Sue Santerre at home on racetrack Auto racing no longer ‘boring’ for public relations director/wife of driver

Sue Harris was a typical daughter.

Her father, Kurt, enjoyed watching stock car racing and she couldn’t understand how he could sit and focus on cars going around in a circle for hours at a time.

“I said “Why are you watching that stupid thing? It’s so boring.”

So after defending the sport, he offered his daughter an opportunity to justify her theory.

“He told me he would take me to one race and if I didn’t enjoy it after knowing what was going on and being there live, we’ll never have this discussion again,” said Sue, who is now Sue Santerre, the public relations director for her husband Andy’s Busch Grand National team, Santerre-Reece Motorsports. “He took me to a Winston Cup race at Michigan International Speedway. I was amazed.”

She was attending Kent State University in her native Ohio at the time and decided that she wanted to be involved with auto racing in some capacity.

She changed her major to advertising and public relations and eventually secured an internship at Watkins Glen International raceway (N.Y.).

“I called every track on the Winston Cup circuit looking for a job. NASCAR offered me an internship in the fall but I had to complete it in the summer in order to graduate,” said Sue Santerre. “So I took the internship at Watkins Glen, moved myself to New York for four months, met Andy there and the rest is history.”

Sue and Andy actually met at a couple of Busch North races in the area and Andy actually won his first Busch North race at Apple Valley Speedway (N.Y.) the night he met Sue. He raced the next night in Holland (N.Y.) also, and, the following weekend, they renewed acquaintances at Watkins Glen.

“I said ‘Remember me?’ and arranged for her to go to Jennerstown (Pa.) with my team for the next race the weekend after that,” said Santerre. “That was our first date. We’ve been together ever since.”

Sue Santerre has been her husband’s public relations director and all-purpose right-hand woman for over five years.

In addition to writing press releases and arranging interviews, she has done virtually everything from buying sandwiches for the crew to making sure her husband gets to the airport on time.

“She has done every job except working on the cars. She does anything office-related and handles the day-to-day operations. She also does the bookkeeping for the team, pays all the bills, writes the checks and answers the phones,” said Andy. “If I hadn’t met her, I’d probably be driving for somebody else. I’m not organized enough to handle the paperwork. I wouldn’t be an owner.”

Auto racing is still a male-dominated sport but Sue Santerre feels right at home in racing circles and said women might be better-suited to public relations than men.

“I’m surprised there aren’t more women involved, to be quite honest,” said Sue Santerre. “To do what I do takes a lot of organization and you have to know what’s going on all the time. No offense to men but most men aren’t that way.

“I’m not saying I’m the best public relations person out there. But I think I’m pretty good at it. I’ll do anything I can to help Andy,” said Sue.

The hours are long.

You spend a lot of time on the road.

“I enjoy it,” said Sue Santerre. “But it boils down to you really having to be a race fan. I love racing. I absolutely love it. But it still wears on me.”

She says wives of the drivers are more involved in their husbands’ careers than people might think.

“You may not see them do as much as I do but that doesn’t mean they don’t do anything,” said Sue Santerre, who is 31. “They really do a lot.”

Sue Santerre said the fact she and her husband of five years don’t have any children as yet enable her to put in the countless hours.

“The reason we’ve held off having kids is I’m so involved in this,” said Sue. “Andy needs my help [with the business]. When we reach the point where he doesn’t need my help and doesn’t rely on me, we’ll probably start a family.

“Then I won’t be as involved with the business. I can’t ever foresee myself ever being completely out of the sport. I’ll be doing something in some capacity with Andy forever.”