Santerre Posts 4th Place Finish In Homestretch of 'Tour For Four'
By: Penny Aicardi October 1, 2005

Lakeville, CT: Andy Santerre extended his point lead to 75 over teammate Mike Stefanik by posting a fourth place finish in the Burnham Hydronics 200 presented by Mohegan Sun at Lime Rock Park Saturday afternoon. Santerre came from a seventh place starting position, and battled an ill-handling racecar in the closing laps for the finish. It was Santerre’s 11th top-five and 12th straight top-10 of the season.

“I wasn’t running real hard on that last restart. I was having issues. The 0 car whaled me going up the hill and hit me hard in the left rear. It moved the truck arm back and I was all out of square. The last 20 laps I was just hanging on,” Santerre said. “The car was never the same after that.”

Santerre ran the fifth, sixth, and seventh fastest practice speeds in three different practice sessions Friday afternoon, and backed it up with a seventh place qualifying effort of 54.998 seconds (98.185 mph). Santerre, who has never won at the 1.53-mile road course, was optimistic for a solid run.

The race was slowed before the first lap was even completed and set up a double-file restart for lap six. Santerre, who entered the event leading the championship point standings by only 58, played it conservative at the start and dropped back to eighth. A long green flag run evolved and several cars opted to pit during green flag conditions, but Santerre waited it out. Caution flew at lap 21 and sent more teams onto pit road – allowing Santerre to advance to the lead and earn five bonus points at lap 23. Once the bonus points were earned, Santerre came down pit road and took on fuel and tires.

“The first 20 laps the car was really good. I was running times as fast as Matt (Kobyluck),” Santerre said. “We decided to come in and get fuel and put tires on it. The tires hurt us I think. They were tires we scuffed in yesterday, and I think they hardened up.”

Santerre re-entered the race at the tail of the field for the restart at lap 26, and worked his way up to the top-10 by lap 45. The rest of the way would not be easy, however, after contact with the 0 car knocked the No. 44 Castle Packs Power Chevrolet out of alignment.

“That deal with the 0 car really hurt us and I was lucky to finish fourth,” Santerre said.

A slue of caution periods dominated the last 20 laps of the race. Santerre was third heading into the final restart of the day at lap 76.

“Mike (Stefanik) and I were working as teammates, and I kind of pedaled it a little bit into the straightaway so that I could let Mike in. I didn’t think anybody would bonsai me. I saw McCarthy beside me so I backed out of it and let him go. I was able to get Mike in, and I passed him a couple of laps later.”

Santerre took the checkers in fourth and will head into the final race of the season where he hopes to wrap up a history-making fourth consecutive Busch North Series title.