Top rookie flirted with death Andy Santerre enjoying his life in the fast lane

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The kid was 19 years old, too young to die, too alive to lie in a hospital bed for 87 days, paralyzed, screaming in pain whenever a nurse or a doctor merely touched him.

He was far too athletic to be felled like this; to have his lungs collapse and his kidneys fail. Yet there he was, knocked flat on his back, pushed perilously close to death by a virus that could attack anybody, anytime.

There were times when it became almost too much to bear, with pain so excruciating that it might have been easier to give up and die rather than fight back and beat the microscopic intruders inside him.

The kid wouldn’t give up, though. He couldn’t.

He watched his parents as they looked on helplessly, providing as much strength and support as they could while their hearts were breaking.

He thought about his past: all the memories, all the regrets. He thought about his future and wondered if he would have a chance to live it.

Nineteen years old. It certainly was too young to die. – – –

Andy Santerre could feel the G-forces against him as his car dove into turn one at 150 mph.

The scene was the New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, N.H. For Santerre, the 25-year-old native of Cherryfield, this was living at its best: being strapped into 2,000-plus pounds of horsepower-driven steel with a strong vibration rolling through his hands, up his arms, and into his shoulders.

It is hard enough to believe that such an enjoyable sensation could be reverberating through a part of Santerre’s body that, six years earlier, had been the starting point of the immense pain that led to his being diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, an acute neurological disorder caused by a virus from an unknown source.

It is even harder to believe that six years after teetering so close to death in 1987, Santerre could bounce back, learn to drive a stock car, and become the 1993 NASCAR Grand National North Rookie of the Year.

That is the way the 1993 season ended for Santerre. He outdistanced 12 other rookies on that tour to win the title and finished 10th overall in the GNN.

All of this came six years following a hospital visit from a friend who was carrying a model of a stock car. That gave Santerre the idea of becoming a stock car driver.

“I was there when they took it in, and he said if he lived to get out of there, they would do it,” said Louie Santerre, Andy’s father and a stock car racer in the Cherryfield-Ellsworth area in the 1960s. “No sooner than he got back on his feet, he bought a used car and raced the last four races (of the season). He got the fever and that was it right there.”

“I think it was something I always wanted to do,” said Santerre, who used to travel to Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough once a year to watch the races with his dad.

Once the virus rode its course from January to March, Santerre surprised everybody by actually getting into a stock car by the end of the summer.

The following year he bought a super street car and raced at Speedway 95 in Hermon. In 1990, he won the season championship in that class.

David Dow, a Bangor firefighter and the friend who visited Santerre with the model race car, knew his friend would be a success behind the wheel.

“I guess he was just born that way,” Dow said. “Andy’s hit all the right numbers. And he’ll make it. I’m confident of it. I don’t think he realized he had the talent until he got started. It just came so natural to him.”

After a couple of tough financial years of trying to race on the American Canadian Tour, Santerre and his crew picked certain races through the rest of 1991.

He got a lucky break late in ’92 and got hooked up with O’Connor GMC of Augusta, the team that boasted long-time Maine racing legend Mike Rowe as its driver.

Rowe had left the team, so O’Connor, at the urging of engine builder Dave McMaster and car builder Stan Meserve, offered Santerre the opportunity to drive.

After running in a couple of races at the end of the ’92 season, they ran the full schedule this season, leading to Santerre’s Rookie of the Year honor.

“That’s what we had talked about,” said Santerre. “The rookie thing was the big thing. We talked about that and finishing in the top 10 in points.”

“We really had a super year,” said team owner Mike O’Connor. “When we went into the season, Andy didn’t have a lot of experience in a (NASCAR) car. He did a great job.”

Santerre edged out Tom Bolles of Ellington, Conn., by 14 points. The deciding race came down to a road course feature at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut. Santerre finished fifth, his best finish of the season. It was scheduled as the next-to-last race of the year. It became the final race when a New Hampshire International Speedway feature was rained out.

Santerre is looking for better things next year.

While O’Connor is seeking a major sponsor, Santerre is still the owner’s driver of choice. The two would like to make a run at the overall championship next season.

Santerre’s competitors see a driver who has the tools to do it.

“He’s got the right attitude, and he was a real pleasure to race with this year,” said Robbie Crouch of Georgia, Vt., a 21-year racing veteran. “I think if he’s ambitious enough, there’s no limit to what he can do.”

While his driving has improved through years of practice, Santerre said his hospital stay made him a better person.

“I was 19 years old and had never been in the hospital,” he recalled. “I guess I was pretty concentrated on just getting better. I never let my spirit down. It changed my personality. I was forced to drop everything for six months. I laid there and had plenty of time to think. I turned out to be a better person after that.”

Now, he’s focused on making himself a better stock car driver – something else Andy Santerre seems to be doing with success.

See TOP on Page 22

– from page 17

“He’s got the right attitude, and he was a real pleasure to race with this year. I think if he’s ambitious enough, there’s no limit to what he can do.”

