Fisher takes ACT championship lead with Oktoberfest 150 win

For most of Sunday evening’s Oktoberfest 150, Kaiden Fisher’s approach was to focus forward.

But while the young Vermonter did everything he could at the head of the field, it was what happened in his mirror that was most pivotal.

Fisher survived a last-ditch charge by Trevor Sanborn to win his third Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour race of the season, anchoring the second day of Lee USA Speedway’s traditional season-ending weekend.

And with erstwhile teammate Gabe Brown dropping out in the closing laps, Fisher now carries the championship lead to this weekend’s season finale at Seekonk Speedway.

“I knew that my teammate Gabe and everybody else was going to be there at the end,” the Shelburne, Vt. racer said shortly after the race. “I got the advantage of starting up front. But everybody slowly worked their way up toward us, and we saved just enough for the end.”

A regular visitor to “New Hampshire’s Center of Speed,” the Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour made its Oktoberfest debut as the anchor of a Sunday program that also featured ACT’s Flying Tigers in their first-ever Lee appearance. Qualifying took on a measure of importance, with 36 cars trying to earn a place on the grid. Reinbold Motorsports teammates Dylan Estrella and Ryan Kuhn took the first two heat wins, with Jeremy Davis and Tyler Fiscus winning the third and fourth heats. Jason Corliss and Jimmy Renfrew, Jr. secured berths through the consi round, while Cole Littlewood’s last-chance win left another seven drivers loading up early.

Jonathan Bouvrette, second in the third heat, secured the pole with Fisher starting outside. The former Quebec champion got out to an early lead as Renfrew and Brown worked their way forward in the first thirty laps.

An early spin bunched up the field behind Bouvrette and Fisher, but the ensuing restart was quickly waved off in a shower of sparks as Aaron Fellows was swept into a multi-car frontstretch crash that sidelined heat winner Estrella. Fisher briefly took charge after the restart, but Bouvrette assumed the lead after a lap-36 yellow as the field fell into a single-file rhythm.

Brown cracked the top four by halfway, but Fisher was still focused forward, closing on Bouvrette in lapped traffic. Bouvrette’s lead disappeared in a flash as Fisher quickly erased the gap and powered past on the frontstretch to take the lead on lap 91.

While Fisher pulled away from the field, Bouvrette found himself in the grasp of Brown, who was up to third with Kuhn close behind in fourth. Brown had just passed Bouvrette for second when Andrew Larue spun in turn two just in front of the leaders, slowing the race on lap 112.

Davis spun on the restart, forcing a re-rack with Fisher and Brown on the front row. The two teammates and title hopefuls squared off after an aborted restart, but Brown quickly fell into line, shadowing Fisher as the laps wound down.

Suddenly, with seven laps to go, Brown’s car lost power off turn two. The four-time winner coasted around the track to bring out the caution flag on lap 144. Brown’s team, with a handful of crew members from the Fisher camp, swarmed the stalled car as it was pushed back to the pits.

But as the field lined up behind Fisher and Kuhn, the championship leader entering the day had become a spectator.

Fisher shook free of Kuhn, with Bouvrette holding off Renfrew for third. Trouble on Tyler Fiscus’ car brought out a caution with two laps to go as he slammed into the turn-one wall, reracking the leaders with Erick Sands restarting fifth. But on the restart, contact down the backstretch turned Sands sideways, sending the field scattering as he blocked the track. Jesse Switser and Tanner Woodard took the hardest hits, pitting for repairs as Fisher paced the field.

Fisher outgunned Kuhn again, with Bouvrette closing in on Kuhn for second. Renfrew, coming up the outside, spun across Bouvrette’s nose and into Kuhn’s quarter panel, spinning Kuhn up the track toward the outside wall. Miraculously, Kuhn kept his car out of the wall, though the field scrambled to avoid the slowed car as the yellow waved again.

Bouvrette was sent to the rear for his involvement, rotating Sanborn into contention after a quiet afternoon. The Pro All Stars Series veteran’s first outing with the RSB Chassis team had ended early, but a segment win at the Vermont Milk Bowl had shown promise. 

