Rain pushes ACT’s Circuit Riverside Speedway return to August

It was a reunion that was not meant to be.

After a lengthy rain delay and an aborted start, Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour officials were forced to pull the plug on Saturday night’s Yvon Bedard 149.

Instead, ACT’s first points-paying visit to Circuit Riverside Speedway Ste.-Croix in a decade will resume on Sunday, August 17.

The ⅝-mile oval on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, about an hour west of Quebec City, was slated to return to the ACT schedule this year for the first time since 2015. A non-points race honoring legendary Quebec racer Jean-Paul Cabana ran in 2019, but Nick Sweet was the only American racer to compete.

Border restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic paused cross-border competition the following year, and while ACT welcomed Autodrome Chaudière and Autodrome Montmagny back to the schedule in 2022, Riverside—not to be confused with similarly-named ovals in New Hampshire and Nova Scotia—did not have a place on the calendar.

A repave of the aging surface, though, earned the track a date on the 2025 schedule, with ACT steadily rebuilding its Canadian presence year by year.

With only a handful of active Tour racers having any competitive laps around the track, 21 cars turned out for an open test session Friday. Another dozen arrived for Saturday’s program, with two teams bowing out after encountering trouble in practice. Brian Hoar, a four-time winner at Riverside whose last start at the track was in 2012, topped the charts at the end of Saturday’s final practice.

But before any real racing could happen, the day’s flawless forecast was washed away by unexpected rains that drenched the speedway property.

With more rain expected Sunday and many teams towing several hours to Quebec, ACT officials took an “at all costs” approach to getting the race in, trying to keep heat in the pavement as rain continued to fall. At last, the rain let up after 8:00pm. Plans were to roll out the day’s Sportsman feature to assist in drying the track further before the 149-lap ACT main event.

By 10:15pm, the track remained too damp for full-speed competition. Within a half-hour, officials rolled the ACT field out to the speedway, with D.J Shaw and Jesse Switser leading a grid set by owner’s points. As with last year’s CAN-AM 200 at Montmagny, the race began in a green-yellow status, scoring laps while keeping the field under caution to continue to dry the track.

But the fresh pavement would not dry out. And after thirty pace-speed laps, rain began to fall again, undoing every bit of progress from the last few hours.

At midnight, officials threw in the towel, calling the evening and allowing teams to pack up and head home.

Race director Scott Tapley shared his frustration and disappointment on Facebook.

“A ‘no chance of rain’ forecast for today ended up being 5 straight hours of rain,” Tapley posted, “and with no available rain date for the facility we had to go all-in today.

“We threw every play at it from the playbook but the new pavement just would not dry and ultimately it rained again for the knockout blow.”

Saturday’s event was the fifth Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour event to be affected by rain in 2025, and the fourth to be rescheduled as a result.

Similar to Montmagny and to Thompson Speedway in Connecticut, Riverside is part of a multi-discipline motorsports complex in which the oval is part of a road course that hosts high-performance driving experience, drift shows, and motorcycle track days throughout the summer. As a result, the understanding was that no rain dates were available.

However, the speedway’s Facebook page declared otherwise on Sunday, encouraging fans to retain their wristbands as a makeup date was in the works.

The August 17 rain date was confirmed Monday by ACT’s press team.

“It was then released on Circuit Riverside Speedway social media that a rain date did exist, without confirmation to or from ACT officials,” read ACT’s press release. “Under short-notice, ACT officials scrambled to utilize one of their very limited rain dates and Sunday, August 17 will be used for the make-up date and was later confirmed by Circuit Ste-Croix on Monday afternoon.”

Two brief practice sessions will be staged that morning, with a noon start for the 149-lap feature, the “9” paying tribute to the longtime car number of the race’s namesake. While ACT’s initial release advised the race would resume from lap 30, the release has since been revised to confirm the full-length feature will be run instead.

The Yvon Bedard 149 will now cap off ACT’s recently-announced Quebec Challenge Series, a triple crown that includes June’s race at Chaudière and the upcoming CAN-AM 200 at Montmagny in two weeks, paying an additional $5,000 to the top points scorer in the three races.

There are no winners in rainouts and postponements, particularly when faced with a road trip event in a touring series that preaches cost-consciousness. By resuming the race, ACT would have effectively promised last-place points for any teams that could not make the rain date. However, requiring teams and fans to travel several hours for a shortened feature is a tough sell as well.

This is not uncharted territory for ACT, a touring series with a reputation of listening to driver input before making tough decisions.

With luck, their decision making this weekend will be rewarded in August.

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