Brad Babb, a teenager from Windham, broke into the top five of the American Canadian Tour standings last weekend.

Babb, the regional Late Model tour’s reigning rookie of the year, took advantage when accidents knocked Brent Dragon and Joey Polewarczyk out of last Saturday night’s 150-lapper at White Mountain Motorsports Park in North Woodstock, N.H.

Going into the race, Dragon, of Milton, Vt., and Polewarczyk, of Hudson, N.H., were ranked third and fifth, respectively, after the first four of the tour’s 16 events.

Polewarczyk, who was 11th on the 31-car starting grid, completed 122 laps and finished 24th, and Dragon, who was seventh on the grid, finished 28th after completing 67 laps.

Both Polewarzyk and Dragon remain among ACT’s top 10 drivers, but their problems enabled Babb, who started 24th in the 31-car field, to finish 12th and move up in the standings.

For most of the race, he managed to stay out of the trouble.

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“There were quite a few wrecks right ahead of me that I got around,” said Babb, who graduated from Windham High earlier this month. “I got a little piece of one of them but it didn’t do any damage. There was one on the front stretch, where everyone just slowed down, and the guy behind me didn’t and he ran over my left rear.”

Babb is satisfied with how his second full season on the ACT tour is going.

“We’re doing all right,” he said.”We’re not quite as good as I’d like to be yet, but we’re working on it.”

This Saturday night, the ACT tour comes to Oxford Plains Speedway for the second time in less than a month.

Babb, who started his racing career at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough, has some experience at Oxford Plains.

“I think we’ve run Oxford five times now,” he said. “I finished sixth in my first race there in the last ACT race of 2009, and I finished 10th in an ACT race there three weeks ago, so we haven’t run well there.”

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To improve its chances, Babb’s race team intends to make some changes in the setup of his car.

“We’re going to do something different with the front end,” he said. “It’s something we do at Beech Ridge and we hope it will work there.”

Saturday night will the second of ACT’s four stops in Maine this summer.

On June 4, an Oxford Plains regular, Jeff White of Winthrop, picked up $3,025 for winning the ACT Big Jab 150 when he led all but three laps.

On July 24, the ACT Late Models will race 150 laps at Oxford Plains as part of the TD Bank 250 weekend.

On July 30, ACT will run a 150-lap race at Beech Ridge.

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BEN ASHLINE, a 20-year-old diesel mechanic from Pittston, is bidding to become the third consecutive Maine driver to become ACT’s Rookie of the Year.

Ashline holds a 17-point lead in the rookie standings over Dave Farrington, a 19-year-old driver from Jay who is majoring in mechanical engineering at the University of Maine.

Ashline, who began racing Late Models at Oxford Plains in 2007, is ranked sixth in the ACT standings.

Last season, Babb won the ACT rookie of the year award.

The year before that, Joey Doiron, a 2009 graduate of Noble High in North Berwick, was the tour’s rookie of the year.

DOIRON HEADS north of the border as the Pro All Star Series drivers compete in the Habitations Dany Lagace 150 Saturday at Autodrome Chaudiere in Vallee Jonction, Quebec.

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The event marks the PASS debut at Chaudiere, but Doiron has raced there before and he will be one of the few drivers in the field with on-track experience on Chaudiere’s high banks.

In 2009, Doiron, currently ninth in the PASS North Super Late Model standings through three races, competed as a rookie on the ACT Late Model Tour at Autodrome Chaudiere.

FANS WILL get a chance to go down on the track to obtain autographs and get their pictures taken with their favorite driver Saturday night at Beech Ridge.

Drivers from the track’s Pro Series, Sports Series, Wildcat and Roadrunner divisions will be available.

The autograph/picture session will occur during the intermission between the qualifying heats and the feature races.

The qualifying heats start at 6 p.m.

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TOMMY STILPHEN, a 12-year-old driver from Arundel, won his second Maine Mods series race of the season at Speedway 95 in Hermon last Saturday night.

Previously, Stilphen won a June 4 race in the open touring car series for young drivers at Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, N.H., and finished second in a May 21 race at Speedway 95.

Staff Writer Paul Betit can be contacted at 791-6424 or at:

pbetit@pressherald.com

Twitter: PaulBetitPPH

 


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