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BNS: Thunder Road: Race summary

Mike Olsen leads flag to flag in True Value 150 at Thunder Road; Santerre takes second to grab Busch North Series lead by 7 points over Leighton. BARRE, Vt.-- Hometown favorite Mike Olsen broke out of a season-long slump Saturday night at Thunder ...

Edited: Dec 22, 2003, 5:59 AM

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Mike Olsen leads flag to flag in True Value 150 at Thunder Road; Santerre takes second to grab Busch North Series lead by 7 points over Leighton.

BARRE, Vt.-- Hometown favorite Mike Olsen broke out of a season-long slump Saturday night at Thunder Road International Speedbowl, scoring his first Busch North Series, NASCAR Touring win of the year by leading every lap of the True Value 150 after starting from the pole. Andy Santerre enjoyed nearly as successful an evening, finishing second to take the Busch North Series point lead from Matt Kobyluck and Brad Leighton, who were 17th and 14th respectively.

Defending race winner Dave Dion passed Brian Hoar with two laps to go to take third, with Tracy Gordon completing the top five. Martin Truex Jr., Kelly Moore, Mike Rowe, Jamie Aube, and Joey McCarthy comprised the balance of the top ten, with Rowe and Aube crashing as they crossed the finish line.

Olsen averaged 49.198 miles per hour around the quarter-mile oval as four caution periods for 29 laps slowed the action. A lapped car between Olsen and Santerre allowed the winning margin to expand from a few car lengths to 2.16 seconds in the last five laps. As the Bud Pole and Gatorade Front Runner Award winner, Olsen swept every award available to him, bringing his night's winnings to $12,725. Along the way he set a track record of 12.667 seconds, 71.051 miles per hour in time trials. Dion earned the Flowmaster Star of the Race Award for improving from 18th at the start to third at the finish.

Last year, on his way to winning the Busch North Series title, Olsen led this race from the pole for 116 laps, only to tangle with a lapped car and finish fourth. The True Value 150 victory was his first top five since the opening day of the 2002 season.

Santerre, 48 points behind entering the evening, now carries a lead of seven points over Leighton and ten over Kobyluck into next Saturday's rescheduled Irving Oil 150 at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough, Me.

-nascar-

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