Reigning Riverhead Champion Justin Bonsignore Eyes NASCAR WMT Title
Justin Bonsignore of Holtsville, NY is looking to improve on the best season of his career in Modified racing. In 2010, Bonsignore won the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour’s Rookie of the Year award. 2011 saw Bosignore receive accolades for his first career NWMT win, a top-10 finish in points and Riverhead’s NASCAR Whelen All-American Series championship. He was also voted the Most Popular Driver by the fans.
Bonsignore had a rough start to 2011 including a carburetor penalty and engine issues that placed him outside the top-20 in points. Once the team hit their stride, the season showed steady improvement. “2011 was a great season,” said Bonsignore. “It started off a little slow but once we got luck on our side it turned out to be a great season. We won our first NWMT race and were in contention nearly every race in the 2nd half of the season. It was a lot of fun going to the track knowing you would have a chance to win every week! It’s all you can ask for as a driver.”
The 23-year-old also had another full-time commitment in Modifieds at Riverhead Raceway on Long Island. “Riverhead was really amazing every week,” said Bosignore. “There wasn’t too many nights that we didn’t leave there happy. We had a few tough runs which made the points closer than we would have liked, but we were the car to watch every week. It was so much fun to have all the fans come up to the car each week and say how much they enjoyed the show we were able to put on coming from the back to the front.”
The pivotal night for Bosignore was Memorial Day weekend, where he raced Friday at Stafford’s NASCAR WMT race and at Riverhead Saturday. “We blew a motor in practice and it was just a miserable night,” said Bosignore. “We had talked about just not racing the next day at Riverhead, but the crew pulled together and got the car turned around to race Riverhead. If we had decided not to run that night, it would have all ended in early May.” His best memories were the New Hampshire-Riverhead doubleheaders. “Racing in New Hampshire and then jumping on a plane to fly back to Riverhead was so much fun,” said Bonsignore. “It was stressful at the time, but looking back was so much fun!”
Riverhead was also the site of his first career NASCAR WMT victory in July. “The WMT win was the icing on the cake,” said Bonsignore. “It was so special to do in front of all my friends and family, and in front of the home crowd was so awesome.” The Riverhead win began a 9 race run of 5 top-5s and 8 top-10s through the penultimate race at Stafford. His worst finish was an 11th at Stafford in August. Highlights of that run included a second-consecutive pole at Stafford’s CARQUEST Fall Final along with 4th at Loudon, 2nd at Bristol, 3rd at Lime Rock and Loudon. During that time, Bonsignore rocketed from 19th in points to 6th. A crash in the season finale at Thompson relegated him to 7th in points.
“I have to thank M3 Technology and my owners Ken and Janine Massa,” said Bosignore. “Without them we wouldn’t be able to do any of this. They provide me with everything possible to compete, and to compete for wins! Also have to thank my crew which is led by my crew chief Aaron Clifford. He does an amazing job preparing these cars and is a big reason of to why we are so fast each week! “
“Our team has really taken shape really quickly,” said Bosignore. “It is something I am extremely proud of. It’s a team that I have been a part of since day one and have put a lot of my own time and ideas into the team; as well entire team has especially Ken and Aaron. Our goal this year is to contend for the NWMT title. We would like to put ourselves in position to when it comes down to that final stretch to have a chance at the title. I feel we have learned a lot over the past 2 seasons and hope we can build on those things and become better from them.”
2012 will find a renewed focus on the NASCAR WMT for Bonsignore with a limited schedule at Riverhead. “2012 will consist of a lot less racing then 2011,” said Bosignore. “We will compete full time again on the NWMT, hoping to contend for the title. We will race at Riverhead when they have time trial events, which is about 5-6 times. Also cannot rule out an occasional VMRS show or a possible open competition show if schedule allows, but were looking to have 110% focus on the NWMT schedule.”
Bonsignore will not defend his Riverhead championship this season. Charger driver Chris McGuire will pilot the car that Bosignore drove to last year’s championship for Ken Massa. “Ken and M3 have sponsored (McGuire) for years,” said Bosignore. “Chris has been looking to make the jump to a Modified for a while. He finally was able to put together a package with Ken, and two other sponsors to be able to run in 2012. … He will use his entire crew from his team, with some assistance from my team and I.”
“Our main goal is to win the NWMT championship and Chris understands that,” said Bosignore. “I think it’s something that could help both of us, and (I’m) really excited to see him get going. He deserves it more than anyone else right now on Long Island, and as far as an equipment standpoint it doesn’t really affect the tour team. We just added a new chassis to the team and that car was sort of an extra, so it’s an all around good deal. It adds a few more hands to the shop, which is great for us. Most of my track pit crew guys are from Connecticut, so shop help is tough for us.”
Bonsignore spoke of the high competition level on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. “I honestly have not found a track on the NWMT that I haven’t liked,” said Bosignore. “We have run excellent at some of the bigger stages (Bristol and Loudon), but we also have run great at Stafford and Thompson, just not too many finishes to show for the great runs. The entire NWMT is really tough. There are so many different guys that can win on any given week. I enjoy racing with a lot of the guys on the tour. Racing with guys that I grew up watching in go karts like Todd (Szegedy, 2003 champion) and Ronnie (Silk, 2011 champion) is so much fun, but also racing against guys like Steffy (Mike Stefanik) and TC (Ted Christopher) is great too. They have done so much in our series and to be able to compete with them and on occasion beat them, that’s special.”
One of Bonsignore’s best efforts of the season was at Monadnock Speedway in June. The race originally conflicted with Riverhead’s Saturday night program but was delayed by rain to Sunday. Bonsignore finished 2nd at Riverhead Saturday night. He followed that up with another runner-up effort to Todd Szegedy, who led every lap from the pole. “I try to model myself after Todd Szegedy,” said Bosignore. “I am not sure how well of a job I do at that, but he is just a great spokesperson for our tour, both on track and off. He is such a hard nose driver on the track, but at the same time is a gentleman.” … “He is who I strive to be like.”
Sources: Nicholas Teto/YankeeRacer.com