The  "Racing For Clean Air" Team Captain Andy Santerre
Finishes off a Dominant Season with 3rd Place At Lime Rock
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LAKEVILLE, Conn. - Dale Quarterley raced from deep in the field after an unscheduled pit stop to win Saturday’s Burnham Boilers 200 NASCAR Grand National Division, Busch North Series season finale at Lime Rock Park. He passed leader Brad Leighton with three laps to go to score his second win in the last three years at the northwest Connecticut road course. Series champion Andy Santerre was third, followed by Joey McCarthy and Mike Stefanik. Santerre unofficially finished the 17-race schedule 206 points ahead of Stefanik, putting the final touches on the second consecutive title he clinched last weekend.
Brian Hoar, Eddie MacDonald, Mike Johnson, defending race winner Denny Doyle, and Tom Carey completed the top ten. The performances of Johnson and Hoar unofficially lifted them to third and fourth in the final standings, while MacDonald jumped from tenth to eighth in the points table.
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Seven drivers traded the lead nine times on a perfect Indian summer afternoon before a near-record crowd. Bud Pole winner Quarterley's Bully Hill Vineyards Chevrolet led the first ten circuits before giving way to Leighton. Jerry Marquis, Kelly Moore, McCarthy, and MacDonald would all lead laps during the green flag pit stop cycle which ended with Matt Kobyluck in front chased by Quarterley and Leighton. Quarterley, thinking a tire had been cut by contact with another car, pitted under green on lap 33 of the scheduled 82, then returned to pit road two laps later under caution. With 43 laps to go, he restarted 22nd with new left-side Goodyear Eagles.
Quarterley returned to the top ten on lap 50, and was fifth by lap 62. Then leader Kobyluck spun and handed the top spot to Leighton, who was seeking his first road course win after many near misses. Quarterley took third from Kelly Moore on lap 65 and second from Santerre just one lap later. He applied constant pressure to Leighton, which finally paid off when Leighton put two wheels in the dirt at the downhill final turn with three laps to go. Quarterley slipped past as Leighton recovered and won by just over half a second. Fate slapped Kelly Moore in the final laps as he was forced off the track into a tire barrier, dropping to 19th in the race and fifth in point standings.
Six cautions periods for 31 laps slowed Quarterley's average speed to 69.739 miles per hour after he had won the Bud Pole at 101.994 mph. Of the 36 starters, 27 were running at the finish with 15 on the lead lap. John Cerbone earned the PowerAde Power Move of the Race Award for improving 18 positions from 36th at the start to 18th at the finish, edging Carey Heath by one position gained, while Jimmy Renfrew was the Raybestos Rookie-of-the-Race. Although he struggled to a 29th place finish, Mark Durgin retained 15th place in the final standings, the last guaranteed invitation to the Toyota All-Star Showdown with the Winston West Series before the live SPEED Channel cameras at Irwindale Speedwaqy in California on November 8.
Following the Toyota All-Star Showdown, the Busch North Series will honor champion Andy Santerre, Raybestos Rookie-of-the-Year Ryan Moore, and many other award winners at the Annual Awards Ceremony, scheduled for the Mohegan Sun Resort in Uncasville, Conn., on Saturday, November 22.
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