LOUDON -- The motorcycles put a wrap on the 89th annual Loudon Classic Weekend this afternoon and then move on out of town.

Ryan Newman, the defending champion of the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, stopped by for a visit on Wednesday and returns to the track in a few weeks to try and back up his triumph with another.

Next weekend, the spotlight is back on the assorted racetracks around the state.

One of the highlighted events of the weekend ahead is the American Canadian Tour’s visit to White Mountain Motorsports Park in North Woodstock, just off I-93, on Saturday night.

There, in a 150-lap event on the quarter-mile oval, Wayne Helliwell Jr. of Dover and Joey “Joey Pole” Polewarczyk of Hudson and the other ACT regulars will try to crank up the pressure on Vermont’s Brian Hoar even a little bit more.

Hoar owns eight ACT season championships and has dominated the series in the last three seasons especially.

“Last year, he probably had a 90-point lead in the standings by this time,” Pole said on Friday. “He’s not comfortable and that’s where we’ve got to keep him. You’re bound to make more mistakes when you’re feeling that way. Everyone is putting pressure on him and he’s never had to feel that the last couple of years.”

It’s way early in the season, to be sure, but through four of the 10 points races in the series, Hoar is sitting third with 344 points, behind Helliwell at 355 and Pole at 353.

Helliwell, in his first year on the tour, finished second to Hoar in the standings last year and Pole was sixth. Pole was second to Hoar in 2010.

This year, Pole is solidly focused on the ACT and with more than a month between the last race at Oxford Plains and White Mountain, he’s zeroed in on this one.

He ran a weekly event there last week and on Friday morning was headed to the track to do some testing.

“We want to be perfect for that race,” he said. “We’ve paid more attention to this race than to any other this year. We’ve had good finishes at White Mountain, but I’ve always felt we could be better.”

Last year, John Donahue won the White Mountain race, Randy Potter of Groveton was second, Helliwell was third and Hoar fourth.

Pole was 24th.

“I felt we had one of the best cars there, but I got racing too early,” Pole said. “I got caught on the outside and someone must have not known I was there and I got into the wall. It tore up the right side of the car and it made for a long, long night.”

Pole said he’s tried to take a different approach to his racing these days.

“That’s been my thing this year, to not be too antsy in the beginning and let things come to me,” he said. “I’ve always been the type that wanted to go and get to the front and make things happen. You can have better results if you let things happen, rather than try to make them happen.”

He’ll try to make the theory work next Saturday.

The White Mountain race is the second and final ACT stop in New Hampshire this season as far as points races go.

The tour opened at Lee USA Speedway in mid-April.

The ACT Invitational will be back at NHMS on Sept. 22 as part of the Sylvania 300 Cup weekend, but that race does not count in the standings.

- - - - - - - -

The Cup countdown is on to the Lenox Industrial Tools 301.

After today’s race at Michigan International Speedway, the series heads West to the road course at Sonoma in California next Sunday, hits Kentucky Motor Speedway on June 30, Daytona on July 7 and Loudon on July 15.

Newman sits tied for 14th in the standings with Joey Logano going into this afternoon’s race. Newman would qualify as the last of the 12 racers in the Chase to the Sprint Cup if the 10-race Chase started today, thanks to a win at Martinsville on April 1.

“Things have been up and down,” Newman said at NHMS. “Obviously, Martinsville was awesome for us. Since then we haven’t been that strong and we need to be a little bit better. ... I think we’ll get things turned around. We’re still in a championship-contending position.”

Matt Kenseth replaced Roush Fenway Racing teammate Greg Biffle atop the Cup standings after last week’s race at Pocono.

Biffle finished 24th and slipped to third in points. Kenseth moved up with his seventh-place finish. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished eighth and climbed a spot to second.

Allen Lessels covers motor sports for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. He may be reached at alessels@unionleader.com.