Gabe Brown Claims Pivotal ACT Fall Foliage 200 Victory at White Mountain

Gabe Brown entered Saturday’s American-Canadian Tour (ACT) Fall Foliage 200 at White Mountain Motorsports Park as the series’ points leader, but still seeking his first ACT win of the season.

Brown changed that in a big way, winning the 46th Fall Foliage 200 presented by Bar Harbor Bank & Trust and adding to his points lead while most of his fellow title contenders ran into trouble.

The Center Conway, New Hampshire driver was dominant, taking the lead for the first time on lap 26. He held the top spot until pitting on lap 69, retaking the lead on lap 137.

From there, Brown led the rest of the way for a big win.

“This race car is unreal,” said Brown. “I told you last week, there’s nothing like your own race car. Each and every one of these guys right here works their asses off for me. This thing’s been unreal this year.

“We should have gotten the [Midsummer Classic] 250, too, and every White Mountain race we’ve won this year. We’ll settle for taking the 200 and taking the bank money back to Conway.”

The win will also increase Brown’s ACT points lead. Second-place points runner Derek Gluchacki fell out of the running after just 34 laps and finished 28th. Meanwhile, third-place D.J. Shaw finished 13th after being involved in a late accident while battling in the top five.

Rookie of the Year contender Kasey Beattie, escaped the chaos to finish second.

“We pitted a little bit early, and I think I used it up a little too much driving to the front, gave my advantage away,” said Beattie. “He was able to drive by me. Congrats to those guys, they deserve it. They’ve been in position every race and just had misfortune.”

Alexendre Tardif, tied with Beattie for fourth in points entering the evening, rounded out the podium as the highest-finishing Canadian driver in the field.

“It was a really good race,” said Tardif. “It was hard to pass on the bottom. Our car was a little bit too tight, but we gave it our all and finished third, and we’re pretty happy about that.”

Jamie Swallow finished fourth, with Joey Polewarczyk, Jr. rounding out the top five.

ACT teams will next head to Thunder Road International Speedbowl for the historic Vermont Milk Bowl presented by Northfield Savings Bank on October 5-6.

-Photo credit: Connor Sullivan