Eddie and crew
chief/co-owner Rollie LaChance teamed up for an impressive win
in the American-Canadian Tour Time Warner Cable 100 at the famed
Oxford Plains Speedway Saturday night. Forty-five cars tried to
qualify for the thirty-three starting spots. Eddie started in
the third position on the grid after winning his heat. Strategy
played an important role in the win since the race was
caution-free lasting only twenty-eight minutes.
“Since the race was 100 laps, I just tried to take it easy and
save my tires for the end. I don’t think anyone expected it to
go without a caution, so when I looked and saw it was lap 67
already, I decided I better get up on the wheel and get back a
couple of spots I lost earlier,” said Eddie after the race.
With the laps quickly winding down, Eddie began his charge to
the front using lapped cars to his advantage saying, “Brown got
slowed down by the lapped traffic and that gave me a chance to
pick off some cars. He got boxed in and that gave me a chance to
get by him.” With twelve laps to go, Eddie passed Brown for the
lead. Ricky Rolfe put on a late charge but Eddie again used the
lapped cars to his benefit.
Eddie said in victory lane, “With a couple of laps to go I was
able to get up alongside the #77 car (lapped) and stay there. It
feels good to finally win one. We have had some great runs in
this car. Rollie did a great job setting it up and it handled
awesome. This was a big win for us since we have been so close.”
Rollie and Eddie were right back at work preparing their road
course car for the Busch East Series race at Lime Rock Park this
Saturday. “We have a ton of work to do on the car but we will be
ready for Saturday and hope to repeat what we did here tonight.”
The MacDonald Motorsports team will run the remainder of the
Busch East Series schedule including the races at Lime Rock, New
Hampshire International Speedway, Mansfield, and Dover.
Eddie’s win at Stafford Motor Speedway guarantees him a start in
the Toyota All-Star Showdown in Irwindale California pitting the
best in the East against the best in the West.
|
ACT Press Release
Outlaw
stock car racer Eddie MacDonald of Rowley, MA made his first
American-Canadian Tour (ACT) main event start of the season a
good one on Saturday night at Maine’s Oxford Plains Speedway,
taking his first career ACT Late Model Tour win in an exciting
caution-free Time Warner Cable 100 that was completed in under
29 minutes. MacDonald made a daring inside move underneath
recent TD Banknorth 250 Champion “Rocket” Roger Brown of
Lancaster, NH to take the lead with ten circuits remaining, then
held off a fast-closing Ricky Rolfe in heavy lapped traffic for
the victory.
“We’re glad to finally get a win with this car,” MacDonald said
in victory lane. “It’s been real fast every time out, and my
crew did an awesome job getting the car ready tonight.”
MacDonald, expecting the
yellow flag to fly early in the race, was biding his time before
making a move on race leader Brown. “It was nice to have no
yellow flags, but I was taking it easy at the beginning thinking
that there was going to be a yellow,” he said. “I looked up at
the scoreboard once and it said lap 67, and I said ‘Wow, I
better get on it.’ Luckily the lapped cars slowed the leaders
down so I could catch them.”
MacDonald, 27, has been
picking and choosing his race events in 2007, and was making
just his second ACT Late Model Tour appearance of the year. His
first attempt, which also came at Oxford Plains Speedway in
April, found him missing out on a qualified starting position.
Since then, he has been a part-time competitor in weekly events
at OPS with multiple top-five finishes, and took a main event
win on the NASCAR Busch East Series at Stafford Springs, CT
earlier in the year. His win in the Time Warner Cable 100 makes
MacDonald the eighth different ACT Late Model Tour feature
winner in eight races this season.
Rolfe, of Albany, ME, is a
weekly competitor at Oxford Plains and was an ACT Late Model
Tour feature winner in 2002. On lap 91, he passed Brown for
second place and made a charge at MacDonald with eight laps
remaining, but was unable to complete the outside-lane pass. He
settled for second place as OPS Late Model point leader Travis
Adams of Canton, ME nipped Brown at the finish line by less than
two feet for third place. Six-time ACT Late Model Tour Champion
and current point leader Jean-PauL Cyr of Milton, VT finished
fifth. |
