A Spring Message from Cris Michaud – 2020 Edition
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A Spring Message from Cris Michaud – 2020 Edition Hello, everyone, and welcome to 2020! As I write this, the weather has been in the 50s all week, and the snow is melting fast. Although we likely haven’t seen the last of winter yet – this is the Northeast, after all – it’s starting to feel like racing season. And with the ACT season opener at New Hampshire Motor Speedway just over a month away, we’re close to seeing cars on the track. With that in mind, I wanted to offer some thoughts on the state of ACT, Thunder Road, and WMMP. A lot has happened with each over the past calendar year, and we think the racers, teams, and fans of each have a lot to look forward to over the coming months. I’d like to start with a quick look back at 2019. This past season with ACT – and truly, the first two years running ACT for Pat and I – was more than we could ask for. In 2018, the ACT Tour had the largest per-event car count of any regional Late Model series in North America as tracked by Speed51.com. Then things got even better in 2019 with more than 32 cars per event. We got to bring the series to Richmond Raceway for the first time, and everyone involved put on a great show. We had a lot of great, competitive racing during the point-counting season, too. There were 11 different winners in 14 sanctioned events and a variety of storylines to follow. This success is part of what’s given us the confidence to add some of the events and programs you’ll be seeing in 2020 (more on this later.) Another great thing about 2019 was the Flying Tiger Open at Oxford Plains Speedway last October. Simply put, the event was more than we ever hoped for. When Tom Mayberry first asked about bringing the Tigers, my hope was to get 20 cars. We ended up with 33 cars and some fantastic, respectful racing. Thank you once again to all the teams that made the trip to Maine and turned the event into such a success. We’re hoping the Tigers can return to Oxford soon and will update teams if and when there is anything to announce. That leads us to the 2019 season at Thunder Road. It was our third season running the track, and admittedly, the year started kind of slow – thanks in part to the weather. I don’t think it was until mid-July that we’d finally run more Thursday night races than Friday night races! However, things really picked up as the year went on. The crowds at events like the Milk Bowl, the Thursday finale, and the Enduro were incredible and are a real tribute to the efforts of all of you to keep local racing alive and well. It was especially impressive to see how popular the new Forsythe Hill and Turn 4 seating became once we finally were able to complete those areas. We will continue to work on providing the best possible fan experience and adding new things without losing the essence of what Thunder Road is about. The racing was excellent in every division, too. While the car counts in the Late Models have admittedly been a little lighter the last couple years, the fields are incredibly deep – at any given event, there are 12-14 drivers who can win. That’s showed itself in how close the championship battles have been the last two years. Both the Flying Tigers and Street Stocks have been very healthy with a lot of young talent rising through the ranks and mixing it up with the veterans. And the Road Warriors are a treat every time they race. There’s plenty to look forward to with each division in 2020 and beyond. We think there’s a lot to be excited about with White Mountain Motorsports Park, too. We understood going into our first year in charge that there was going to be a transition period. Any race track changing ownership is a big deal, especially with the Avery’s having run WMMP since it opened. We still are approaching it as a long-term, multi-year transition. That being said, the 2019 season went better than we expected. The support in the Strictly Stock Mini’s was huge – they were our highest-drawing division almost every week and laid the groundwork for future growth in other divisions. While the weekly Flying Tiger car count was light at times, the Triple Crown Series was very successful and showed the potential of the division at WMMP. We were happy with the counts in the Late Models, Dwarf Cars, and Kids Trucks in year one and will continue work to support and grow each of these divisions. Fans and sponsors have taken notice. The crowds steadily grew over the second half of the season. In particular, the Midsummer 250 was huge – David Avery told me afterwards that it was one of the biggest crowds he’s ever seen at WMMP. It was so big there were cars parked down Route 3! Obviously, we’ll be working to make the 2020 edition even bigger. A number of new sponsors have also signed on for the 2020 season. Jon Parks Tractor of Lancaster, NH has agreed to sponsor the Flying Tiger Triple Crown, and there are several other new event, program, and billboard sponsors we’ll officially announce soon. Pretty much all of the 2019 sponsors are also returning. They like the direction the track is heading, and we think that’s a good sign for everybody. That brings us to the first event of 2020. As many of you already know, ACT will be opening the season at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Friday, April 17 and Saturday, April 18. We’re excited to be returning to NHMS. As the region’s biggest auto racing stage, it’s a big deal for any series to race there. Ever since the last ACT NHMS Invitational in September 2017, many people have asked us about if and when ACT would be returning to “The Magic Mile”. Tom Mayberry and I got to talking this past summer about the possibility of co-hosting an event at NHMS, and it didn’t take long for those talks to become a reality. We think the Northeast Classic the perfect opener for ACT and a great event for Northeast racing community as a whole. With Tour-type Modifieds, 8-cylinder Street Stocks, and 4- cylinder Mini Stocks also on the schedule, there’s something for every type of race fan. Between event and full-season entries, we already are expecting well over 40 ACT cars. In particular, there is a large contingent of Quebec drivers entered, and we’ve also received entries from as far south as Long Island. The entry list is looking strong for PASS, too. We hope for the Northeast Classic to become an annual event on the ACT and PASS calendars, and with your support, we’re optimistic it will happen. ACT will also be ending its 2020 season at NHMS. In the wake of other changes to the track’s Full Throttle Fall Weekend in September, management came to us about joining the schedule. We glad to be celebrating the 2020 ACT Late Model Tour champion at the track. By wrapping up the point-counting season in mid-September, we think it will also allow more ACT teams to attend end-of-year special events such as the Milk Bowl without worrying about it hurting their touring efforts. You may have noticed a few other changes and additions to the schedule. We have 12 point- counting events slated, and each one of them is big in its own way. Along with NHMS, we’re also returning to Riverside Speedway and Seekonk Speedway. This allows us to reach more parts of the Northeast and give more teams and fans the opportunity to experience what ACT is about. We believe the Seekonk event will be a first for ACT — a Wednesday night event. Racing mid-week has been very successful for Seekonk’s traditional Open Wheel Wednesday mid- summer event, which is why we’re willing to do it for the Bay State Classic. Beyond that, we’ll have a lot of the events that have become tradition on the Tour schedule. There will again be two events each at Oxford, Thunder Road, and WMMP. This includes the Labor Day Classic, the Spring Green, the $10,000-to-win Midsummer 250, and the Night Before the 250. We’ll also return to Autodrome Chaudiere – both for the point-counting Claude Leclerc 150 and the non-point Bacon Bowl – and have a $5,000 to win event at Star Speedway. The event at Star is part of the track’s 40th-year celebration and includes a 200-lap event with PASS, one of five ACT/PASS doubleheaders this year. With races at eight different tracks and in five states/provinces, it really is a snapshot of Northeast auto racing. Another major ACT announcement this offseason was the creation of the New England Late Model Challenge Cup presented by American Racer. While the Tour gets a lot of the headlines, we know how important strong weekly Late Model programs are to its success. Again, it goes back to the philosophies of Tom Curley. A good weekly program makes the touring program more successful, both as a feeder-type system to the Tour and from the weekly racer who run with the Tour drivers whenever they visit.