2011-10-20

Wayne Helliwell, Jr. Locks Up Second Ford Blue Oval Title

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                     ACT-101711-64

Waterbury, VT – For the second straight year, Wayne Helliwell, Jr. of Dover, NH and car owner Bruce Bernhardt won the Ford Blue Oval Cup Challenge and the $5,000 top prize. The E-Keys 4 Cars team competed in a total of 21 eligible events, which was the most of any of the fifteen Challenge teams.

 

The former Lee USA Speedway Championship team competed full-time on the ACT Late Model Tour for the first time in 2011. They finished second in the ACT final standings.

Including weekly wins at affiliate tracks, Twin State Speedway (Claremont, NH) and Waterford Speedbowl (Waterford, CT), Helliwell earned 9 top fives and 15 top tens during his 21 races. He earned three podium finishes during the 12-event ACT season at White Mountain Motorsports Park (N. Woodstock, NH), Beech Ridge Motor Speedway (Scarborough, ME) and Circuit Riverside Speedway (Ste-Croix, QC).

“This has been a great program for our race team,” said Bruce Bernhardt. “We set a goal to try and repeat as winners of the Blue Oval Challenge and decided to race as many races as we could to achieve that. I am very proud of our team and appreciate the support that Ford has given us over the past couple of years.”

Joey Polewarczyk, Jr. of Hudson, NH finished second in the Blue Oval Cup standings for the second straight season. He scored three Ford wins, including the Goodyear Speedweeks Cup at New Smyrna Speedway (New Smyrna, FL) in February and the Rent-A-Wreck Fall Foliage 200 at Airborne Speedway (Plattsburgh, NY) last weekend.

Second place Blue Oval winner Joey Polewarczyk, Jr. said, “I think it is great that Ford has supported the ACT racing in our region. We really wanted to win the Challenge this year, and, after our win in Florida, felt our chances were pretty good. In 2011 we had no problems with our engine program, but things are so competitive in ACT racing that we tried a bunch of new things on chassis set-up and fell behind for the first part of the season. We kind of got things together by the end of the year, but Wayne (Helliwell) and his team are not easy to catch when you fall behind. Like the Red Sox, I guess we will just have to wait until next year,” said Polewarczyk.

During its second full season as part of the American Canadian Tour Late Model rule book, the Ford S347JR engine earned over a dozen wins. Ford Racing handed out nearly $20,000 during the 2011 season.

The field of Ford powered ACT Late Models doubled this season, and for the second straight year Ford earned a track championship. In 2010, Helliwell won the Lee USA Speedway title in his Ford, while this season Dave Pembroke of Middlesex, VT earned his second career Thunder Road International Speedbowl (Barre, VT) Championship. Pembroke earned two feature wins on his way to the championship in his first season in a Ford.

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

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Attached Photos:

pic1.jpg – 2011 Blue Oval Cup Champion Wayne Helliwell, Jr. (27NH) competing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with Jimmy Linardy (77MA) and Dennis Spencer, Jr. (3ME). Photo by Alan Ward.

pic2.jpg – Joey Polewarczyk, Jr. wins the ACT season finale at Airborne Speedway (Plattsburgh, NY). Photo by Leif Tillotson.

pic3.jpg – 2011 Thunder Road Track Champion Dave Pembroke (44VT) and fellow Blue Oval Cup Challenge competitor John Donahue (26VT) battle at Thunder Road (Barre, VT). Photo by Alan Ward

 

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