Leighton wins home-state race with ease Maine drivers have tough day

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LOUDON, N.H. – On a day of frustration for the Maine drivers on the Busch North circuit, Center Harbor, N.H., native Brad Leighton continued his dominance on New Hampshire International Speedway’s “Magic Mile.”

Leighton passed pole-sitter Brian Hoar of Williston, Vt., on lap 81 in the Busch 125 and never looked back to pilot his Burnham Boilers No. 55 Chevy Monte Carlo to a 2.855-second victory over Hoar for his third consecutive NHIS triumph. Matt Kobyluck of Uncasville, Conn., finished third.

The 1996 Busch North Rookie of the Year has now won seven times at NHIS.

Leighton, who claimed his second straight Busch North win and took over the points lead from Scarborough’s Kelly Moore, qualified seventh. He is shooting for his third Busch North points championship in four years.

Cherryfield’s Andy Santerre, who entered the weekend third in points behind Moore and Leighton, was the top Maine finisher as he finished 12th, 10.18 seconds behind Leighton.

Moore finished 13th, Strong’s Tracy Gordon was 14th, Yarmouth’s Billy Penfold was 16th and Scarborough’s Robbie Harrison was the only other Mainer to crack the top 20 with an 18th-place showing.

Twenty-two cars finished on the lead lap.

Eliot’s Carey Heath, the only female driver, Sanford’s Mike Gallo and Morrill’s Travis Benjamin finished two laps down in 25th, 27th and 28th, respectively.

“The car was awesome. It was perfect,” said Leighton. “My 9-year-old boy could have driven that baby. You know what, you don’t get a lot of cars that perfect. You really don’t. I’ve always had a good car here.”

Leighton ran patiently in the top five throughout the race until he seized his opportunity to take the lead by slipping past Hoar on the inside groove on lap 81.

“I was able to wait and wait and wait today because the car was so good,” said Leighton, the 1990 limited sportsman champion at Scarborough’s Beech Ridge Motor Speedway.

Santerre, meanwhile, had climbed from his qualifying position of 20th all the way to sixth until he and Moore had to pit during a lap 92 caution. Moore was running ninth at the time.

Leighton didn’t pit. Santerre came out of the pits 15th and Moore was 17th.

“My car had a bad vibration. I didn’t dare stay out,” said Santerre, who was driving a Chevy Monte Carlo. “You don’t want to kill yourself out there.

“The tires were terrible. I’ve never seen anything like it. I praise Goodyear for bringing a good tire to this series but as much as they are charging us and what we’re getting, we’re getting a piece of [bleep]. Even on new tires, they were shaking the steering wheel out of your hands,” added an angry Santerre.

“We had a great car. I was coming up through [the field] no problem. Then I picked up a major vibration. It actually vibrated the whole time but it just kept getting worse.”

Moore said his Monte Carlo was “super tight all day long. It was aggravating because we haven’t had a tight car for so long. The crew has given me a real good car the last five races but it was just a little off today. We took a chance. We changed some stuff around during happy hour [practice] this morning. After happy hour, the track was so loose, it bit us.”

Like Santerre, Moore said he had to pit on lap 92 “because we were in bad shape. We had to do something.”

There were three cautions between lap 92 and the end of the race which hurt them.

“We needed good, long green flag racing but we just didn’t get it,” said Moore, who had started fifth.

Gordon started eighth, fell back to 23rd on lap 88 but maneuvered his way back to 14th.

“A sparkplug wire came off. I was on seven cylinders [for a portion of the race],” said Gordon. “I had a wicked good car. It was Loudon luck I guess.

“The track was wicked slippery. I fought it the whole time. It’s the hardest day I’ve had to drive here, just to hold it on the track,” added Gordon.

He said he had to back off when his sparkplug wire came off “because I thought I thought I was going to blow the motor and I didn’t want to leak oil and wreck.”

But he said he recalled they had a sparkplug wire come off during practice so he figured that was the problem and they fixed it.

“At least we came back and got a top 15,” said Gordon.

Penfold began the race in 30th and spun on lap 26.

“The car was loose. It was shaking. When you start that far back, it’s hard to come all the way up through because there are a lot of good cars,” said Penfold. “We had come up through before we spun and having to come up through again wears a car out even more. To come up from 30th to 16th with these guys, we’ll take it. And the car is still in one piece.”

