ACT Unveils 13-Race Late Model Tour Schedule

With a strong season in the rear-view mirror and a sense of stability on all fronts, the American-Canadian Tour had little to tweak for its 2024 campaign.

New England’s oldest continuous brand in fendered short track racing was the first touring group in the region to unveil its plans for the season ahead, with a pre-Thanksgiving news drop unveiling the bulk of the Vermont-based organization’s ACT Late Model Tour schedule.

And with a few key exceptions, the thirteen-race romp through the Northeast resembles the successful 2023 campaign that visited a diverse cluster of tracks throughout New England and the Canadian province of Quebec.

Twelve of those races are locked in at nine different tracks, all familiar territory for the crate-engined Late Models. Several weekends feature cross-promotion with the Pro All Stars Series, the region’s top Super Late Model touring organization, reflecting the close working relationship the two series have enjoyed since 2015.

Echoing the last few seasons, and perhaps ironic for a short track series, the biggest track in New England will open the 2024 ACT Tour schedule on Saturday, April 13. The Northeast Classic at New Hampshire Motor Speedway pays $5,500 to win and pairs ACT and PASS for the first of seven collaborative weekends featuring the two fendered tours. Modifieds, mini stocks and other series will join in on the festivities for a fourth year running.

After several years of hosting the all-star ACT Invitational, New Hampshire Motor Speedway has become an annual points-paying stop on the ACT Tour schedule. (STS/Jeff Brown photo)

ACT and PASS will pair up for the next event on the calendar as well, opening the season schedule for PASS’ home venue, Oxford Plains Speedway on April 28. The ACT home opener follows a week later, with Thunder Road International Speedbowl kicking off its 2024 season with the 26th running of the Community Bank N.A. 150 on the Barre, Vt. quarter-mile.

A one-week reprieve will allow teams to prepare for the first of two trips to Canada. Autodrome Chaudière, a long-time ACT partner track, hosts the Claude Leclerc 150 on May 18, paying tribute to ACT’s still-active octogenarian “Ironman.”

The historic ACT Spring Green returns to Massachusetts’ Seekonk Speedway on June 8. The 124-lap race is the first leg of this season’s Brookside Equipment Sales Southern New England Triple Crown program. Rain delayed last year’s Spring Green to the waning days of August, and the “Cement Palace” faithful will be hoping for a dry evening in June.

Star Speedway, which last hosted the Tour in 2019, welcomes ACT back for the Coastal 150 on June 22. The Coastal 150 is part of an ACT-PASS joint event, with the two series leasing the speedway and rounding out the schedule with PASS’ open-wheel support divisions. Surprisingly, the event is booked for the evening before New Hampshire Motor Speedway’s NASCAR Cup Series date, a night most tracks dare not to compete.

A month-long summer recess follows the Star race, leaving room for potential makeup events and allowing ACT officials to prepare for a long-anticipated appearance for the Superstar Racing Experience at Thunder Road. The Tour schedule resumes two days later with its second Canadian date of the year, the $10,000-to-win CAN-AM 200 at Autodrome Montmagny. The July 20 tilt marks the halfway point of the series schedule.

White Mountain Motorsports Park hosts two of the longest events on the ACT calendar, starting with the Milton CAT Midsummer Classic 250 on August 3. The second-straight $10,000-to-win race on the schedule has built itself a thrilling legacy in its short history, with home-track favorite Jesse Switser scoring the upset win in 2023.

ACT’s Maine home is Oxford Plains Speedway, where the Late Models will race twice in 2024—once in April and again on the evening before the Oxford 250. (STS/Jeff Brown photo)

Another August recess leaves room for reschedulings and builds anticipation for the first repeated track of the season. The Oxford Plains 125 on August 24 anchors a busy day of racing to set the stage for the following day’s PASS-sanctioned $25,000-to-win Oxford 250.

