Newbie News: Brett Moffitt: Ready For Battle On and Off The Track

Brett Moffitt, the 16-year-old driver for Andy Santerre Motorsports in the Camping World East Series, has known his share of battles, even at his young age. His most recent battle came in the June race at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Moffitt entered the race weekend in the points lead, just 18 ahead of prime competitor Jody Lavender.

Moffitt was having a good run under the cloudy New Hampshire skies, hanging tough in the top-five throughout the opening laps of the race.

On lap 39, a tire blew, sending Moffitt into the wall hard. While he was able to bring the car to the attention of team owner and crew chief Andy Santerre, it was so heavily damaged (as pictured above) that the team couldn't repair it.

Moffitt and Santerre made the painful decision to call it a day, finishing in the 27th position in the Heluva Good! Summer 125 race.

While Moffitt had his hands full in New Hampshire, the young man has actually been battling all of his life to get to where he is today in the racing world. He started his career racing go karts when he was 11 years old in his home state of Iowa.

"We ran go karts for three years, and the third year we ran all National Championship Races," said Moffitt. "We won half of the classes I was in, and we won four WKA Championships."

He continued, "You get a triple crown if you win more than three and there are only seven of those in the nation. And I have won one of those."

Even with his success in go kart racing, Moffitt admits that he didn't like it when he first got started. "I was just terrible at it," he conceded. "I got lapped, and I didn't like that."

But a year later, Moffitt went back to his father, a motocross racer himself, with the news that he wanted to get back in the fray of go kart racing. "And I just kept climbing," said Moffitt.

"Every year in go karts, we had someone helping us get better," said Moffitt. 

Moffitt then progressed to the IMCA series on dirt, winning 26 races. His other honors included the All Iowa SportMod Points Championship and the ASA Late Model North Series Rookie of the Year.

In the ASA Late Model North series, Moffitt also finished second in the points. Yet even with the Rookie honor and the great series finish, Moffitt realized he needed to continue his battle up the ranks.

"We knew that we didn't have much to come back to there. It's still a good learning ground, but when you get the chance to move up like we did, we knew we'd better take it," said Moffitt.

Moffitt shared that it was Kyle Busch's dad who knew that Andy Santerre had an open seat. Moffitt had been racing Busch in late models. Through that connection, he met with Santerre and his team.

"We met with them, got a tour of the shop, and the deal was set up," said Moffitt.

Moffitt's intention was to race the first seven races with Andy Santerre Motorsports. The driver and team then hoped to secure sponsorship for the remainder of the 2009 season.

"We've been having a really good season so far," said Moffitt. "We won a couple of races ago and have been strong every race."

Moffitt credits much of his success to his relationship with crew chief and mentor, Andy Santerre. "He's a really personal guy," said Moffitt of his mentor. "He knows just about everything, and if he doesn't know it, someone that he knows will know it."

The only challenge Moffitt has had with his crew chief is mastering Santerre's way of speaking. "That Maine accent is kind of hard to understand at first," chuckled Moffitt.

Santerre, who happened to be passing through the hauler in preparation for the New Hampshire race countered back, "We've worked through it."

While Moffitt and team have had success on the track, the major battle has been off the track, primarily securing sponsorship for the rest of the season. 

Moffitt can race the next race, scheduled for Thompson International Speedway in Connecticut this weekend. However, he has no sponsorship dollars to continue after that.

"It's just so hard at this point to find the money that we need," shared a somewhat dejected Moffitt.

"We've just got to keep our chin up," said Santerre. Everyone on the team, as well as Moffitt's father, has been working day and night to secure the funding needed to continue to move Moffitt forward in his racing career.

With the less-than-stellar finish at New Hampshire, Moffitt fell to fifth in the points standings. He is, however, only 55 points behind leader Jody Lavendar, the closest points race margin ever since 1995.

With five races remaining in the season, Moffitt will scrap for a good finish in the Pepsi Full Fender Frenzy 100 at Thompson International Speedway. He will also continue fighting for sponsorship dollars so he can see this season through and take that next step in his racing career.

For more information on Brett Moffitt or Andy Santerre Motorsports, visit www.brettmoffitt.com or www.andysanterremotorsports.com.

Photo Credit:  Mary Jo Buchanan

Sources:  Penny Aicardi, BNS; Jason Christley, NASCAR; Sue Santerre; with thanks to Andy Santerre and Brett Moffitt for sharing their pre-race time at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.