Stafford Springs, CT:  Sean Caisse of Pelham, NH knows that nothing worth having comes easy-especially in Auto Racing.  That lesson was reinforced on Wednesday night when the Grand National Division, Busch North Series made their second appearance of the ’05 season at the Stafford Motor Speedway in Stafford Springs, CT.  A gratifying 9^th place finish in the TSI Harley-Davidson 150 was the result of some hard work from Caisse, car owner Barney McRae and the entire Motion Racing Team. 

With the chemistry of the newly formed team combined with the drive and determination of a young driver, top-ten finishes and Sunoco “Rookie-of–the-Race” honors have become somewhat of the norm for Caisse and his Motion Racing Team.  This was the fourth top-10 finish for the team in the seven events held thus far.  The event also marked the fifth time that Caisse has received Rookie honors. 

But this week the feat is downright impressive.  Caisse was involved in a practice crash prior to qualifying for the TSI Harley-Davidson 150.  The #5 sustained heavy front-end damage when Caisse hit the wall trying to avoid a car that had spun in the corner. The team immediately got to work making repairs.  They were the final car to take time and in the end turned in a solid qualifying effort. 

A battered Trik Custom Sleds Chevrolet took the starting grid in the 11^th position after a qualifying run of 20.350 seconds at 88.452 MPH.

The event was exciting right from the drop of the green flag.  An incident on lap one that involved the leaders had the pack scrambling.  Caisse took evasive action with a dusty trip through the infield to avoid any contact.  He lined up in the fourth position on the ensuing restart on lap four.  Caisse climbed into the third position on lap eight but that is where his forward progress would stop.

Caisse began to backslide losing third to eventual winner Ryan Moore.  On lap 14, Caisse found himself in the seventh position.  He would run all-alone in seventh for many laps.  As the green flag run continued, Caisse began to catch the lead pack.  At lap 30 he had reeled in sixth-place runner Dave Dion. 

During the extended green flag run, lapped traffic began to play a role.  With the scoreboard reading 50 laps complete, Caisse was in heavy traffic.  Gingerly dicing his way through, Caisse began to lose some ground on Dion.  A caution on lap 65 bunched up the field.  Several of the cars headed to pit road for service.

On lap 75, Caisse once again, restarted the event from fourth.  Back under green it was much of the same.  A handful of competitors had gotten by putting Caisse in the ninth position when the third caution of the event flew for a multi-car incident in turn two.

Under the caution Caisse and company opted to come down pit road for service.  The team changed right-side tires and made a wedge adjustment to the Maine Drilling and Blasting Chevrolet. 

After extensive cleanup and a red flag, racing resumed on lap 97. Caisse lined up 16^th on the racetrack, 11^th in the running order.  Again, Caisse was in the midst of heavy traffic once back under green.  For many laps after the century mark, Caisse ran alone in 12^th position.   Dale Shaw checked up coming out of two allowing Caisse to get up along side of the #15.  The two ran door-to-door for several laps.

Contact between the two cars sent Caisse spinning to bring out the events fourth caution.  Remarkably, with fewer lead lap cars and the benefit of pit stops, Caisse actually gained positions and was in 10^th position when the race went back to green on lap 121. 

Things got dicey in traffic on the restart. Caisse was shuffled back to 12^th with some bumping and grinding going on just ahead.  A quickly recovered Caisse was moving up once again when the final caution flew on lap 129.  With 13 laps to go the race restarted with Caisse in tenth.  Over the final laps, Caisse was embroiled in a heated battle with Eddie MacDonald.  The two swapped the position back and forth.  In the end, Caisse came home with a 9^th place finish.

By virtue of his 9^th-place finish at Stafford, Caisse has extended his lead in the 'Rookie-of-the-Year' chase and also put him back in the top-ten in the point standings.