Return Engagement: Santos Sets Full-Time Effort with Tinio Racing
Tinio Racing & Santos Prepare for 2014 Campaign
Bobby Santos, III of Franklin, MA said he would return to Tinio Racing next season. “As of right now, I would say (I am) 99 percent sure we’re going to run the full (Whelen Modified) Tour with Tinio,” Santos said. “That’s the plan and as far as the open wheel racing, I’m not positive what direction I’m going to go … I’m not sure how much and with who quite yet.”
“I want that to be my priority this year,” Santos said. “I think that we’ve learned a lot the last couple of years and we should be a contending team. I feel like we have an awesome team. … The one thing we’re lacking is a little bit of tour experience as a team but I think each year it’s gotten better. I think our third year together here we’re going to be real solid.”
Although Santos has competed on the Whelen Modified Tour since 2004, it will only be his third full season. Two conflicting dates with USAC races forced Santos to miss Monadnock and Riverhead last year. Santos drove Bob Garbarino’s Mystic Missile in 2010-11, where he captured the 2010 series title. Santos has made 21 starts since he joined Sully Tinio’s team at the start of the 2012 season. With two wins in each of the past two seasons, Santos’ average start is 5.6 and average finish is 10.3.
“Honestly I think our weakness is a couple (of) race tracks that we struggled at last year and the biggest thing is experience,” Santos said. “…We just got better all along, even when we made mistakes we just got better. So our biggest weakness is overall -driver, team-the whole deal, just a little bit of experience. I think that we’re going to overcome that. I think the best thing we’ve got going is that we’re going to have a lot of fun racing together and we actually enjoy going racing, even on the bad days. I think that’s going to overcome a lot of stuff.”
Lawney Tinio, son of team owner Sully Tinio, said, “Everything’s looking really good right now. Bobby’s committed to the full year. We’ve committed to the full year. … Right now, we’re in a holding pattern with sponsors … but it should all pan out well in the end. And we’re looking forward to another fun season.”
“I think we’re pretty close,” Tinio said. “You can plan the best you can for every single race but a lot of it comes down to luck and we just hope that’s on our side for as many races as we need this season. Our crew chief Steve Lemay is second to none. He really takes a lot of time to make sure that what we’re bringing to the track is 100 percent correct.”
“Riverhead, we never really raced there too much, but we’ve talked about it we have some ideas to go back,” Tinio said. “So we hope to be in contention. Riverhead is one of those tracks that you do need a lot of luck. But we’re very happy with our finishes at New Hampshire, other than the one where we got spun around and wrecked. The last New Hampshire race we were top-four where we finished. We wanted to win but a top-five finish at New Hampshire for a new team I think is pretty good. We’re hoping for a lot of luck to be on our side. We just hope to have a lot of fun doing it.”
“Anything can creep up on you,” Tinio said. “To have a couple of staffing issues if you will where folks didn’t show up that we depend on. That kind of hindered us a couple of different times. We still pulled through to get the job done, but when you’re depending on somebody, they don’t show up and you have to shift gears on the fly, other things might get forgotten. Normally you wouldn’t forget. So one of our biggest fixes for this year was to make sure that we did have a good group of dependable people that can be there for the whole season to be on our team. So that everybody has a specific job and that doesn’t change. This way we’re there to back each other up but at the end of the day this is your responsibility make sure it gets done.”
Santos enjoys the Whelen Modified Tour competition, but he sees room for improvement.
“I’m racing a lot of different stuff throughout the country,” Santos said. “I honestly feel that the competition level in the modifieds is like no other. There’s a lot of good equipment. There’s a lot of great drivers. I think to win a race on the Modified Tour to me just means a lot and you never know when you’re going to get your next win on the tour because it’s so hard. Absolutely the parity and the competition is second to none. ”
“I think that the racing has changed a ton the last three or four years,” Santos said. “…I think the tires are way too good and I think that would help the racing if the tires just give up a little bit. … It does change your mind set. The way that the cars and the tires are because everyone is so equal and even when you change tires, you don’t really have the advantage you used to.”
Santos feels that the amount of races on the schedule (14 were run last season) is a good amount in the current economy. However, Santos would like to see more tracks. “There’s definitely a few, (a) handful of race tracks out there that the modifieds should be at. … Richmond and IRP are two of the places that we could go to and put on good shows and possible make TV shows for the modifieds.” Both former NASCAR WMT venues, Richmond hosted 10 races between 1990 and 2002, while IRP (now called Lucas Oil Raceway) held events in 1988 and 1989.