Sanborn was tenacious on the restart, clinging to Fisher’s outside before drawing even with the white flag in the air. Sanborn poked his nose out to lead the lap, but Fisher found traction below him, hanging tough down the backstretch.

Off turn four, Sanborn slipped wide just enough for Fisher to pull ahead, nipping Sanborn by 0.141 seconds to take his third Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour win and his first at Lee USA Speedway.

“We were trying to save in the beginning a little bit,” Fisher said of his early strategy. “You know, this track’s hard on tires. I was just following [Bouvrette] and he kept getting away, a little bit more, a little bit more. And then we started matching lap times, and then he started coming back to me. And then once I got to him, he made a couple mistakes, it looked like.

“When I took the lead, I just tried to save what I could.”

Sanborn, whose ACT debut came last summer in a replacement role, earned a career-best finish in only his fifth start, after finishing in the top ten in all three attempts last year.

Veteran Nick Sweet rose through the late-race chaos to finish third, ahead of recently-crowned New London-Waterford Speedbowl champion and former Granite State Pro Stock Series competitor Ray Christian III. Brandon Barker, in one of the Sullivan family’s entries, came home fifth.

Erick Sands rebounded from his late-race spin to finish sixth, ahead of Kuhn and Bouvrette. Renfrew finished ninth, while Davis soldiered home tenth, the last car on the lead lap.

Brown’s mechanical issues left him 22nd at the finish, his third 22nd-place run of the year but his first failure to finish an ACT race all season. Fisher, whose equipment is backed by the Ireland family but prepared by Brown’s Factory 47 stable in Center Conway, N.H., has largely dodged in-race troubles this year, with only two finishes outside the top ten and a worst finish of 20th.

While Brown entered the day with an eight-point lead over Fisher, he loaded up his hauler with a 46-point deficit entering the final race of the season, Saturday’s Haunted Hundred at Seekonk Speedway. Fisher won June’s stop at the “Cement Palace,” his first win at the Massachusetts bullring.

“We definitely kept track of points all day,” he said. “Try to get as many in the heat race, as many laps led, and whatever we could do to get the most amount of points. And then when Gabe broke, I definitely don’t wanna get a championship that way at all. We still got next week, obviously. Anything can happen.”

Fisher isn’t taking anything for granted, though. “It makes it a little bit easier on me,” he said, “but I’ll still worry about it.”

With Switser a distant third in the standings, the title comes down to Brown, the 2024 ACT Tour champion, and Fisher, the third-year driver and former Thunder Road weekly titlist.

After racing each other to the line in the Vermont Milk Bowl, Brown made it clear that he expected Fisher to race him hard, regardless of their relationship on and off the track.

With the title decided at the “Action Track of the East,” fans in Seekonk’s theater-in-the-round can expect some action in store.

Unofficial Results
Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour | Oktoberfest 150
Lee USA Speedway, Lee, N.H.
1. (18VT) Kaiden Fisher
2. (51NH) Trevor Sanborn
3. (88VT) Nick Sweet
4. (12CT) Ray Christian III
5. (0ME) Brandon Barker
6. (36NH) Erick Sands
7. (62MA) Ryan Kuhn
8. (41QC) Jonathan Bouvrette
9. (0NH) Jimmy Renfrew, Jr.
10. (51JL) Jeremy Davis
11. (91CT) Jason Corliss
12. (98MA) Ryan Flood
13. (73MA) Cole Littlewood
14. (55WI) Tanner Woodard
15. (5VT) Bobby Therrien
16. (13QC) Hugo Paquet
17. (25NH) Jesse Switser
18. (53NH) Tyler Fiscus
19. (33QC) Rémi Perreault
20. (91MA) Ayla Martin
21. (27MA) Chase Curtis
22. (47NH) Gabe Brown
23. (45QC) Andrew Larue
24. (10MT) Bryan Mason
25. (21L) Alex Labbé
26. (23NH) Craig Smith
27. (5NH) Aiden White
28. (63MA) Dylan Estrella
29. (29NH) Aaron Fellows

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