– Robbie Crouch

Top rookie racer got second effort

By John Nash Of the NEWS Staff

The kid was 19 years old, too young to die, too alive to lie in a hospital bed for 87 days, paralyzed, screaming in pain whenever a nurse or a doctor merely touched him.

He was far too athletic to be felled like this; to have his lungs collapse and his kidneys fail. Yet there he was, knocked flat on his back, pushed perilously close to death by a virus that could attack anybody, anytime.

There were times when it became almost too much to bear, with pain so excruciating that it might have been easier to give up and die rather than fight back and beat the microscopic intruders inside him.

The kid wouldn’t give up, though. He couldn’t.

He watched his parents as they looked on helplessly, providing as much strength and support as they could while their hearts were breaking.

He thought about his past: all the memories, all the regrets. He thought about his future and wondered if he would have a chance to live it.

Nineteen years old. It certainly was too young to die. – – –

Andy Santerre could feel the G-forces against him as his car dove into turn one at 150 mph.

The scene was the New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, N.H. For Santerre, the 25-year-old native of Cherryfield, this was living at its best: being strapped into 2,000-plus pounds of horsepower-driven steel with a strong vibration rolling through his hands, up his arms, and into his shoulders.

It is hard enough to believe that such an enjoyable sensation could be reverberating through a part of Santerre’s body that, six years earlier, had been the starting point of the immense pain that led to his being diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, an acute neurological disorder caused by a virus from an unknown source.

It is even harder to believe that six years after teetering so close to death in 1987, Santerre could bounce back, learn to drive a stock car, and become the 1993 NASCAR Grand National North Rookie of the Year.

That is the way the 1993 season ended for Santerre. He outdistanced 12 other rookies on that tour to win the title and finished 10th overall in the GNN.

All of this came six years following a hospital visit from a friend who was carrying a model of a stock car. That gave Santerre the idea of becoming a stock car driver.

“I was there when they took it in, and he said if he lived to get out of there, they would do it,” said Louie Santerre, Andy’s father and a stock car racer in the Cherryfield-Ellsworth area in the 1960s. “No sooner than he got back on his feet, he bought a used car and raced the last four races (of the season). He got the fever and that was it right there.”

“I think it was something I always wanted to do,” said Santerre, who used to travel to Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough once a year to watch the races with his dad.

Once the virus rode its course from January to March, Santerre surprised everybody by actually getting into a stock car by the end of the summer.

The following year he bought a super street car and raced at Speedway 95 in Hermon. In 1990, he won the season championship in that class.

David Dow, a Bangor firefighter and the friend who visited Santerre with the model race car, knew his friend would be a success behind the wheel.

“I guess he was just born that way,” Dow said. “Andy’s hit all the right numbers. And he’ll make it. I’m confident of it. I don’t think he realized he had the talent until he got started. It just came so natural to him.”

After a couple of tough financial years of trying to race on the American Canadian Tour, Santerre and his crew picked certain races through the rest of 1991.

He got a lucky break late in ’92 and got hooked up with O’Connor GMC of Augusta, the team that boasted long-time Maine racing legend Mike Rowe as its driver.

Rowe had left the team, so O’Connor, at the urging of engine builder Dave McMaster and car builder Stan Meserve, offered Santerre the opportunity to drive.

After running in a couple of races at the end of the ’92 season, they ran the full schedule this season, leading to Santerre’s Rookie of the Year honor.

“That’s what we had talked about,” said Santerre. “The rookie thing was the big thing. We talked about that and finishing in the top 10 in points.”

“We really had a super year,” said team owner Mike O’Connor. “When we went into the season, Andy didn’t have a lot of experience in a (NASCAR) car. He did a great job.”

Santerre edged out Tom Bolles of Ellington, Conn., by 14 points. The deciding race came down to a road course feature at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut. Santerre finished fifth, his best finish of the season. It was scheduled as the next-to-last race of the year. It became the final race when a New Hampshire International Speedway feature was rained out.

Santerre is looking for better things next year.

While O’Connor is seeking a major sponsor, Santerre is still the owner’s driver of choice. The two would like to make a run at the overall championship next season.

Santerre’s competitors see a driver who has the tools to do it.

“He’s got the right attitude, and he was a real pleasure to race with this year,” said Robbie Crouch of Georgia, Vt., a 21-year racing veteran. “I think if he’s ambitious enough, there’s no limit to what he can do.”

While his driving has improved through years of practice, Santerre said his hospital stay made him a better person.

“I was 19 years old and had never been in the hospital,” he recalled. “I guess I was pretty concentrated on just getting better. I never let my spirit down. It changed my personality. I was forced to drop everything for six months. I laid there and had plenty of time to think. I turned out to be a better person after that.”

Now, he’s focused on making himself a better stock car driver – something else Andy Santerre seems to be doing with success.