ACT balances tradition and novelty for 2025 campaign

While there are no big operational changes in store for the Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour in 2025, the series’ history is reason enough not to mess with success.

That’s not to say that this year’s plans lack novelty.

Fourteen points-paying races, including a third event at a staple ACT venue and a long-overdue return to one of Quebec’s paved ovals, comprise the itinerary for the Vermont-based Late Model sanctioning organization that bears the most established non-NASCAR racing brand in New England.

The new Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour schedule was unveiled around Thanksgiving, giving racers the bulk of the long New England offseason to prepare for the year ahead.

Sweeping changes are rarely in the ACT playbook, but they don’t have to be. The Tour averaged over 34 cars per event in 2024, with 43 cars taking the green flag at Oxford Plains Speedway last August. A dozen teams and eleven drivers attempted every race, and three full-timers contended for top rookie honors. While first-time champion Gabe Brown had the points race in his control at the end of the season, parity reigned supreme in the winner’s circle, with only one driver managing multiple wins all season.

The smart play would be not to change a thing.

Indeed, the biggest change this year for the venerable tour is an adjustment in branding. Heavy-equipment dealer Milton CAT was announced in February as a new entitlement sponsor for ACT’s flagship series, bringing along an enhanced logo, a modified name, and most importantly, a big boost in ACT’s already-flush championship fund.

The new schedule, meanwhile, adds one points race to last year’s baker’s dozen and keeps most of the race dates consistent on the calendar. It also maintains ACT’s decade-long working relationship with Maine’s Pro All Stars Series, the region’s premier Super Late Model touring enterprise. With some drivers running both schedules, harmonizing both tours is good business.

The season kicks off this weekend with the fifth running of the Northeast Classic at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the first of four events where ACT and PASS will share the same track for the weekend.

After the “Magic Mile,” the schedule settles into a romp through the usual itinerary of ACT-friendly bullrings: Thunder Road International Speedbowl in Vermont, White Mountain Motorsports Park and Star Speedway in New Hampshire, Oxford Plains Speedway in Maine, Seekonk Speedway in southern Massachusetts, and Autodrome Chaudière and Autodrome Montmagny in Québec.

A third Canadian venue returns to the ACT schedule in 2025, with the Tour traveling to Circuit Riverside Speedway Ste-Croix on July 5 for the Yvon Bedard 149. The ⅝-mile oval along the St. Lawrence River will host its first ACT Tour event since 2015. ACT all-star Joey Polewarczyk won the last two ACT appearances at Riverside, part of a history that goes back to ACT’s Pro Stock Tour in the early 1990s.

History, of course, is a cornerstone of ACT’s marketing, with many events bearing monikers with legacies spanning decades. The ACT Spring Green celebrates its golden anniversary at Seekonk, but this year’s race will happen outside of its namesake season for a second time since moving to the Massachusetts bullring. The first of two stops at the “Cement Palace” is now a Wednesday-night feature on June 25. Seekonk merged its early-season ACT date with June’s “Open Wheel Wednesday” for a reimagined midweek show with the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series.

WMMP hosts both August’s Midsummer Classic 250 and September’s 47th Fall Foliage 200, while Thunder Road hosts its traditional spring race and the late-summer Labor Day Classic in September. 

A long fall break is bisected by Thunder Road’s 62nd running of the Vermont Milk Bowl. While the Milk Bowl is not a points race, attendance at the historic event is necessary for ACT Tour full-timers to retain “100%-er” benefits.

Notably absent from the schedule is Thompson Speedway, which returned to the Tour itinerary in 2024 after a one-year hiatus. October’s 75-lap feature, part of Thompson’s year-ending Sunoco World Series, was the only race all year to draw fewer than 29 entries. Despite a healthy base of southern New England racers at tracks like Seekonk, Thompson and New London-Waterford Speedbowl, the 2025 season is the second time since 2014 that the Nutmeg State is unrepresented on the championship schedule.

As a result, the Brookside Equipment Sales Southern New England Triple Crown will have a new look, uniting Star’s Coastal Clash 150, June’s Spring Green and September’s Fall Foliage 200 in a mid-season miniseries.

The four PASS-ACT doubleheader weekends are a reduction from past seasons, with PASS eliminating some of the longer hauls that had been challenging for car counts. Late-season doubles at Thunder Road and Thompson are off the calendar, and the combined ACT-PASS Fall Foliage event of the last couple years has been split due to PASS’ necessary presence at Star Speedway’s Supermodified-focused Star Classic in September.

The greatest logistical challenge for ACT regulars is likely to be the June-July stretch run, with teams racing at Chaudière on Saturday, Seekonk the following Wednesday, and two more trips to Canada in the coming weeks. But with the series’ cross-border success riding on these big events, it stands to reason that ACT will pull out all the stops to help its racers manage the stress.

All in all, ACT is sticking to what has worked dating back to Tom Curley’s reign. The schedule is ACT’s most expansive since 2013, but it remains laser-focused on the venues that feature weekly Late Model racing, ensuring full fields and a strong base of competitors at each stop. ACT Late Models are the premier touring platform in Québec, and the Québec-based Série ACT is also flourishing. Support for the Canadian races has increased in the post-pandemic years, and a third date at what will be a new track for many participants is a smart move right now.

Combine that with ACT’s no-nonsense yet accountable approach to race direction, led by Scott Tapley, and the continued efforts of Tapley and multimedia ace Nick Mumley to elevate ACT’s profile in the digital realm.

Suffice it to say, both racers and fans have a lot to look forward to in 2025.

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