In racing, perfect is a word that is rarely used. But Sunday at Lee USA Speedway (NH), it was the only word that came to mind for Dillon Moltz when he described his performance in the season-opening New Hampshire Governor’s Cup for the American-Canadian Tour.

Moltz started off the day strong by winning his 12-lap heat race.  After playing it patient for the first 50 laps of the 150-lap event, Moltz went on the attack snatching the lead from Jonathan Bouvrette on lap 56. From there, Moltz could not be touched, with the race’s one yellow flag on Lap 98 not being much of a hindrance. Per ACT rules, lapped cars do not fall to the back on restarts until the very end of the race. Moltz had about six lap cars behind him, which gave him room to set sail again for the final 52 laps.

“It’s very rare you get perfect days in racing, and this was one of them. Everything worked our way.  We unloaded fast, only made small adjustments.  I took my time for a bit at the beginning there, and I had a good enough car to do whatever I wanted,” Moltz told Speed51.com powered by JEGS. “For once I wanted the lapped cars to work in my favor, it seems like I’m always on the opposite end when I have to make my way through lap cars. I wanted to put enough distance between me and second place where I didn’t have to worry about it.”

It is the first career win for “Thrillin’ Dillon” at Lee, giving Moltz and the RB Performance No. 5 CT team a lot of confidence heading to Thunder Road next week.  It also gives them the hope of hunting down the ACT championship.

“It’s a great feeling to have a car be able to do that, our crew put in a ton of hours on it to prepare for Lee.  I can’t thank Mark Brackett and the guys at RB Performance enough. Total team effort, great way to start the season.”

Behind Moltz in the runner-up spot was NASCAR Pinty’s Series driver and former Serie ACT champion Alex Labbe who thought it was one of the hardest runner-up finishes he’s ever had to work for. Labbe started the day spinning in his heat and qualifying through the consi to start 12^th. Labbe also played the patience game much of the day, also overcoming a bad restart on Lap 98, to put on a drive that wowed the crowd, including his Quebec fans that made the trip south.

“It was a lot of work, wish we didn’t have to go to the consi.  The one caution I went backwards on the restart, but we made our way through traffic,” Labbe said after the race. “We worked a lot on the car, we came with a lot of new stuff.  We weren’t sure before the race of where we needed to be, but the guys did a really great job. We had speed on the outside, that helped us pass cars in the back, it was pretty intense.”

Labbe will compete full time on NASCAR Pinty’s Series and will make a few appearances in ACT both north and south of the border in 2017.

The American-Canadian Tour is back at it in one week, Sunday, April 30 at Thunder Road in Barre, Vermont for the Merchant’s Bank 150.

Race fans can find on-demand updates by visiting Speed51.com’s Trackside Now coverage presented by Larue.

-By Connor Sullivan, Speed51.com CT, MA & Long Island Editor – Twitter: @Connor51CT

-Photo Credit: Speed51.com

Unofficial Results

Perfect Day Leads Moltz to NH Gov Cup Victory Lane at Lee