Beattie bests ACT regulars for Fall Foliage 200 victory

Saturday night wasn’t Kasey Beattie’s first Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour win. It wasn’t his first win at White Mountain Motorsports Park, either.

But after the turmoil of the last year, of the last two weeks, and even of the last 24 hours, simply standing in victory lane at his home track made it the biggest moment of his career.

Beattie stomped the field to win the Bar Harbor Bank & Trust Fall Foliage 200, his first ACT touring start in a year. And while perseverance was the name of the game for the extra-distance race, there were times Saturday where the St. Johnsbury, Vt. driver felt like common sense was saying otherwise.

“It was, all signs led to ‘just pull the plug,’” Beattie said, “and my guys just never gave up and kept the work going all day.

“I can’t be thankful enough for that.”

Two years ago, Beattie was a regular on the Vermont-based Tour, a winner at Seekonk Speedway in the iconic Spring Green, driving for a car owner with solid financial backing. This time around, the 2023 “King of the Mountain” entered the speedway gates as a weekly regular playing defense against the cadre of touring challengers in one of the season’s longest races.

Pro All Stars Series veteran Trevor Sanborn, Thunder Road International Speedbowl regular Stephen Martin and Tour full-timer Erick Sands won the day’s qualifying heats, with points leader Gabe Brown picking up a consi win to finalize the starting lineup. Thunder Road ace Nick Sweet earned his second consecutive pole, leading two-time Tour titlist D.J. Shaw to the green flag.

While Shaw took the early lead, Beattie drove from fourth on the grid to slip ahead of Shaw only a dozen laps into the feature. A mechanical failure for Sanborn brought out an early yellow, with Justin Blakely’s backstretch crash slowing the race a second time inside the first twenty laps.

Shaw shadowed Beattie through the scheduled lap-50 fuel break. After the mandated fuel stop, Shaw, Beattie and third-place Jesse Switser remained on the track while sixth-place Brown and seventh-place Sweet were among those who pitted for tires. 

Beattie pulled away under green while Switser worked Shaw over for second. Brandon Lambert skidded to a stop in turn four, drawing a lap-81 yellow that was a saving grace for Brown, who was close to being lapped.

A scramble out front on the restart was quickly forgotten on lap 84 as Dylan Payea was pinched into the backstretch barrier by Rémi Perreault, riding on two wheels before coming to a hard stop. Perreault was parked for the night as Payea’s car was double-hooked to the pit area.

Kaiden Fisher lined up inside of Beattie for the restart, but as the two came to green, Fisher’s nose hooked Beattie’s left fender, tearing free as they battled for the top spot. Fisher inched out ahead as the errant bodywork fell off on the frontstretch, bringing out the yellow flag once again.

Fisher slipped back under green, with Beattie holding back Switser and Shaw. Brown had clawed his way back into the top ten when Jeremy Davis’ turn-two spin paused the proceedings again on lap 112. As Fisher and Jonathan Bouvrette pitted, Brown’s car lost power on the backstretch. The field re-racked as Brown’s crew feverishly tried to revive their car, but they were unable to make the call as the green flag waved.

Heat winner Sands began pressuring Shaw for third as Beattie and Switser pulled ahead out front. Sands cleared Shaw while Switser turned up the heat on Beattie for the lead. With fifty laps left on the scoreboard, Switser drew even with Beattie, then slipped up and forced Beattie out of the racing groove. Sands slipped past and into second, only for Beattie to charge back to the point. Sands and Switser swapped spots, with Switser falling to third as Davis spun again to bring out the yellow flag.

With the track surface growing cooler, Peyton Lanphear was the next to enter the spin cycle, looping her sister’s car on lap 169 and nearly collecting Justin Storace. Trouble found Lanphear again on the restart, but the yellow flag remained tucked away as she came back up to speed ahead of the leaders.

Beattie was pulling away with the race securely in hand as WMMP regular Colin Cornell spun in turn three with five laps to go, erasing his advantage and giving Shaw and Riverside Speedway winner Switser another shot at the win.

But as the field came up to speed, Beattie pulled away and left his Dale Shaw Race Cars chassismates to fight for second.

Nursing old tires all the way to the finish, Beattie scored his second career Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour victory, claiming a Fall Foliage win to go along with his 2024 win in the historic Spring Green.

Beattie’s no-pit strategy was dictated by fate, but he knew by midway that they were going the distance.

“I managed early,” he said. “I wanted the lead because I wanted to be able to control the race and manage my race. And we did that. I came on the radio at lap 99 and I said, ‘Dad, if this thing stays like this, we’re not pitting.’ And I know on lap 170, I wanted to pit because the car started to fade a bit, but those two yellows in a row kind of helped the right front cool down, and the car came back to me, and the thing turned right back into a bullet there on the long run. The car was phenomenal.”

Shaw prevailed in the second-place scrap, earning his best ACT finish of the year. Switser settled for third, unhappy with the way Shaw raced him in the final laps.

Sands finished fourth, matching his season’s best. Fisher, with the right side of his front bumper taped back into place, finished fifth to clinch the Brookside Equipment Sales Triple Crown bonus.

