Leighton holds off Santerre N.H. driver takes eighth at NHIS

LOUDON, N.H. – Cherryfield’s Andy Santerre extended his comfortable lead in the Busch North series points standings at the New Hampshire 125 Saturday as he closed in on a second consecutive championship.

But it was the David Copperfield of the Magic Mile at New Hampshire International Speedway, Brad Leighton, who edged Santerre by 11/2 carlengths at the checkered flag for his eighth win at NHIS, the most ever at the 14-year-old track.

Leighton took the lead by sliding inside Paul Wolfe on lap 96, and he used four strong restarts to hold off Santerre by .109 seconds.

Santerre closed on the final lap and Leighton wobbled 200 yards from the checkered flag, but Santerre couldn’t get around him.

“It was the last lap. You might as well give them a little show,” joked Leighton.

Leighton, a native of Center Harbor, N.H., said he loves racing at what he considers his home track.

“I’ve won a race here every year since 1996 and every one of them is special,” said the 41-year-old Leighton, who added that he gets a thrill every time he comes through the tunnel into the track.

“This is our speedway and it’s kind of nice to be the king of it,” said Leighton, who is running a limited schedule this season.

Santerre was pleased with his second.

“It was a good run for us. We came here to run top five. We knew we had a great car. We just wanted to come out of here with a top five and gain on the points a little more and we did that,” he said.

“I see [Mike] Stefanik wasn’t too far back. We didn’t gain a lot, but it’s better than losing [points],” Santerre added, referring to his closest competitor in the points chase.

Stefanik, who hails from Coventry, R.I., finished fifth. Wolfe from Milford, N.Y., was third, and Mike Johnson from Salisbury, Mass., was fourth.

“The car was awesome all day,” Santerre said. “We hit it just about right. We guessed on the setup with the weather and all and it was real good, real neutral. Brad could get heat in his tires a little quicker than me with his setup. It took me about four laps to really get going. Then it would come in and be awesome and I could run him down.”

A caution came out that resulted in a two-lap sprint to the finish.

“At the end, I figured I’d have one shot at him. I tried it and just didn’t have enough laps,” said Santerre, who started ninth. “He was struggling at the end, but I couldn’t see that good because the sun was real bright down here in [turn] four. I saw him bobble; I just turned left and matted him [pushed the pedal to the floor]. I almost had a run on him, but we were too close to the start-finish line.”

Leighton said he had a “great car” all day but was under the impression Santerre’s tires heated up quicker than his.

“But I did get away from Andy the last couple restarts, which I was grateful for,” said Leighton, who began the race in the eighth spot.

Scarborough’s Ryan Moore extended his lead in the rookie points standings with a sixth-place finish. His closest pursuer, Mark Durgin, spun out and finished 30th.

Moore’s father, Kelly, finished eighth; Morrill’s Travis Benjamin was 18th; and the hard-luck driver of the race was Sanford’s Mike Gallo. Gallo started on the pole but finished 22nd when he ran into the side of Martin Truex Jr.’s car while coming out of his pit stall following a stop on lap 40. Gallo’s car sustained right front damage.

Eliot’s Carey Heath received a provisional starting spot and would have started 36th, but she fell ill and didn’t race.

Gallo said it was the most frustrating race “I’ve had in my entire life as a race car driver. I’m going on 15 years. We had a car. We had a seven-second lead, running second. Come in and make a two-tire change and gas, no adjustments. The jack dropped, I went, and Truex was coming into the pits. Just one of those things. A pit road accident. Why couldn’t it have happened when we were running 30th?

Gallo added, “Hats off to the team. They knew we were here. It was no fluke we were on the pole.”