Santerre to shut down Busch GN racing team Cherryfield native plans to drive full time in 2002

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Cherryfield’s Andy Santerre had wanted to own a motorsports team. He said he has always enjoyed building race cars as much as he does racing them.

That became a reality this season when he teamed with Winston-Salem (N.C.) businessman Mike Reece to form the Santerre-Reece Motorsports team for NASCAR’s Busch Grand National division.

But it has been a difficult year for Santerre and the Santerre-Reece team will shut down indefinitely on Oct. 10 due to a lack of sponsorship.

However, Santerre said he has talked to several Busch Grand National teams and he anticipates driving full-time next season.

“Nothing has been finalized yet. But there are some pretty good prospects. I’m sure I’ll have a ride. The worst-case scenario would be having a part-time deal. It looks like I’ll have a full-time deal,” said the 33-year-old Santerre.

He will be back behind a steering wheel on Saturday for the Mr. Goodcents 300 at the new Kansas Speedway. Santerre will be filling in for the injured Steve Park in his Whelen Engineering No. 31 Chevrolet. Park, also a Winston Cup driver, has a head injury that could sideline him for the rest of the season.

He will be racing for the Ted Marsh Motorsports team.

Park had five top-10 finishes among his seven starts in the Whelen Chevy.

“I’m pretty good friends with Ted,” said Santerre, who is also scheduled to run two more races for Marsh “if Steve isn’t well enough to do them.”

They would be the Outback Steakhouse 200 on Oct. 27 at Phoenix International Raceway and the Miami 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 10.

But Santerre could be in a another race car before then.

“You may see me driving another car for a race or two on a trial basis to see if I like the team and if they like me,” said Santerre.

There will be five BGN races following the Mr. Goodcents 300.

He also said don’t expect to see him hook up with any of the big-name owners like Richard Childress, Jack Roush or Robert Yates.

“My age and what has happened to me over the past few years, when I got hurt, has raised a lot of questions about my career,” said Santerre, who broke his leg in six places in the first race of the 1999 season and was sidelined for four months. “The top team owners haven’t been ringing my phone off the hook.

“But there are still some good teams out there that run every week. They run for points. They want to have a good season and to have fun,” said Santerre.

He added that he hopes to have something finalized over the next “two to three weeks.”

The 1998 Busch Grand National Rookie of the Year had hoped to run 13-16 races for the Santerre-Reece Motorsports team this season but he has run only six.

He drove two more for Channellock.

He is 43rd in points with 775. He has finished anywhere from 13th to 18th in his last four races after having a 23rd represent his best finish over the first four.

He has won $95,996.

Sue Santerre, Andy’s wife and publicist, said the Santerre-Reece team will sell some of its cars, motors and other equipment.

“We’ll keep some of the cars and equipment and we’ll continue to look for sponsors for the 2003 season,” said Sue Santerre.

The employees will be laid off with October 10 being their final day.

“We picked a terrible year financially start a race team,” said Andy Santerre. “The economy has been bad and sponsors have been tough to obtain. It’s been a tough year for auto racing. [Dale] Earnhardt’s death in the first race of the year hurt the sport. It made everybody not want to do it for a while.”

The team did honor its obligation and ran four Busch North races with Tom Carey Jr. of Orange, Mass., behind the wheel this season.

Final PTM 150 slated Sunday

The fifth and final Partnership for a Tobacco-Free Maine 150 will close out the racing season at Hermon’s Speedway 95 on Sunday beginning at 2.

Brewer’s Aaron St. Peter leads the series buy 10 points over Wiscasset’s Scott Chubbuck, who won last week’s PTM 150 race at Speedway 95.

Stockton Springs’ Duane Seekins is in third place, 18 points behind St. Peter.

Etna’s Mike Thomas and Ellsworth’s Andy Saunders round out the top five.

The race winner will pocket $1,500 as will the series champion.

There will also be the regular racing card and a 35-lap series race for the half-scale Winston Cup cars.