The series was founded in 1979 by television and radio journalist Ken Squier and business partner Tom Curley as the NASCAR North Tour, a Late Model Sportsman-type series sanctioned by NASCAR. The early schedule visited a circuit of historic short tracks across the northeastern United States and Canada, including Thunder Road in Vermont, Oxford Plains Speedway in Maine, Stafford Springs and Thompson in Connecticut, Sanair Super Speedway near Montreal, Jukasa Motor Speedway in Ontario, and Dover Motor Speedway in Delaware. Prominent competitors in the inaugural era included New England drivers Beaver Dragon, Bobby Dragon, Dave Dion, and Dick McCabe; Canadian stars Jean-Paul Cabana and Claude Leclerc; and southern visitors including Butch Lindley, Harry Gant, Bobby Allison, Buddy Baker, and Dale Earnhardt.
When NASCAR's sanction ended after 1985, Curley incorporated the roster of teams into the independent American-Canadian Tour in 1986 and transitioned from Late Model Sportsman rules to Pro Stock cars. In 1987, ACT aligned with Rex Robbins' American Speed Association of the Midwest and Bob Harmon's All-Pro Series of the Southeast, forming the Stock Car Connection, which brought events to tracks in Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Nazareth, and Nashville and drew competitors including Darrell Waltrip, Mark Martin, Dick Trickle, and Rusty Wallace.
General Motors' increased commitment to short-track racing in 1989 led to the formation of the GM Motorsport National Stock Car Series in Canada, which offered substantial prize and point funds along with coast-to-coast television coverage. Budweiser created the Bud Triple Crown as part of the series, and Ontario driver Junior Hanley earned more than $700,000 in winnings during his ACT championship years from 1991 to 1993, sweeping the Triple Crown in both 1991 and 1992.
Beginning in 1992 and taking center stage from 1996 onward, the current ACT Late Model rules became the defining format of the series. In 1999, ACT developed one of the first spec engine programs in short-track racing as a cost-containment measure, a model later adopted broadly across regional series. The spec engine expanded to include a Ford option in 2010 and the popular GM 602 crate in 2018. A uniform Hoosier Racing Tire and spec shock absorber program through Koni and QA1 complete the package.
In November 2017, ACT changed ownership for the first time in its history, with former racer Cris Michaud and Vermont businessman Pat Malone purchasing the sanctioning body after the two had partnered to buy Thunder Road earlier that year. The partnership later added New Hampshire's White Mountain Motorsports Park in 2019. Under new ownership, ACT expanded its geographic footprint, running events at tracks in Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida alongside the traditional New England schedule. Since 2020, ACT has co-promoted events at Thompson Speedway in Connecticut with the Maine-based Pro All Stars Series.
The 2023 season illustrated the competitive depth the series had built, with ACT averaging 33.3 cars per event and peaking at 49 entries attempting to qualify for the season finale at Connecticut's Waterford Speedbowl. Derek Gluchacki successfully defended his Northeast Classic victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway by a margin of just 0.060 seconds. The Community Bank 150 at Thunder Road featured 13 lead changes, and the Milton CAT Midsummer Classic 250 at White Mountain saw Last Chance winner Jesse Switser take the victory from a 31-car field.
The 2024 season marked ACT's 46th consecutive year of competition, with thirteen point-counting events in New England and Quebec. Multiple races on the schedule carried purses of $5,000 or more to win, with flagship events including the Oxford 250, the Vermont Milk Bowl, and the Sunoco World Series.
ACT-sanctioned weekly racing operates at Thunder Road International SpeedBowl in Vermont, White Mountain Motorsports Park in New Hampshire, and Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park in Connecticut. The Canadian presence is organized under the Serie ACT Quebec, which returned in 2023 after a five-year hiatus caused in part by the COVID-19 pandemic and international border closures. The revived Quebec schedule ran evenly between Autodrome Chaudiere and Autodrome Montmagny, with Raphael Lessard taking the 2023 championship for the Larue Raceteam. ACT further introduced ACT Sportsman Quebec in 2025, racing exclusively at Autodrome Montmagny.
The late model rules adopted by ACT serve as a cross-compatible standard, allowing competitors from ACT partner tracks to enter touring events with minimal preparation. Seekonk Speedway, for example, aligned its late model division with ACT rules in 2010 specifically to enable mutual participation.
Both founders were honored for their roles in growing northeastern stock car racing. Ken Squier and Tom Curley were inducted into both the New England Auto Racers Hall of Fame and the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame; Curley was voted Auto Racing Promoter of the Year by more than 1,000 race promoters across North America in 2004; and Ken Squier received a ceremonial induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2018. Tom Curley died in May 2017 following a decades-long battle with COPD; Ken Squier died in November 2023. The series continued under its 2017 ownership and carried the ACT banner into its fifth decade of competition.