Benjamin started 26th and struggled throughout.

“We didn’t run very well today,” said the 23-year-old former Belfast High School standout point guard. “The rubber on the track [from two previous races as well as Winston Cup practice] messed us up a little bit. Then we blistered a couple of [right side] tires, which never helps you. Goodyear is going to reimburse us, I guess.

“The car felt great in practice. We refreshed the engine for this one race. But the car just wasn’t very good. We were down [in horsepower] all weekend. And this is a big horsepower track.”

He agreed with Santerre that the tires left something to be desired but he also said, “Everybody was in the same boat. We missed the setup more than everyone else did.”

BUSCH NORTH

New England 125

At Louden, N.H.

1. (7) Brad Leighton, Chevrolet, 125, $16,475; 2. (1) Brian Hoar, Chevrolet, 125, $12,205; 3. (4) Matt Kobyluck, Chevrolet, 125, $8,470; 4. (11) Martin Truex, Jr. Chevrolet, 125, $6,500; 5. (18) Mike Johnson, Ford, 125, $5,500; 6. (15) Tim Andrews, Chevrolet, 125, $4,500, 7. (19) Dave Dion, Ford, 125, $4,500; 8. (14) Bryon Chew, Chevrolet, 125, $3,000; 9. (16) Paul Wolfe, Chevrolet, 125, $3,000; 10. (17) Dale Quarterley, Chevrolet, 125, $3,000; 11. (13) Dale Shaw, Chevrolet, 125, $3,000; 12. (20) Andy Santerre, Chevrolet, 125, $2,800; 13: (5) Kelly Moore, Chevrolet, 125, $2,700; 14. (8) Tracy Gordon, Chevrolet, 125, $2,600; 15. (21) Mike Olsen, Chevrolet, 125, $3,050; 16. (30) Bill Penfold, Chevrolet, 125, $2,350; 17. (25) Bobby Dragon, Chevrolet, 125, $1,800; 18. (27) Robbie Harrison, Chevrolet, 125, $3,250; 19. (6) Dennis Demers, Chevrolet, 125, $2,200; 20. (3) Jamie Aube, Chevrolet, 125, $1,650; 21. (22) Scott Bouley, Chevrolet, 125, $2,100; 22. (28) Joey McCarthy, Chevrolet, 124, $2,075; 23. (2) Eddie MacDonald, Chevrolet, 123, $2,050; 24. (23) Barney McRae, Pontiac, 123, $1,525; 25. (36) Carey Heath, Chevrolet, 123, $2,000.

26. (35) Kip Stockwell, Pontiac, 123, $1,975; 27. (12) Mike Gallo, Ford, 123, $1,450; 28. (26) Travis Benjamin, Ford,123, $1,925; 29. (31) John Cerbone, Chevrolet, 123, $1,900; 30. (37) Rick Bell, Chevrolet, 120, $1,375; 31. (10) Bryan Wall, Ford, 105, engine, $1,850; 32. (32) Greg schaefer, Chevrolet, 101, $1,825; 33. (24) Dave Davis, Chevrolet, 98, accident, $1,200; 34. (33) Gary Shackford, Chevrolet, 96, heat exhaustion, $1,200; 35. (29) Doug Krpata, Chevrolet, 86, accident, $1,200; 36. (34) Bob Brunell, Chevrolet, 55, radio failure, $1,200; 37. (9) Dennis Doyle, Chevrolet, 35, valve spring, $1,700.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 96.926 mph; Time of Race: 1 hour, 21 minutes, 52 seconds; Margin of Victory: 2.855; Caution Flags: 4 for 30 laps; Lead Changes: 5 among 4 drivers; Lap Leaders: Brian Hoar grid, Eddie MacDonald 1-4, Hoar 5-44, Dale Shaw 45-49, Hoar 50-80, Brad Leighton 81-125; Top 10 in points: B. Leighton ? 1532; K. Moore ? 1489; A. Santerre ? 1465; M. Kobyluck ? 1464; D. Shaw ? 1423; M. Johnson ? 1382; D. Quarterley ? 1358; B. Penfold ? 1310; M. Truex, Jr. ? 1291; 10. D. Dion ? 1288.