BNS: Star Speedway fact sheet

<pre> 2001 BUSCH NORTH SERIES NASCAR TOURING RACE FACTS

WHAT: Star 150 Busch North Series, NASCAR Touring Race #6 of 21

WHERE: Star Speedway, Epping, N.H. .250 mile paved oval

WHEN: Saturday, June 16, 2001

DISTANCE: 150 laps (37.5 miles)

POSTED AWARDS: $72,050 (including $2,700 Busch North Series, NASCAR TouringChampionship point fund money)

FIELD: 26 cars (Fastest 21 through two rounds of time trials. Two additional positions will be added as provisional starters based on the current 2001 Busch North Series driver point standings, two based on car owner attempts during the 2001 season, and one reserved for a past Busch North Series champion, if needed).

SANCTION: National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR)

PROMOTER: Auto Racing of New England, Inc.

SCHEDULE: Saturday, June 16 10:00 a.m. Registration & Inspection 11:30 a.m. Mandatory Drivers Meeting 12:30 to 1 p.m. Practice 1:45 to 2:15 p.m. Practice 4:30 p.m. Bud Pole Qualifying (pos.1-16) 5:45 p.m. Second round qualifying (pos.17-21 7:45 p.m. (approx.) Star 150

NOTES OF INTEREST

* Tracy Gordon is the two-time defending winner of the Star 150. In 2000, Gordon took the lead on lap 130 in the final act of a three-way battle which had seen Bud Pole winner Kelly Moore and many-time Star Speedway champion Babe Branscombe swap the lead four times as Gordon waited for his opportunity. Dale Shaw took second in the closing laps, with Moore, Bryan Wall, and Brad Leighton completing the top five. Branscombe faded to 15th. Gordon averaged 45.562 mph as five caution periods slowed the action for 38 laps.

* Kelly Moore won the Bud Pole for the 2000 Star 150 with a time of 13.792 seconds for a speed of 65.255 miles per hour. The track record was set in 1998 by Martin Truex Sr. at 13.731 seconds, 65.545 mph.

* This will be the 20th Busch North Series race at Star, which has hosted the series each year since its inception in 1987. Two races were held annually from 1988 to 1992. The leading winners are Kelly Moore and Robbie Crouch with three wins each, followed by Jamie Aube, Dick McCabe, and Tracy Gordon with two victories. Single wins at Star have been scored by Mike Weeden, Larry Caron, Bobby Dragon, Ricky Craven, Joe Bessey, Jerry Marquis, and Mike Stefanik. Moore, Aube, Gordon, and possibly Marquis are expected to enter the 2001 Star 150.

* Star Speedway graduates competing with the Busch North Series in 2001 inlcude four-time supermodified champion Paul Richardson, eight-time pro stock champion Babe Branscombe, and Louie Mechalides.

* Star Speedway opened in 1966 and has always had its current configuation as a quarter-mile paved oval. Star is a long-time member of the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series.

STAT OF THE WEEK

Consistency wins NASCAR championships. Last year, Brad Leighton completed every lap of every Busch North Series race en route to his second straight title. In the first four races of 2001, only one driver completed every lap- Mike Johnson, and true to form, he led the point race. Mike Olsen, Tracy Gordon, and Brad Leighton held the next three spots in the standings, each having lost only one lap in the season to date.

-Al Robinson