. (83QC) Martin Goulet
22. (19QC) Dany Trépanier
23. (31CT) Andrew Molleur
24. (33QC) Rémi Perreault
25. (31QC) Reilly Lanphear
26. (11QC) Dylan Payea
27. (15QC) Christopher Bedard
28. (54QC) Dave Coursol
29. (90QC) Zackary Fauteux
Making Gluchacki’s win that much sweeter was the $10,000 (USD) check for the victory. (Photo courtesy ACT/Christian Genest)
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