New Hampshire Motor Speedway announces 2nd ACT event for 2011

Waterbury, VT – Building on the success of the past two ACT Invitationals, officials from New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS) and the American Canadian Tour (ACT) announced today that the largest touring late model series will add a second event to the ‘Magic Mile’ in 2011.

The event will be presented as part of the IZOD Indy Car Series weekend on August 12-13, 2011 at the largest sports and entertainment facility in New England, the region’s only super speedway. The NASCAR Whelen Modified Division will join the ACT Late Models as part of an ‘ALL STAR’ weekend for short track racing, featuring full-fender ACT Late Models and the very popular open-wheeled NASCAR Modifieds.

“The past two years, the ACT Invitational has provided entertaining and exciting racing for our fans here,” said Jerry Gappens, executive vice president and general manager of NHMS. This premier short track touring series helped grow our annual September NASCAR Saturday into a great tripleheader.

“When we added the IZOD Indy Car Series to our 2011 schedule, August 12-14, I wanted to make Saturday a ‘Short Track Showdown’ that showcases short track stars from around the northeast,” Gappens added. The format and number of teams we expect to be at NHMS for the August 12th-14th weekend is unprecedented. It should be very exciting for our fans and for the teams of the ACT.”

The ACT Late Models and NASCAR Modifieds feature events will be run on Saturday afternoon, August 13, which also includes Indy Car Series practice and record-breaking qualifying.

According to officials at the ACT headquarters, the event will be open to all ACT affiliate track Late Model teams that are a.) ACT legal, b.) in the top 15 in weekly points at an ACT affiliate track by entry deadline, c.) enter the event timely, and d.) get approval of their entry from their local track and from ACT. Additional teams from both touring series of the American Canadian Tour in the US and Quebec will be eligible to enter and go through the approval process. Each of the touring divisions will receive points toward the 2011 championships.

“Obviously, we are very excited about this announcement for ACT Late Model teams from throughout the region. This will certainly be different than this coming year’s ACT Invitational race on September 24th. After a couple years of watching how exciting and respectful the Late Model teams have been at New Hampshire, we wanted to give more Late Model teams an opportunity to race there. Being at Loudon over Indy weekend August 12-14, will be a dream come true for many of the Late Model teams. We expect to have as many as 100 teams trying to qualify for what will be a very unique short track kind of race on the ‘big track’,” said Tom Curley, the President of the American Canadian Tour.

More details regarding qualifying procedures and purses for the NHMS ACT Late Model ALL STAR event are expected in the coming months.

Tickets for the IZOD Indy Car 225 on August 14th start at $35 and advance tickets Saturday’s “Short Track All-Star Showdown” are only $25 for adults. Contact the NHMS Ticket office at 603-783-4931 or go to www.nhms.com for more information.

For additional information contact the ACT office at 802.244.6963, www.acttour.com, or media@acttour.com. Information is also available at www.nhms.com.