BARRE, Vt. — After an over-two-month delay, the American-Canadian Tour is set to revisit Seekonk Speedway for the 48th running of the Spring Green after weather delayed the original June date to this Saturday, August 19.
The tour championship battle continues to heat up as they invade the iconic Cement Palace and take on a strong batch of NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series teams ready to defend their home turf. Both sides will be hotly contesting in search of one of the American-Canadian Tour’s top annual prizes.
Seekonk Speedway has long held its place in American-Canadian Tour history and Saturday only adds to that significance. In 17 contested events since 1983, former back-to-back ACT Tour champion Scott Payea is the only driver to earn repeat wins at The Action Track of the East in back-to-back victories in 2016 and 2017.
The venerable Massachusetts oval has annually been anyone’s game in each tour showing with only one thing in common so far, no Seekonk regular has carried the ACT checkered flag at their home track. Vinny Arrenegado, Richie Murray, 2022 track champion Mark Jenison and 2019 ACT Rookie of the Year Ryan Kuhn, among others, are looking to change that statistic on Saturday by taking one of the Tour’s top-tier annual events.
Seekonk will also be the sixth different facility to host the Spring Green after starting its years at the beloved Catamount Stadium in Milton, Vermont. After a one-off show at the iconic Sanair Super Speedway tri-oval in Quebec back in 1988, the Spring Green called Plattsburgh, New York’s Airborne Speedway home for many years before going to Vermont’s Devil’s Bowl Speedway and New Hampshire’s White Mountain Motorsports Park.
Annually earning its lap-count based on the year contested, the Spring Green has held an interesting place in ACT history and Saturday’s 123-lap showdown will only add to that icon status.
Defending American-Canadian Tour champion D.J. Shaw leads both the tour standings and the Brookside Equipment Sales Southern New England Triple Crown standings after winning the Spring Sizzler 75 at Stafford Motor Speedway in May.
Like Payea, Shaw will be looking for back-to-back Seekonk wins after stealing the win from young-gun Jacob ‘Rowdy’ Burns last fall. Milton CAT 250 winner Derek Gluchacki will be looking to gain more momentum at his hometrack on Saturday with Jimmy Renfrew Jr., Gabe Brown and Jonathan Bouvrette, among others, also looking to make gains in the standings.