Wayne Helliwell Jr. likes the view of the American Canadian tour from where he sits.

It's not a view the driver, who lives in Dover and races out of Pelham, expected to have.

Sure, he finished runner-up last year in his debut on the series to Vermont's Brian Hoar, who added another ACT championship to his already vast collection of titles.

But to come out this year and grab a couple of wins and the points lead and hold it now with four races left in the 10-race season?

“I'm really, really surprised,” Helliwell said. “I thought last year we had an unbelievable year and finished second. I thought that was a fluke, I really did. I figured if we could come out here and be in the top five the first half of the season, it would be great. To be leading the points and to be running as well as we have is above and beyond what I expected.”

The cars he races on the ACT and in weekly events at Lee USA Speedway on Friday nights and on the dirt at Canaan Fair Speedway on Saturday nights have for the most part been fast and the luck he's had has been mostly good.

“I really can't point to one thing,” Helliwell said. “We did some things over the winter to try and improve ourselves, but a lot of it has been being in the right place at the right time and making good decisions. ... You don't have one of these seasons very often and when you do, you have to cherish it.”

Helliwell is racing Super Modifieds at Lee and Late Models at Canaan and along with the ACT tour he's competing in the NASCAR Whelen All American Series, a national points competition among local tracks.

In 20 starts at Lee and Canaan, he has 11 wins. He's 12th in points in the country and is shooting for a top ten finish, which would earn him an invitation to race in Daytona next February.

As for the ACT, there's much work yet to be done, starting with the next two races in the series, both in Quebec. The tour stops at Sanair Super Speedway on Aug. 11 and Circuit Riverside Speedway on Aug. 25.

Helliwell owns a 16-point lead over Austin Theriault, who won last week's race at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough, Maine, and has a 32-point edge on Hudson's Joey Polewarczyk and Hoar.

“If I had a bad day and not really a bad day, but if I finished seventh or eighth and one of those guys win, they could take over the points' lead,” Helliwell said.

For now at least, he'll keep the lead as the series heads north.

Not that he's had a whole lot of time to enjoy the lofty perch.

“When you race on Friday night and Saturday and on the ACT you may be doing well, but you don't get to enjoy a Friday night,” Helliwell said. “You've got to be ready to go on Saturday morning. I can't wait for the end of the season, to be able to relax and look back at everything.”

Next weekend's schedule is particularly tight.

Helliwell's Late Model team likely will head to Sanair on Friday. He'll stay behind and race Friday night at Lee, which is featuring the Ollie Silva Memorial ISMA Super Modified Summer Classic.

Then Helliwell and one of his crew members will drive the five hours or so through the night and get to Sanair in plenty of time for the opening of the pits at 9.

It's a trip Helliwell made a couple of weeks ago to get in some testing at a track the ACT has not visited in several years.

“I think we have something we can work with,” Helliwell said. “Hopefully we got a jump on the rest of the field. Only 12 drivers showed up, and none of the other frontrunners were there.”

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Six races and counting until the 12-driver field for the Chase to the Sprint Cup championship is set after the race at Richmond on Sept. 8.

Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch hold down the two wild card spots that are based on wins and go to drivers 11th to 20th in the points. Kahne solidified his spot with his triumph in the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 last month at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, which was his second win of the season.

Kyle Busch has one win and is 11th in points, which makes him the second wild card going into today's Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono. Busch was 30th in the June race at Pocono, but in three races before that at the track had a pair of seconds and a third-place finish.

Ryan Newman, 14th in points, and Joey Logano, 17th, can each help their cause in a major way with a win in the next six races. Logano won at Pocono in June and Newman was 12th.

Time is running short for Carl Edwards, who was runnerup to Tony Stewart for the Sprint Cup title last season, and four-time champ Jeff Gordon. Neither has a win this season. Edwards, 12th in points, might be able to sneak into the Chase field with one victory, but Gordon (15th) likely needs two.

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