RICHMOND, Va. – The American-Canadian Tour took to Virginia’s Richmond Raceway for the first time on Friday as part of Commonwealth Classic practice day.
All 38 of the teams who entered Saturday’s event at the legendary track were in attendance to get their bearings and get up to speed before qualifying begins.
Ryan Kuhn emerged as the fast man out of the box and stayed that way. The reigning Seekonk Speedway late model champion paced the first of four practice sessions with a lap of 23.711 seconds. His effort would stand as the quickest lap of the day, with times getting slower overall as the track heated up in the Virginia sun. The 18-year-old Kuhn also topped the leaderboard in the final session.
Two other names familiar to ACT fans emerged as possible contenders throughout the day. Joey Polewarcyzk Jr., the 2014 ACT champion, was fastest in the second practice of the day at 24.040 seconds. Multi-time ACT winner Jimmy Hebert led the third session at 24.173 seconds.
Several drivers became familiar faces near the top of the charts as the day went on. Bobby Therrien was regularly in the top-five throughout the day, as was Wayne Helliwell Jr. Top ACT runner Rich Dubeauwas more than a second off the pace in the first session, but was up to second on the speed charts by the final practice. Patrick Laperle also gained speed throughout the day, going fourth-fastest in the final session.
Others may still have work to do in the Saturday morning practices. Nick Sweet was in the middle of the pack speed-wise throughout the day, but the 2016 ACT champion told officials he was focusing on a good long-run setup. Big names such as Jonathan Bouvrette, John Donahue and Nicholas Johnson are also looking to improve.
While multiple practice sessions were shortened due to incidents in other divisions, the ACT practices were relatively clean affairs. Three spins were recorded during the day – two by Gerard Giordano Jr. and one by Joshua Hedges. Neither driver sustained significant damage to their cars.
Several drivers experienced mechanical failures on the three-quarter-mile oval. Christopher Pelkey blew an engine during the second practice session. The team missed the remainder of the day but has a new engine on the way for Saturday’s event.
During the final practice, Hedges broke something in his car’s transmission, while Jeff Marshall suffered a rear end failure. Hedges’ team had already replaced the transmission before they left the track. Marshall was reportedly searching for a replacement rear end.