Thunder Road welcomes the Tour back for its second appearance of 2024, the 46th NEFCU Labor Day Classic 200 on September 1. And after two off-weekends, ACT returns to WMMP for the 46th running of the Fall Foliage 200. With PASS present at Star Speedway for the Star Classic one week before, the Fall Foliage weekend moves a week later, allowing PASS to join ACT at the North Woodstock, N.H. oval for another doubleheader.

Next on the calendar is Thunder Road’s 62nd Vermont Milk Bowl on October 6, with rounds of qualifying to be held on Saturday, October 5. The Milk Bowl does not factor into the ACT Tour points race, but as with last year, attendance is required for ACT Tour “100%-ers” to meet certain incentives.

The final confirmed date on the schedule is a return to Thompson Speedway as part of the Connecticut speedplant’s Sunoco World Series. ACT and PASS will both be a part of Saturday’s schedule on October 12, after being absent from the event altogether last year. The Sunoco World Series 75 will also be the second leg of the aforementioned Southern New England Triple Crown.

But that leaves a third leg to be determined. And to that end, the promised 13th race to round out the calendar has yet to be announced.

New London-Waterford Speedbowl hosted the ACT season finale in 2022 and 2023. October’s title tilt, co-headlined with the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series, became a Sunday-evening show after Saturday’s planned race day was rained out. Despite the rainout and the late start time, a season-high 49 cars turned out to qualify. However, the beleaguered coastal Connecticut oval’s plans for 2024 are a wildcard.

A return to Seekonk Speedway, the site of the thrilling 2021 season finale, is a speculative possibility, if ACT wants to maintain the end-of-season pairing with the Monaco Modifieds on a Southern New England track. A practical option could be to end the season at Oxford’s PASS 400 Weekend, with both ACT and PASS crowning champions on the same afternoon.

Or a mid-season option could come to fruition, leaving ACT to crown its champion on the high banks of Thompson amid the fanfare of the World Series.

Thus far, seven of last year’s ten host tracks are back on the schedule. Stafford Motor Speedway, which hosted the Tour to great fanfare in 2023, and Lee USA Speedway were casualties of the Star and Thompson additions.

Stafford welcomed the ACT organization back for the first time since the 1980s, when NASCAR sanctioned the promotional efforts of founders Tom Curley and Ken Squier. Rain washed out the track’s Spring Sizzler weekend, forcing ACT’s return to a chilly May Friday night where a cold track stymied rookies and veterans alike. Lee, back on the schedule after a one-year-hiatus, wrapped up a hectic stretch of three features in two weeks. The race itself ran without a hitch, but had the shortest starting field of a Tour event all year.

Both tracks suffered through no fault of their own. But Stafford exists in its own world, and its own established program leaves limited room for outside additions. And a standalone ACT Tour date at Lee, a track that has embraced the Pro Stock as its premier fendered class, does not fit flawlessly into the ACT model.

Also absent from the 2024 calendar is a return to Hickory Motor Speedway. The legendary North Carolina oval has hosted preseason ACT Tour visits in 2021 and 2023, but a Facebook post indicated that team preferences kept the long road trip off the calendar. ACT’s unique platform has no equal in the Southeast, forcing ACT to rely on its own home-grown teams stretching their vacation time and budget to add another race weekend.

In a region where touring racing and weekly competition are sometimes at odds with one another, ACT has struck a balance that seems to work for Tour full-timers and weekly warriors alike. Eight teams made it to all thirteen Tour races in 2023, and 142 different drivers attempted at least one start, healthy numbers for any touring series nationwide.

That balance has a certain sameness to it from year to year. But for ACT, a touring program that trades on legacy and history, sameness is part of the pitch. Dates at Thunder Road and WMMP look back upon the foundations of the Tour itself. Events like the Spring Green and Fall Foliage have stories nearly fifty years in the making. The Canadian races recall a time when ACT skipped over the international border with ease from week to week. April’s visit to the “Magic Mile” is a celebration of the pinnacle of regional racing and the ultimate goal for so many local racers. Thompson reflects the current promotional efforts of ACT’s Cris Michaud and PASS’ Tom Mayberry.

For ACT, looking back is every bit as important as looking forward.

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