Santerre races to victory at Chevrolet 150
Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
SCARBOROUGH — Defending champion and current points leader Andy Santerre of Cherryfield came out on top in a classic, lead-swapping battle with Eddie MacDonald of Rowley, Mass., to win the NASCAR Busch North Series Forest City Chevrolet 150 Saturday night at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway. The pair traded the lead seven times before Santerre made the winning pass with 14 laps remaining. Rookie Ryan Moore of Scarborough was a close third, followed by Mike Stefanik of Coventry, R.I. and Bobby Dragon of Milton, Vt.
Carey Heath of Eliot, the only female driver competing on the NASCAR touringseries full-time, had a career-high 10th place finish. Bill Penfold ofYarmouth was 14th.
Kelly Moore of Scarborough, Ryan's father, left the race after 98 laps with engine problems. So did Mike Johnson of Salisbury, Mass., the winner of last June's NASCAR Busch North Series race at Beech Ridge. Johnson won the Bud Pole, but exited after 15 laps with radiator problems.
Santerre extended his series lead to 85 points over Stefanik, with Ryan Moore holding down third place.
Wiscasset Raceway once again fell victim to the elements and wasforced pull the plug early on the Friday night program. Heat races were runin all divisions, and the Mini Stock feature was completed, but persistentdrizzle at the start of the Pro Stock feature forced track officials to putthe remainder of the program on hold until next weekend.
In action completed before the rain arrived, heat winners were Peter Oakes of Boothbay and Jeff Burgess of Oakland in the Pro Stocks, Steve Reno of West Bath in the Strong Chevrolet Modifieds, Nick Reno of West Bath in the Super Streets and Daryl Cook of Sabattus in the Street Stocks.
In the 20-lap Mini-Stock feature, Vassalboro's Brent Roy picked his way up from the back of the field to take the lead away from pole-sitter Mike Wilson of Augusta on a mid-race restart to pick up his fourth win of the season. Wilson took second place by a half-car-length over Alton Sinclair of West Gardiner.
Unity Raceway's attempt to reschedule its Stevens Window and SidingMini-Stock and Concept Automotive Mini-Truck Triple Crown Series for Sundaywas washed out, so the track will run a doubleheader next weekend. TheAdvance Auto Pro-Four Triple Crown Series will get underway Saturday at 6p.m. along with the track's weekly racing series, and the Mini-Stock andMini-Truck extra-lap events will go Sunday at 4 p.m., also with theweekly racing series.
Persistent rain Saturday and Sunday forced the postponementof the Pro All-Stars Series (PASS) 200 at Scotia Speedworld in Halifax, Nova Scotia Sunday. The race was originally scheduled to be run Saturday, but was moved to June 15 due to the weather. But shortly after the 5:15 p.m. time trials, the skies opened up again. So the race has been rescheduled for July 4. PASS already has a race on tap for July 5 at New Brunswick International Speedway near Fredericton, N.B., about four hours from Halifax.
Speedway 95 canceled its race program Saturday night due to rainand will run a special show starting at 7 p.m. Friday. The ProAll-Stars Series 150 along with the Hermon track's regular classes will runJune 21.