Stefanik Tames Lake Erie With Third Place Finish

North East, PA (May 18, 2003): Mike Stefanik’s bid to become the first Busch North Series winner at Lake Erie Speedway got cut short when his No. 55 Burnham Boilers Chevrolet got tight and allowed for Andy Santerre to take the lead away from the Coventry, RI-native. Stefanik held on for third and moved up to second in the points for his efforts.

“The sun came out and really tightened up the track,” Stefanik said. “But third is pretty good and we’re happy with it. Burnham Boilers had one of their distributors at the track so I’m thrilled that we could give them a strong, competitive car to cheer on.”

Stefanik qualified third fastest with a time of 15.324 seconds before taking the green flag only a couple of hours later. By lap 11, Stefanik had put the Burnham Boilers Chevrolet out front for the lead.

“Right at the get-go we had a real good car,” Stefanik explained. “I worked hard to get by Kelly (Moore) for the lead, and than the car started getting free’r and looser, but it was okay. I could run out front without a problem. By lap 50, though, we knew we had to have an adjustment.”

A mandatory five-minute pit stop was scheduled for the halfway mark at lap 75 so Stefanik knew he would have to deal with the loose conditions until then. Despite the handling problems, Stefanik was able to keep the Burnham Boilers Chevrolet out front until the planned stop.

“We put right side tires on and tightened up the right front sway bar just a tick,” Stefanik said. “We had all the confidence in the world for the restart.”

Once the race resumed Stefanik put five or six carlengths between himself and then second-place driver Joey McCarthy. It was only a couple of laps later that Stefanik noticed little by little the car was tightening up. Even worse, a fast-approaching Andy Santerre was making his way through the field.

“Once Andy got by the 22 (of McCarthy) he really closed in on me,” Stefanik said. “I stayed down at the bottom so that he would have to pas me the hard way – on the outside – and he did.”

Stefanik settled into second, but a mere 15 laps later Mike Johnson was all over the rear bumper of the Burnham Boilers Chevy. Johnson took the position with about 40 laps to go.

Stefanik capped off the weekend by taking the checkers in the third position.

“We’re getting the car to where it needs to be for me,” Stefanik, who has worked with GRIZCO Racing for only three races now, said. “We’re coming out of the box strong and we’re pretty satisfied with our results so far, but we expect to get better and better each week.”