Siemans 125 the 150th for Santerre

He made his Busch North debut at New Hampshire International Speedway in 1992.

Cherryfield’s Andy Santerre will be running his 150th Busch North race Saturday and, appropriately, it will be at NHIS.

It will be the Siemens 125 and will follow the Siemens 200 Busch Series race.

The Nextel Cup series’ Siemens 300 is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday.

“I didn’t know it was my 150th race until [wife] Sue mentioned it,” said Santerre. “It’s kind of neat. That’s quite a few races although a lot of guys have more than that. I don’t know how many I’ve run at New Hampshire.”

Santerre has driven 33 races at NHIS with two wins, 11 top-five finishes and 21 top-10s.

“That’s pretty cool,” said Santerre, whose debut was the first of a two-race audition for Mike and Pam O’Connor.

He said the track hasn’t changed much in the last 12 years.

“It has grown but hasn’t changed immensely,” said Santerre. “When I first went there, it was like going to Daytona for the guys up in the Northeast. Driving through that tunnel [onto the track] was a thrill. The grandstands are still the same although they’ve added more seats. The changes in the track have been minimal as far as the surface goes. There has been a better racing groove the past couple of years. And they’ve added another set of garages.

“They’ve always done things to improve the facility. The best thing they’ve ever done is add the soft walls, which they did last year.”

Santerre, who won races at NHIS in 1999 and 2000, said the track is “always a challenge.”

“It’s a mix between a super speedway and a short track. You need horsepower. The speeds you travel at are a lot higher than what we normally race at. The guys who are comfortable at those speeds are the ones to beat,” Santerre said.

Santerre has been the model of consistency this season with four wins and five top-fives in eight races.

He finished in the top-10 in his first seven races before winding up 11th in the Kobyluck Corporations 150 at Waterford Speedbowl last Saturday night.

“We had an issue with the [malfunctioning] tire pressure gauge. We had more air pressure in the tires than we wanted,” said Santerre, the two-time defending Busch North points champion who currently holds a 14-point lead over second-place Mike Olsen of North Haverhill, N.H.

Saturday’s race also will feature the 2004 Busch North debut of Strong’s Tracy Gordon, who has 12 career Busch North wins.

Gordon’s last season as a Busch North regular was 2002. He ran just four races a year ago to go with six Pro All-Stars Series races.

He is currently third in points on the PASS tour.

Gordon, second in Busch North points in 1999, will drive the No. 33 Woodworks Racing/Archer Corporation Ford Taurus.

Gordon tested the car at NHIS last month.

And DNK Select Used Cars of Farmingdale will make its first appearance as a sponsor on a Busch North car when its logo appears on the No. 0 Chevy Monte Carlo driven by Yarmouth’s Billy Penfold.

They will be an associate sponsor.

The company has been a major backer of the PASS tour and has sponsored the DNK 250 pro stock race at Unity Raceway, Unity’s Super Street division, DNK Select Used Cars Night at Oxford Plains Speedway and PASS points leader Johnny Clark of Farmingdale.