Tire, brakes cost Mainer Santerre cars vying for first

LOUDON, N.H. – Cherryfield’s Andy Santerre hasn’t caught a break in the Busch Grand National series this season and it was a bad brake that cost him dearly on Saturday.

After running in the top seven for virtually all of the first 142 laps, and getting as high as fourth, Santerre lost his brakes while running fifth on lap 142 and wound up 27th in the CVS Pharmacy 200 at New Hampshire International Speedway Saturday afternoon.

However, a few hours later, it looked as though the co-owner of the Santerre-Reece Motorsports Team would salvage a dose of satisfaction when Tom Carey Jr. appeared en route to a comfortable victory in the CVS Pharmacy 125 Busch North series race.

But the right front tire on Carey’s Santerre-Reece Chevy Monte Carlo blew with only three laps remaining and he had to settle for a 14th place finish..

Orange, Mass., native Carey had built a 10 car-length lead over eventual winner Ted Christopher at the time.

“It was pretty frustrating. Santerre-Reece Motorsports took a beating here in New Hampshire this weekend,” said Santerre. “But we’re not going to give up. We proved we can build good race cars and can run in the top five. We had two great cars.

“It’s pretty disappointing either way [as an owner or driver],” added Santerre. “We’re a low-budget deal and when you bring the cars home like that, it makes it even tougher to pay the bills. But Tom did a heckuva’ job. I’m proud of everybody. I just wish we could have ended where we started.”

Unity native Stan Meserve, the crew chief for both, said, “Both cars were very good. You couldn’t get them much better. Tom’s tire just blew out. There was no real reason for it. The wear pattern was perfect. The tires weren’t abused.”

Carey agreed that there was no sign of tire wear.

“When I went down into turn three, it felt good. Then I put it right through the middle and it felt good. I got back on the gas and it turned right [and went into the wall]. It was out of my hands at that point. I must have run over something. It was an awesome car,” said Carey, who started 13th.

The day had a promising start.

Santerre started ninth, one slot behind Scarborough’s Joe Bessey, and had moved up two places by lap 16.

He moved up to fourth by lap 74 and took on four new tires when most of the cars pitted between laps 90-94.

He was running a comfortable fifth when he lost his brakes.

“I had something go wrong with the rear caliper and the brake fluid ran out and caused my brake pedal to go all the way to the floor. So I had to slow down,” Santerre said. “I rode around for 20 laps hoping to catch a caution but I couldn’t. Of course, after I pitted and we worked on the brakes, the caution came out.”

Santerre, who like Carey was sponsored by Team E.J. Prescott of Gardiner, finished nine laps back of winner Jason Keller and pocketed $9,186.

“The car was good all day long. It was a brand new car that had never been run. I think we would have finished in the top three [without the brake problems]. I was pretty much saving it until the end. But we’ll never know. We didn’t get the finish we deserved but we’ll be back,” said Santerre who ran in the top five in two of his three previous BGN races only to have an accident and a bad pit stop cost him potential top 10 finishes. He hasn’t cracked the top 23 yet this season.

“We’ve had some bad luck. We’ve got a monkey on our backs that isn’t helping us. But we’re going to get it off, come here and win a race,” said Santerre.

Bessey finished 22nd, one lap down, and took home $11, 401.

“It wasn’t a bad day. We didn’t get in any trouble. It’s just hard when you run a limited schedule to keep up with these guys,” said Bessey. “I was pretty happy with the car the first half of the race. Then we had some problems in the pit. I stalled the car taking off on the first green flag pit stop and we got behind there. That’s what led to us getting a lap down. But we were steady. I got knocked around a couple times and could have been in the fence but I was able to save it and that made me feel like it was a pretty good day.”

British driver Stevie Hodgson drove Bessey’s back-up Chevy Monte Carlo but completed only four laps due to a transmission problem and wound up 36th among the 37-car field.

In the Busch North race, Scarborough’s Kelly Moore, who is returning full-time to Busch North after gaining sponsorship from NAPA Auto Parts, was the pole-sitter but had to settle for sixth. He was the highest Maine finisher but was never really in the hunt for the win.

“The car was tight. We bent a sway bar. The sway bar wasn’t even working. It was just laying over. So it was tight through the corners,” said Moore. “But we’re happy with [sixth]. It’s a new car [Monte Carlo]. It’s got a few new engineering things on it. We’ll bring it back and we’ll be better next time. We were good for one lap [qualifying]. Now we’ve got to make it good for 125 laps.”

The only other Maine driver to finish in the top 10 was eighth-place finisher Tracy Gordon of Strong. Gordon won five Busch North races a year ago and the season-opener at Lee USA Speedway a couple of weeks ago.

“We were a little bit off the whole day,” said Gordon, who qualified 10th. “It was good when the sun went in for a little while because [the car] was a little bit loose. It kept going back and forth: loose, tight, loose, tight. I ended up blistering my tires and that screwed me up. At the end, I blistered my right front tire and the car was pushing really bad.”

Yarmouth’s Billy Penfold finished 11th after starting 22nd; Turner’s Ben Rowe made an 18-place improvement by finishing 12th; Detroit’s Adam Friend started 42nd but wound up 25th; Turner’s Mike Rowe, Ben’s father, had a fluid leak and tire problems that left him 26th after an 18th-place starting spot; Morrill’s Travis Benjamin overcame a first-lap collision with Barney McRae causing a flat tire and car damage to cross the finish line in 28th place after qualifying 34th and Sanford’s Mike Gallo was 29th after a 23rd starting position.