Olsen makes late move for victory

SCARBOROUGH – The long drought has ended.

Mike Olsen of North Haverhill, N.H., passed Paul Richardson of Georgetown, Mass., with just 27 laps remaining to claim his first victory in 12 years at the Partnership for a Tobacco Free Maine Racing 150 Busch North race at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway Sunday night.

“This is awesome,” said the 33-year-old Olsen, who was second in the Busch North points race entering the race but gained 15 points on leader Mike Johnson to pull within one point of the lead.

The 34-year-old Johnson, a lifetime neighborhood friend of former University of Maine hockey standout and current New Jersey Devils right winger Bob Corkum, retained his points lead by finishing third.

Fifty-four year-old Paul Richardson of Georgetown, Mass., was second for his best finish of the season.

“If the Devils had won the Stanley Cup, a Devils logo would have been on the hood. It still may be later this season,” said Johnson, a Salisbury, Mass., native who graduated with Corkum from Trition Regional High School in 1985.

Olsen, grandson of northern New England racing legend Stub Fadden, has had several runner-up finishes over the last 12 years and said he figured a win would eventually come.

“If we kept running good, it was bound to happen and it did,” said Olsen, who survived a minor bump with Strong’s Tracy Gordon on lap 12.

“I felt bad about that. The crew was a little tense and the spotter was blaming himself for it. But it was early in the race, we had little damage and I knew we had a good car. I just didn’t want to go down a lap,” said Olsen, who kept his Chevy Monte Carlo on the lead lap. “We’ve had good cars all year.”

Olsen started second as the grid was determined by the points due to heavy downpours that forced cancellation of the time trials. Johnson had the pole and Richardson began in ninth place.

Richardson took the lead from Johnson on lap 87 but relinquished it during the pit stops that occurred between laps 97 and 103.

He regained the lead from Dale Quarterley on lap 121 but, two laps later, Olsen passed him on the inside.

“I got caught up in lapped traffic,” said Richardson who added that his car was loose after he put new tires on it during the pit stops.

Olsen praised his Little Trees crew for doing a “great job” on his pit stop and the evidence came during restarts on lap 135 and 148. There was a caution on lap 148 but the mandatory green-white checkered rule forbids the race to end on a yellow so two final laps are run under green.

On both restarts, Olsen cruised to lengthy leads.

“The car took off on those restarts,” said Olsen.

Richardson said, “I couldn’t run with him.”

Rounding out the top 10 were Dave Dion of Hudson, N.H., Brian Hoar of Willliston, Vt., Brad Leighton of Center Harbor, N.H., Bryan Wall of Plaistow, N.H., Dennis Demers of Shelburne, Vt., Quarterley of Westfield, Mass. and Gordon.

Turner’s Mike Rowe finished 13th and Scarborough’s Kelly Moore was 14th.

Moore was penalized for entering the pits while they were closed and had to start at the back of the longest line of cars. That placed him 19th with only 50 laps to go.

Gordon, who started third, was never in serious contention after the accident with Olsen on lap 12.

Morrill’s Travis Benjamin, a rookie on the Busch North tour, finished 25th and was two laps down; Eliot’s Carey Heath, the only woman driver, was 27th and finished only 84 laps due to a fuel pump problem and Yarmouth’s Billy Penfold wound up last in the 30-car field with a mechanical problem to the car’s rear end.

There were six cautions for 46 laps.