Rides hard to find, says Santerre

In 1998, Cherryfield’s Andy Santerre was the Busch Grand National Rookie of the Year.

The next year, he bounced back from a broken leg in the season-opening race at Daytona that sidelined him for four months to win the Pikes Peak 250. It was his first and only series win.

Now he finds himself searching for a ride and contemplating returning to run the Busch North schedule.

“Right now, it’s pretty obvious I won’t have anything for the start of the Busch [Grand National] series next month,” said Santerre from his North Carolina home. “There are no rides, let alone quality rides. There are no full-time positions anywhere. There are several drivers out of work. I’m just trying to find out if anyone needs somebody to run a partial schedule. I’d like to stay in the Busch Grand National series.”

Santerre was one of the owners of the Santerre-Reece Motorsports team last season, but the team shut down on Oct. 10 due to a lack of sponsorship.

He has kept much of the equipment and he has a Busch Grand National Chevy Monte Carlo he can run at BGN or Busch North races. He is also building a car that he can run just on the Busch North circuit.

“We had a good operation [at Santerre-Reece Motorsports]. We had good people and good equipment. But it was a bad year to start a team [due to the economy],” said the 33-year-old Santerre, who ran 11 races and had four top-20 finishes between Santerre-Reece and some fill-in rides.

He said the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on Sept. 11 further weakened the economy and took its toll on the motorsports business.

He said he wouldn’t mind returning to Busch North if he can’t land a ride in the Busch Grand National series.

He is looking for a full-time Busch North sponsor in order to run the full 19-race series.

“I could run eight Busch North races without full-time sponsorship,” said Santerre. “Running the Busch North series wouldn’t be a bad thing. It’s a good series. They have three races at New Hampshire International Speedway and that’s one of my favorite tracks. They race at a lot of other tracks I enjoy, too.”

“And I need to keep my name out there. You’re always learning when you’re behind the wheel,” added Santerre, who feels the Daytona accident in 1999 has been the primary culprit in the downturn in his career.

“I’ve made some bad choices along the way, but sitting out those four months really hurt my career. If that hadn’t happened, I’d still have a full-time ride,” said Santerre.

“But the way I look at it, everything happens for a reason. I can bounce back.”