Clark, Santerre savoring ’04 tour championships

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They aren’t sure where they will be racing next year.

But Farmingdale’s Johnny Clark and Cherryfield’s Andy Santerre aren’t going to worry about it for the time being.

They are savoring their points championships in the Pro All-Stars Series and Busch North tours, respectively.

They were the models of consistency en route to their titles.

The 24-year-old Clark won four races and had 10 top-three finishes in 15 races on the PASS tour. He never finished lower than ninth.

It was his first points championship at any level.

The 35-year-old Santerre, who annexed his third consecutive Busch North crown, won five of 13 races with nine top fives and 12 top 10s.

There is one points race remaining for Santerre.

“We had a strongly committed team,” said Clark. “Everyone came together this season to make it happen. After finishing second to Ben [Rowe] last year, we felt we could get it done.”

He said winning the D.N.K. Used Cars 250 at Unity Raceway on June 13 gave him and his team members the confidence they needed to unseat defending two-time champ Rowe.

“After beating Mike and Ben [Rowe], we felt we could really pull this thing off,” said Clark, whose average finish was 3.4.

“We knew we had a car [Chevy Monte Carlo] capable of winning races and that’s what you have to do to win a points championship,” Clark added.

His team members consist of his brother Bobby, who serves as his crew chief, Bill and Heidi Marshall, James Graham, Jason and Tim Clark (no relation to Johnny), and Kurt Howard.

Clark used to run the New England pro truck tour for owner Melody Beckwith and he said she is living in Concord, N.C., trying to find a NASCAR Craftsman Truck series deal for him.

“Hopefully, some day, the right door will open for me. I’d like to make a living at this,” said Clark.

If nothing happens, he said he will gladly return to the PASS tour to defend his title.

The Busch North series doesn’t interest him.

“The bang you get for your buck on the PASS tour is good. The way the purses are set up, everyone gets more out of the Pro Stocks. If we had the season we had on the Busch North tour, we would have lost a ton of money,” said Clark.

Santerre said the lack of purse money could prevent him from returning to Busch North next year.

The situation is so bad he said team owner Joe Bessey “had to take money out of his own pocket to make things come out even financially. And we have one of the best sponsors in Busch North [Aubuchon Hardware].”

So if Santerre’s team lost money while winning the most races and the championship, other teams may have struggled financially.

“I care about the series. I want to help make it better. But it won’t survive unless NASCAR finds a way to get more [purse] money. We’re not even getting the purse money we used to get in 1993. It used to cost $100,000-$150,000 to run the whole series and now you need $500,000 just to break even. And we aren’t getting the TV money we used to,” said Santerre. “There were guys sitting home this year who couldn’t afford to run a car.”

However, he said NASCAR does intend to expand the tour to include tracks “south of the Mason-Dixon line” with higher seating capacities to generate more revenue.

That does interest Santerre.

“That would put us a lot closer to home [in North Carolina] and would be an advantage for our team,” he said.

Nextel Cup tracks Richmond International Raceway and Martinsville Speedway (Va.) are two of the tracks that could be on next year’s schedule.

Other changes planned by Busch North administrators include doubling the purse at the short tracks, although some of the short-track races will be eliminated; a new title sponsor, and points money being paid out three or four times a year instead of just one or two.

Spec bodywork is another cost-cutting measure.

Santerre would also like to drive a limited schedule for Team EJP (Gardiner-based Everett J. Prescott) in the Craftsman Truck series.

He said it would be “really tough” to win a fourth Busch North championship and he wouldn’t mind retiring and being remembered as a champion.

“We could put some young person in the car and I could try to help them win a championship,” said Santerre, who considers this season his best ever on the tour.

“We were very well-prepared this year. We had the best cars because of the notes we took over the years. We were more comfortable going to each track. We knew each track a little better because we were going back to them for the third year,” said Santerre, whose team members include crew chief Roger Tryon, Marc Puchalski, Kevin Heins, Mike “Tex” French, and Kurt Leavitt.

Clark and Santerre will each race twice more this season.

Clark will run the All Star Challenge 200 at Ralph Nason’s Autodrome Montmagny in Quebec on Saturday with time trials set for 1:30 p.m. and the winner pocketing $5,000. A week later, the Long John 150 will be held at Unity Raceway beginning at 1 p.m.

Santerre will drive in the TRIMSPA 150 at the Wall Township Speedway (N.J.) on Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. The race is a makeup from last Saturday.

He will also run the second NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown Nov. 11-13 at the Irwindale Speedway (Calif.).