Santerre among drivers in Busch North jumble

SCARBOROUGH – There are six races remaining on the Busch North series’ 2002 schedule including a Sept. 7 makeup race, the Irving Oil 150, at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway here. Saturday night’s race was postponed due to rain.

The top five in the point standings are separated by just 121 points.

Matt Kobyluck of Uncasville, Conn. has 1,954 points, six more than second-place Brad Leighton of Center Harbor, N.H. Cherryfield’s Andy Santerre is third with 1,906 points, Dale Shaw of Center Conway, N.H. is fourth with 1854 and Scarborough’s Kelly Moore rounds out the top five with 1833 points.

There are 10 wins and 32 top-five finishes among the five in 13 races to date. Leighton and Santerre have three wins apiece, Moore has two and Kobyluck and Shaw have one each.

Defending champ Mike Olsen of North Haverhill, N.H. is a distant 11th in the points chase.

So what will eventually decide the points championship?

“Misfortune,” said Leighton, who won the points title in 2000 and 1999. “Everybody [in contention] is pretty consistent. Everyone is running good. The guy who doesn’t put himself in a bad situation, like getting wrapped up in a wreck with a lapped car, will pull this off. I’ve been in this spot two other times so I’ve got a little more experience in this. Hopefully, it will pay off.”

In addition to his two championships, Leighton was the runnerup in 1998.

Santerre and Moore agreed with Leighton’s assessment.

“Someone’s misfortune will be good fortune for somebody else,” said Santerre. “I don’t think anybody is going to drive away and win a bunch of races and take off in the points. Whoever has the most bad luck between now and then is going to fall out. And somebody is going to have good luck from here on out and I just hope that’s me.

“It’s anybody’s championship right now,” added Santerre.

Moore knows first-hand how misfortune can set you back.

“That’s what has happened to us three weeks in a row now,” said Moore. “At New Hampshire International, we had a part failure in the car and we finished 13th. We went to Stafford (Conn.), we were running second in the race and had a flat tire [and finished 24th] and then we went to Watkins Glen and got caught up in that first lap wreck.

Why we were back there in that first lap wreck is we qualified in the back of the field because the shifter broke during qualifying,” added Moore who finished 20th after qualifying 24th.

“So your misfortune is going to kick the knees out from underneath you. But this race team has worked real hard and this NAPA Chevrolet has been going good every week,” he said.

Santerre, who won the Little Trees 150 at Adirondack International Speedway (N.Y.) nine days ago, said he likes his chances.

“We’ve been running real good lately. We’ve been qualifying better and that’s a big key to racing better. We came here to Beech Ridge with high hopes. We had a good race car. We qualified third. We had a good shot at winning here tonight but Mother Nature just didn’t want to cooperate, that’s all.

“But we’re coming back on my [34th] birthday so maybe I can get a win on my birthday,” Santerre said. “There are some good race tracks coming up for us. I feel like every track we go to from here on out I can win at. I think I have as good a shot as anybody [at winning the points title]. We need to run good every week and get all the wins we can but yet be up there in the top five every week and let the points fall where they may. But we want to win races. That’s the big thing.”

The series moves to Thunder Road International Speedway in Barre, Vt. next Saturday before returning to Beech Ridge for the Irving Oil 150 beginning at 7 p.m.

The final four races will be held at New Hampshire International Speedway, Dover Downs International Speedway, Stafford Motor Speedway and Lime Rock Park (Conn.).