Riverside Speedway veterans Jamie Swallow, Jr. and Jeff Marshall were sixth and seventh at the stripe, with Jonathan Bouvrette eighth. Weekly contender Brian Whalley earned his first ACT Tour top ten in ninth, while Massachusetts’ Cole Littlewood took tenth.

Brown returned to the track after replacing a battery, finishing 22nd and ceding ground to Fisher in the title race with two races to go.

After the race, Beattie reflected on the circumstances of his ACT wins. After their 2023 WMMP track title, Beattie and father Chris could not afford to go on. Enter Jeff Oeschger, who backed the full-time Tour program with which Beattie won at Seekonk in 2024. But the Oeschger deal dissolved unexpectedly last August, leaving Beattie rideless.

This time, the win was all their own.

“It’s definitely special,” he said. “I drove a buddy’s car to finish the year, and we went to the works this winter just trying to regroup, and see if we could come up with something, get a car. And our people behind us just rallied and helped us a lot to get this car. Me and my dad maintain it, just us two and our crew guy Dave every week. And we started doing a little bit of our own stuff with the back end. And it’s working.”

While racing with the Tour was a stretch, the Beatties decided to keep their 2026 campaign more local.

“The goal this year was to come down to White Mountain, especially ‘cause this winter we had to spend a lot of money to get a race car, and to get a lot of things back,” he said. “So it was, come down to White Mountain and have some fun, win some races. I wanted to run the [Midsummer Classic] 250 earlier in the year. My dad didn’t think we were quite good enough then. And we’ve changed a few more things since, and the thing’s come to life even more.”

With one race left to crown this year’s King of the Mountain, Beattie has two feature wins and sits 14 points in arrears of multi-time track champ Quinny Welch. Last weekend, Beattie dominated the Leaf Peepers 100 to clinch the season-in-a-season Wall’s Ford Platinum Series crown.

With so much on the line, the choice to race Saturday night was down to the wire. “We made the decision…mid-week,” Beattie said, laughing.

Though to be fair, the final call wasn’t made until Saturday morning.

“We didn’t know if we were even running last night,” he said. “With the win last week at the Wall’s Ford race, we did blow our motor as well. So we called REDLINE Monday morning and said, could you get it to us Friday if we dropped it off Monday? In case we decide. And we dropped it off Monday. We didn’t know if we were gonna do it or not. We picked it up [from Maine] at 7:00 last night, and got home, and said, let’s get to work!”

The work continued as they arrived at the speedway Saturday morning. “Last night putting it all together, the water pump failed,” he said. “So we had to get a water pump today from D.J. Shaw and Dale Shaw Race Cars. They brought us a water pump from their shop, and we went to work putting that together. And after first practice, the valve covers were leaking, and we borrowed some valve covers from them again.”

When Shaw grenaded an engine in his qualifying heat for the PASS feature earlier in the day, the Beatties repaid the favor.

“Me and my dad were like, they helped us, we need to go help them,” he said. “So we went down there and did anything they asked us to do. I can’t be thankful enough for them guys. They’ve definitely been a huge part of my racing career. As long as me and my dad are a team and I’m not driving for somebody else, I will be in a Dale Shaw Race Car. That’s all I’ll ever have.”

Beattie’s pursuit of his second WMMP championship ends next week. After that, the tough realities of racing will make the call.

“I don’t know when our offseason starts,” he said. “I really want to go to Seekonk at the end of the year. Obviously we have a really good package there … but the last two weeks have been really expensive, blowing a rear end and blowing a motor. This helps a little bit, but nowhere near enough.”

All signs are telling him to call it a season after next week, crown or no crown.

But Beattie didn’t listen to those signs this week, either.

Unofficial Results
Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour | Bar Harbor Bank & Trust Fall Foliage 200
White Mountain Motorsports Park, North Woodstock, N.H.
1. (45NH) Kasey Beattie
2. (60BH) D.J. Shaw
3. (25NH) Jesse Switser
4. (36NH) Erick Sands
5. (18VT) Kaiden Fisher
6. (4NH) Jamie Swallow, Jr.
7. (32NH) Jeff Marshall
8. (41QC) Jonathan Bouvrette
9. (02NH) Brian Whalley
10. (73MA) Cole Littlewood
11. (91CT) Jason Corliss
12. (10NH) Bryan Mason
13. (54VT) Colin Cornell
14. (01VT) Stephen Martin
15. (13NH) Luke E. Shannon
16. (50NH) Jeremy Davis
17. (29NH) Aaron Fellows
18. (21VT) Peyton Lanphear
19. (77AZ) Brandon Lambert
20. (5NH) Aiden White
21. (47MA) Justin Storace
22. (47NH) Gabe Brown
23. (88VT) Nick Sweet
24. (7ME) Dylan Payea
25. (33QC) Rémi Perreault
26. (02WP) Geoff Rollins
27. (17X) Justin Blakely
28. (51NH) Trevor Sanborn
DNS (78NH) Quinny Welch

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