Cherryfield’s Andy Santerre will open defense of his Busch North points championship on Sunday at Lee USA Speedway in Lee, N.H.

Santerre edged Matt Kobyluck by nine points a year ago and the Oakdale, Conn. driver is back to lead a formidable list of challengers.

Brad Leighton, who won back-to-back titles in 1999 and 2000, won’t be one of them, according to Santerre.

“Brad’s only going to do a partial schedule, six races,” said Santerre.

However, Leighton’s place in the No. 55 Burnham Boilers Chevy Monte Carlo will be taken by Mike Stefanik, who won Busch North championships in 1997 and 1998.

“Mike’s a real good points racer,” said Santerre. “He has won eight points championships: two in Busch North and six in modifieds. He’s tough and consistent,” said Santerre.

“Mike Olsen is real strong and you can’t leave Kelly Moore out. Kelly has good equipment and he was right there in the thick of things a year ago but had a few bad breaks,” added Santerre.

Scarborough’s Moore, the 1995 points champion, finished fourth a year ago and will be joined on the tour by his 19-year-old son Ryan. Kelly will be driving his No. 47 Chevy while Ryan will be in the No. 74 Chevy.

They will become the first and only two-car, father-son team in the series.

Ryan Moore was the rookie of the year on the American-Canadian Tour last season and won two races.

Santerre enters the season in a much better situation compared to last year.

He has joined the Aubuchon Hardware team owned by Scarborough’s Joe Bessey, a former Winston Cup series owner and Busch Grand National driver.

Bessey, who has a home in Rangeley, won the first Pro All-Stars Series event at Wiscasset Raceway last Saturday, the Wiscasset Quik Stop 150.

“We’re in real good shape,” said Santerre. “We’ll have a back-up car [to go with the primary car] every weekend. And we’ll even have a road course car.”

The 18-race tour has two road course races, one at Watkins Glen, N.Y. and the other at Lime Rock Park (Conn.).

Santerre would take just one car to each race last season.

He was virtually a one-man operation working out of Bessey’s shop in North Carolina last year but he has two full-time employees this season and will have co-crew chiefs in Brian MacDonald and Roger Tryon. Tryon was his crew chief last year.

“We tested in Hickory, N.C. a few weeks ago and at Lee last weekend,” said Santerre. “We think we found some things that should make the car better, hopefully.”

The motor rule has been changed this year, according to Santerre.

“We went from a 9-to-1 compression engine to a 12-to-1 compression engine,” said Santerre. “That will result in more horsepower. I don’t know if we needed it but we have it.”

However, he said the cars have to be 200 pounds heavier, going from 3100 to 3300 pounds.

He said the tires will still be made by Goodyear but they will have a different make-up “so it will take a few weeks to figure out what set-up to run.”

Santerre won three races a year ago and he said “we’d like to win more this year. But it’s pretty competitive. It will be hard to win more than that.”

He won the opening race at Lee USA Speedway last year and said the key to conquering the track “will be getting the car to handle well. They haven’t re-paved the track in quite a while so there isn’t a lot of grip on it. You have to come off the corners without spinning the wheels to save the tires.”

The track is banked and is .375 of a mile long.

Santerre will be phoning his N.C. home frequently because he and wife Sue are expecting their first child on May 11.

Craven, Winston Cup returns

Newburgh’s Ricky Craven will try to improve his ninth-place standing in the Winston Cup points on Sunday when racing resumes at the California Speedway in Fontana, Cal.

The series took the Easter weekend off.

The Auto Club 500 will begin at 2:30 over the two-mile track.

It hasn’t been a productive track for Craven as his average finish has been 30th in the four races that have been held there since it opened in 1997. His average start has been 23rd.

But, on the PPI-Motorsports website, Craven said he likes the track.

“I really enjoy racing at California. It is very close to Michigan [International Speedway] which is another track that I really like. We have high hopes for the weekend and it’s for good reason,” said Craven. “If you look at where the team is after one-quarter of the season is completed, you’ll see we have already won a race and are top 10 in points.”

Craven won at Darlington on March 16 and has three top-fives, which already matches last year’s total.