East Montpelier, VT – Two weeks after receiving the 36th annual Don MacTavish Award for outstanding lifelong contribution to the sport of stock car racing, 61 year-old American-Canadian Tour (ACT) and Thunder Road Int’l Speedbowl Late Model veteran Joey Laquerre (left) has announced that he will make a bid for the Tiger Tour championship in 2005. Laquerre will also continue his efforts on the ACT Late Model Tour and in weekly Late Model competition at Barre, VT’s Thunder Road.

The 1982 Thunder Road and Vermont State Tiger Sportsman Champion, Laquerre is the only driver to have won a feature event in each of Thunder Road’s five decades of racing, and has made his home on the ACT Late Model Tour since 1992. In 2004, Laquerre won the ACT Late Model Tour’s New England Dodge Dealers 100 at White Mountain Motorsports Park in North Woodstock, NH, and finished a career-best fifth in overall standings. He also finished fifth overall in weekly Late Model standings at Thunder Road, and picked up the tenth win of his career in the division.

“Running the Tiger Tour will be a lot of fun for me,” Laquerre said (top right - 1992; bottom right - 1984). “The drivers that are there are in it for the fun, not the glory, and that’s the way racing should be.” Laquerre is latest in a large group of drivers to show interest in the all-new Tiger Tour. ACT’s intermediate Tiger Sportsman division is widely known for its inexpensive race cars, and two- and three-wide racing in Thunder Road’s weekly events. “It is by no means an entry-level division,” Laquerre continued, “and the drivers are far from entry-level. They pay attention to their cars, their driving, and their pocketbook, and that has made them all very good racers. I’m very excited about doing this.”

The eight-race Tiger Tour will hold extra-distance events at five race tracks across the Northeast, including the season-opening Spring Green 100 at Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh, NY on Saturday, May 7. Canaan (NH) Fair Speedway’s Tiger Sportsman drivers will square off against the Tiger Tour regulars four times in 2005, including a 100-lap event on Saturday, May 14.

Thunder Road’s WDEV Radio 100 on Thursday, June 23, and a 100-lap event at White Mountain Motorsports Park on Saturday, August 20, also highlight the schedule. The 50-lap season finale will be held in conjunction with the ACT Late Model Tour’s “Super Series 150” at Lee (NH) USA Speedway on Sunday, September 25. For more information on ACT and the Tiger Tour, visit www.acttour.com or call (802) 244-6963.