On the restart Bellisle gets around Mehlenbacher on the outside and takes the led. The #20 of Bill Leonard moves to the outside of Bellisle and they battle side-by-side blocking the #21 of Kyle James.

At the half-way point, Bellisle continues to lead, while James and Leonard battle for second. The #18 of Danny Field joins the fray for fourth.

The #4 of Christina Cunliffe spins in turn three and stalls sideways on the track – luckily the field was able to split and go around her without plowing into her stalled car. She is able to re-fire and rejoin the field after a pit stop – minus the hood!

With eight laps to go, Bellisle leads Leonard, Field and James to the green. They take off fairly even, going two-by-two all the way around the track. Bellisle gets loose coming off turn four20and Field tries to go the inside, but thought better of it.

Leonard pulls away from the field by at least ten car lengths with four laps to go, while Bellisle and James battle side-by-side for second and Cassidy and Field are right behind for fourth and fifth.

The white flag flies and James gets loose coming off turn four allowing Bellisle to move into second. Leonard, of Wood River Junction, Rhode Island, cruises to the win, followed by Bellisle, James, Cassidy and Field. This was Kyle James’ fifth consecutive finish in the top-five.

It was an emotional Victory lane for Leonard as he lost his brother-in-law in a car accident in Florida this past Thursday. He dedicated the win to Billy Pierson, who was a country singer.

Leonard’s wife Tina tried to convince him to stay home tonight, but he felt he had to be here to win for Billy. Leonard said he felt comfortable running side-by-side with Louie Bellisle as they are team mates.

ACT Tour - Nutmeg State 100

Leading the field to the green for the ACT Tour main event will be #55 Brad Leighton, of Center Harbor, NH. He will be followed by #02 Randy Potter, of Groveton, NH; #51 Ricky Rolfe, Albany, ME; #9 Chip Grenier, Graniteville, VT; and #37 Brian Hoar, Williston, VT.

The leaders take the green side-by-side and continue that way for a few laps. Leighton finally clears Potter and the first four cars are single file. Leighton and Potter are followed by Rolfe and Hoar. Joey Polewarczyk in th e #97 pulls alongside Hoar and battles him for fifth. They continue side-by-side for what seem like endless laps.

On lap 42 the #35 of Waterford Speedbowl late model regular, Bruce Thomas, tangles with the #18 of Jamie Fisher to bring out the caution.

Leighton brings the field back to green with #37 Brian Hoar on the outside. Thomas has not come back out on the track after the caution.  Leighton clears Hoar after several laps and the #97 of Polewarczyk joins the fray for second on the inside lane.

At the half-way point, Leighton still leads Polewarczyk and Hoar who continue to battle side-by-side for second.  However, on lap 51 the caution flies as Polewarczyk spins in turn two after contact with Hoar. Potter in the #02 is in third and #89 Scott Payea is fourth.

During the caution, Bruce Thomas stated that they would not return as they had severe damage to the radiator. The Waterford Late Models are off next weekend, so they have plenty of time to fix up the powerful #35.

Polewarczyk restarts at the back of the pack, while Leighton leads them back to green. Leighton and Hoar continue side-by-side but manage to pull away from the pack by five car lengths. Hoar shoots ahead on lap 54 to take the lead from Leighton, while the field starts to go single file.

Caution flies on lap 56 when the #82 Mark Hudson, #97 Polewarczyk, #18 Fisher and #73 tangle in turn four. They are all able to drive away. However, under caution the #16 can’t get moving and is pushed to the pits.

Hoar leads them back to=2 0the start and pulls ahead of Leighton on the first lap. Potter moves to third and the Speedbowl’s #47 Tim Jordan is fourth. Payea is fifth.

With 38 laps to go, Joe Curioso spins in turn one tagging the wall with the driver’s side. He heads to the pits while the field gets in line. Curioso returns to the field just before the field takes the green.

Leighton gets the jump on the outside this time and quickly passes Hoar for the lead. Jordan gets past Potter for third on the next circuit.

Leighton and Hoar pull away a bit, and Hoar gets to the inside of Leighton. As they cross the stripe with 37 to go, they are neck-and-neck for the lead.

The four leaders open up a20gap to the rest of the field and Leighton finally clears Hoar on lap 71. The entire field is now single file with the four leaders nose-to-tail six car lengths ahead of the rest.

Lap 75, Hoar now tries to go to the outside of Leighton but can’t quite get by. He drops back behind the #55 to regroup.

With 15 laps to go, Hoar is trying to figure out just how to get around Leighton and keep Jordan behind him. With five to go Hoar tries the outside again and manages to pull even with Leighton as they cross the stripe. It’s do or die time and they’re staying side-by-side as they cross the line again.

Unfortunately, they catch the field and Hoar manages to get by the #55 on the inside but Leighton plows into the slow #16 of Howard Payne as they cross the stripe. Somehow, the officials decided to throw the checkered flag right after the caution came out, which makes no sense as the field was coming to the line for the white flag. They seemed to have scored the last lap even though it was under caution.

Hoar takes his second win of the year, with #02 of Randy Potter second and the #47 of Tim Jordan in third. Hoar’s win at Beech Ridge two weeks ago was his first trip to victory lane in six years.

Hoar says he knows it’s always going to be exciting when racing with Brad Leighton, but he didn’t like all the wrecked cars at the end.

The clarification by ACT is that ACT rules state that if the caution flies after the field takes the white flag, anyone who crossed the line before the caution flew can race back for the finish, while the rest of the field is frozen.

Therefore, the only five cars eligible to race back included the top three finishers plus the wrecked cars of Leighton and Payne who were across the stripe as they wrecked.

Brian Hoar said his car was working great all night on the outside and he felt he was able to get off the corners better than Leighton. However, Leighton tried to slow the pace twice to not catch lapped traffic, and Hoar said he knew he would have to try the inside to get the win.

He said as they came to turn four heading for the white flag, he saw that they were going to catch the #16 and couldn’t understand why Payne headed to the top of the track with the leaders coming. He said Payne then took a hard left to head to the inside of the track and he didn’t think either of them would get by him without wrecking.