Heres hoping your Christmas holiday was a great one, and wishing you a Happy 
New Year!  Before we get to the Top 
25 ACT Drivers of 2007, lets touch on the recently released nine-race Série 
ACT Castrol schedule for next season.

Autodrome St-Eustache, just minutes from the city of Montréal, will open the 
Série ACT Castrol 2008 season with a 
100-lap contest on May 18, then close the curtain with the 14th Annual 
St-Eustache 300 on September 21.  The 4/10-
mile oval will also hold a 200-lap show on July 26, with an extra bonus purse 
attached for American race teams 
that compete.

Autodrome Montmagny has two stops on the schedule, with a 100-lapper on May 31 
and the Montmagny 250  
another U.S. bonus event  on August 23.  Autodrome Chaudière in Vallée-Jct. 
will see the Castrol gang on June 
14 and August 16, as well as at the previously-announced ACT Showdown at 
Chaudière on Sept. 6, featuring the Top 
10 drivers from the Série ACT Castrol and the ACT Late Model Tour.

Autodrome St-Félicien returns to the Castrol schedule for the first time since 
2006 on July 5, while Ottawas 
Capital City Speedway returns for the second year in a row on August 9.  Dates 
have also been cleared to encourage 
Castrol teams to compete at Kawartha Speedways ACT Late Model Tour Summer 
Sizzler 200 on July 13 and at Oxford 
Plains Speedways TD Banknorth 250 on July 20.

***

We now have the first ten honorees of the Top 25 ACT Drivers of 2007 taken 
care of, and will take a look this 
week at positions 15 through 11, as determined by a vote of media members and 
American-Canadian Tour and Thunder 
Road officials.  Heres a quick look back at drivers 25-21 from two weeks ago, 
and at positions 20-16 from last 
Wednesday:

25. Matt White, #42 NAPA Tiger Sportsman
24. John Donahue, #26 ACT Late Model
23. Mike Martin, #01 Allen Lumber Street Stock
22. Joel Hodgdon, #36 NAPA Tiger Sportsman
21. Joey Polewarczyk, Jr., #97NH ACT Late Model

20. Kip Stockwell, #36 ACT Late Model  Three feature wins at Thunder Road in 
first full season of weekly racing 
since 1997

19. Joey Laquerre, #15 NAPA Tiger Sportsman  Two 100-lap victories, 6th in 
Thunder Road points, and all at 64 
years of age

18. Joey Becker, #16 ACT Late Model  Totally under the radar all season long, 
even though he was a feature winner 
and finished 3rd in Thunder Road points

17. Donald Theetge, #80 ACT Late Model  ACT Late Model Tour winner, two Série 
ACT Castrol victories, 8th in Tour 
points

16. Eric Williams, #7VT ACT Late Model  Won second-straight CARQUEST Vermont 
Governors Cup, always exciting to 
watch

And now, we honor the next five

15. Brent Dragon, #55VT Beverage Mart/Furniture World of VT Chevrolet ACT Late 
Model.  (Top 10 votes: 4)

Second-generation star Brent Dragon has a spectacular 13 finishes inside the Top 
10 in ACT Late Model Tour points, 
including each of the last six seasons inside the Top 5.  Somehow, the title has 
eluded him every year.  Not one 
to dwell on things as trivial as that, though, Dragon is a prolific race 
finisher and winner, a la David Pearson 
of the 1960s  you never give him a thought until hes in your mirror with five 
laps to go.

Dave Moody Thunder Road announcer, MRN Radio personality: From Kawartha to 
Oxford Plains, (Brent is) a threat to 
win every time out.  He has evolved into one of the top professional racers in 
the northeast, saving his car until 
crunch time before storming to the front and stealing the checkered flag.

Dragon missed qualifying for the season opener at Oxford in April (his first DNQ 
since August 2000), but then went 
on a torrid streak of consistency  6th at Thunder Road, runner-up in 
back-to-back events at Airborne and Ste-
Croix, and a victory at White Mountain Motorsports Park.  Dragons WMMP win may 
have been the most emotional and 
meaningful of his career  a career that includes the 2006 Milk Bowl win  as 
the team rallied around the 
Arsenault family that sponsors the #55 car through their Beverage Mart store in 
St. Albans, VT.  (Mark Arsenault, 
a long-time friend of the Dragon family, had passed away just days before the 
White Mountain event.)  Dragon 
decided to carry on, and went home with a hard-fought and well-deserved win.  
There wasnt a dry eye in victory 
lane.  Following the win, Dragon took additional Top 5s at White Mountain and 
Thunder Road, led laps at Kawartha 
before a flat tire knocked him out, and closed the season at Oxford with a 
4th-place run.  He finished third 
overall on the Tour for the third straight year.


14. Jamie Fisher, #18 S.D. Ireland Brothers Chevrolet ACT Late Model.  (Top 10 
votes: 6; First-place votes: 1)

Ever since his 2003 King of the Road title, there seemed to have been 
something missing from Jamie Fisher.  The 
Hurricane didnt storm up the outside like he had become so well-known for, he 
wasnt winning races, and he fell 
into a weekly 10th-to-15th-place funk that he really didnt get himself totally 
out of until 2007.  Fisher was not 
a race winner, but he was something he certainly had not been for a while  a 
solid, legitimate championship 
contender.  In fact, he held the point lead for four straight weeks in 
July-August.

Gene Gagne, photographer and operator of OutsideGroove.com: Jamie and the S.D. 
Ireland team have to be happy that 
they were once again back on top and a threat for others to take seriously.

Fisher eventually fell to 4th overall after two of his worst Thunder Road 
showings of the season in the final pair 
of events, but fans know that hes back, at least in the Thursday night weekly 
wars.

His performances on the ACT Late Model Tour need a bit of improvement, though 
there was one superlative, shining 
moment at Kawartha Speedway  Fisher was drilled by an under-experienced driver 
in the first lap of his qualifier, 
sending the car hard into the wall.  His crew worked intensely (in windy 
40-degree weather, mind you) to rebuild 
the front end of the car, and rolled the mangled Chevrolet onto the starting 
grid as the drivers were being 
introduced, not knowing what to expect.  With a car he described as bent really 
bad, Fisher soldiered home in 
15th place.

Darla Hartt, Vice President, American-Canadian Tour: Jamies biggest asset is 
his love of competition.  Its not 
just about the trophies  he appreciates the race Hes a driver with a lot of 
heart, and as both an organizer and 
a fan, I value that highly.  Jamie and his team always make me look forward to 
the next race.

13. Cris Michaud, #6 Merchants Bank/Burrell Roofing Ford ACT Late Model.  (Top 
10 votes: 3)

Ten years ago, nobody would have begun to guess that Cris Michaud would be 
chasing down his fourth Thunder Road 
track title.  Heck, most people thought he might have been washed up after his 
first crown in 2001.  But Michaud 
is undoubtedly one of the most perseverant drivers in Thunder Road history, 
having gone through major changes in 
equipment and crew a couple of times and bouncing back quickly.

Dave Moody: Anyone who thought his off-season split with crew chief Jeff 
Laquerre would drop him off the list of 
Thunder Road title contenders was sadly mistaken.  Michaud was as fast as ever, 
and pushed Dave Pembroke all the 
way to the final lap of the season before relinquishing his grip on the title.

Following the departure of Laquerre, the addition of new crew chief Kendell 
Legendre for the 07 season proved to 
be a smart call.  As a result, Michaud, like Mr. Moody stated, pushed everyone a 
little harder on the track.  His 
championship battle with Pembroke and Fisher became an instant classic, even 
though he finished as the runner-up.  
In a season where victories were very hard to come by for high-point drivers, 
Michaud led the Late Model division 
with an 8.071 finishing average, taking five Top 5 results and landing just 14 
points shy of the King of the 
Road title.  It should be no surprise that Michaud would love to get that 
fourth championship in 2008.

12. Randy Potter, #02NH P&R Excavating Services/JML Grinding & Excavating 
Chevrolet ACT Late Model.  (Top 10 
votes: 4)

Perhaps the biggest and most refreshing surprise of the 2007 was Randy Potters 
season-long performance on the ACT 
Late Model Tour.  His all-volunteer team and patchwork of sponsorship support 
defines the term grassroots racing 
in northern New England, and the fun and success the group enjoyed spilled over 
to other teams on the Tour.

An opening day wire-to-wire win at Oxford Plains Speedway left mouths agape in 
the grandstands, control tower, and 
press box, and set the tone for a spectacular season in which Potter came home 
4th in Tour standings.  Potters 
team received more congratulatory handshakes and pats on the back than maybe any 
other throughout the summer.

Mark Thomas, Racin Paper Editor: It was a good season for a great racer.

Marc Patrick Roy, Série ACT Castrol reporter for Speed51.com: (Potter) posted 
very impressive statistics on the 
ACT Tour, but he makes this years list for being a very competitive and clean 
racer all year that showed he can  
and wants to  run up front.  He showed many during the Bond Auto Labor Day 
Classic that he can drive the wheels 
off the car.

Though impressed by the OPS win, many felt that Potters best showing was his 
runner-up finish in the holiday 200-
lapper at Thunder Road.  Potter used great pit strategy and a supremely handling 
race car to walk around the 
outside lane as the laps wore down, finishing second and gaining on the leader 
every lap before the checkers 
fell.  He also earned Top 5s at Airborne, White Mountain, and Kawartha.  Nobody 
doubts that with a touch more 
consistency, Potter would be knocking on the door of his first Tour title.

11. Alexandre Gingras, #27QC Autobus La Québécoise/Sky Jet Chevrolet ACT Late 
Model.  (Top 10 votes: 5)

Falling under the checkers or wreckers category isnt always a bad thing.  
Québecs Alexandre Gingras is, 
without exception, one of the most fun drivers to watch in any series anywhere.  
A dozen laps shy of a Série ACT 
Castrol podium finish at Autodrome St-Eustache in May, Gingras vaulted his car 
over the Turn 4 pit wall, barrel-
rolling it in front of the frontstretch grandstands.  So, two weeks later, at 
Ottawas Capital City Speedway, he 
evened the score by winning the race.

Marc Patrick Roy: Who can come back from a roll-over and win the very next 
race?  A championship contender can.  
But in the end, he was either on the podium or involved in a wreck.

And popular?  Oh man.  Gingras driving style almost immediately commands the 
attention of any race fan in the 
grandstands.  A heated, sometimes nasty rivalry between Québec and Ontario 
racers and fans has been long-standing, 
but when Gingras pulled up to pass the race leader (Vermonter Dave Pembroke) at 
Capital City, the crowd went wild.

Dave Pembroke, Thunder Road Late Model Champion: Thats the only time in my 
life that Ive ever been able to hear 
the crowd cheering from inside the race car while we were under green.  It 
didnt matter to the Ontario fans that 
he was from Québec, hes good and they wanted a Canadian to win.  Hes a hero up 
there.

And thats not all.  Gingras also took victories at Circuit Ste-Croix and 
Autodrome Chaudière, eventually 
finishing third in Série ACT Castrol points.  But the American fans like 
Gingras, too.  He was popular  and fast 
 in his ACT Late Model Tour outings at Oxford Plains and Airborne early in the 
season, and showed that he can run 
just as well on U.S. soil as he can north of the border.

***

Next week, we get right down to it  the first half of the top ten ACT drivers 
of the season will be recognized.  
Thanks for the feedback weve received already, and heres the email address if 
youd like to pass your comments 
along: media@acttour.com.  Keep an eye on www.acttour.com and 
www.thunderroadspeedbowl.com for updates!