“Bobby is a real good, conscientious driver,” Tinio said. “Some of the things that he drives through amaze me and he comes out through what I think is going to be a devastating wreck on the car and I just close my eyes and I open them back up and he’s through it so that coupled with just having good equipment. As long as we continue to keep giving him good equipment, I think he’ll be able to get the job done. We’re committed to make sure that happens. The crew chief is committed to make sure that the car is ready for him to be ready to perform and with wrapping up the whole team together I think we’re really going to be ready to take this on full steam this year.”
“We’re always trying to fine tune everything, whether it be fine tuning the car, fine tuning the team but the team and Bobby have a great relationship as far as talking to each other and knowing what – Steve knows what Bobby’s looking for, Bobby knows what to give Steve for feedback – (adjustments) to make. That along with talking to Billy the Kid as far as the motor. ‘Can we adjust this here? Can we adjust that there?’ And Billy being there as part of our team, Billy’s also part of other teams but we really feel that he’s a huge part of our team because he’s always there at the races. If we have an adjustment that needs to be made, we have a concern that needs to be answered; it’s not a phone call. He’s there.”
“We want to race our races as a team, not as just to go and win owners points or something like that,” Tinio said. “So that’s what weighed a lot into the decision going into this year”
Tinio Racing has two cars prepared for the upcoming season. The team is still working to finalize sponsorship.
“We definitely have a really good working relationship with all of our sponsors, it’s just at this point we’ve taken a little bit of time off to reset and those conversations we’d expect to start in the next couple of weeks,” Tinio said. “It’s more as far as Curb Records the only conversation with him was kind of a cool, good end of season closer. … I know he’s still got a lot going on with all the other series that they run so we’re just going to wait to talk to them. I’ll be in touch with the other sponsors throughout this month or right after the first of the year to see if everybody is still going to be on board.”
Tinio said that the #44 team would not be participating in the Battle of the Beach at Daytona in February. “At this point we won’t be there with any of our cars,” Tinio said. “That’s an expensive trip and it’s not a points race. We’d rather save the money that we save from not going to that to make sure that we can get our guys and our team to the other venues that we need to for the points races.”
“I know it’s a big event for NASCAR,” Tinio said. “It’s definitely something that we’d like to do. Thompson is in our backyard. If it was at Thompson we’d be there or if we lived in Florida we’d be there, but to travel the entire East Coast just to go race, (it) just financially doesn’t make sense to us.”
In the most recent NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race, the World Series 150 at Thompson, Santos set fast time to claim the 2013 Coors Light Pole Award. Santos led twice for a race high 87 laps. A three tire pit stop on lap 103 put Santos to the back of the field. Santos rallied to fourth, passing Ron Silk with 9 laps to go.
“I’m trying not to think about that race,” Santos said. “Honestly I feel like we gave that race away and it was probably as much my fault as much as anybody’s. We just had by far the best car. Stevie Lemay is awesome at setting up a race car and I feel like we had the car to beat and just (got bit on) strategy. I’ll take 90 percent of the blame on that.”
Earlier that day, Santos finished second in the NEMA Midget season finale driving the #7NY car for the Cantor team. “I really wish I could have won the race for them,” Santos said. “I was disappointed about that because definitely the goal is to win every race you’re in. It was a lot of fun, the couple of races I ran for the Cantors this year, and I wish them the best. I wish they could keep going but obviously like a lot of people money’s tight and it’s tough.”
“Randy (Cabral) is by far the best midget driver right now and he’s the toughest to beat; so being good friends with Johnny Z (John Zych) I’m proud of him and happy for him to end up being able to beat out Randy for that. It’s not easy to do. Randy is the man to beat so for Johnny to challenge him and do that with what he did this year I’m pretty impressed. He did a good job.”
Oxford Plains Speedway will return to the ISMA Supermodified calendar next season for the first time since 2007. Santos has fond memories of the 3/8 mile oval, as it was the site of his first ISMA Supermodified victory at age 17 in Howie Lane’s #97.
“Oxford was a lot of fun,” Santos said. … “I remember I started I think fifth and got out front fairly early in the race and I remember that I had (Dave) McKnight in second and (Chris) Perley was third. They are a couple of the top guys still but obviously, at the time were two of the guys to beat. … I had a really good car and … I was just taking care of my tires and anytime I heard or felt them challenge me I pushed my car a little bit more and trying to make them chase me. Howie (Lane and) … Kevin Crowley was crew chiefing at that time, gave me an awesome car and it was pretty neat. I remember that race paid 10 grand to win at that time. I’m not sure what they’re paying this year but I doubt its 10. That was pretty big, pretty cool race to win at that time.”
“As of right now I don’t have any plans, but if I could run a Super for a couple of shows this year, in a good car and a good opportunity I would absolutely do it.”
I asked Santos and Tinio about the silly season changes and how it affects the outlook for next season.
“Change is good, keeps it exciting,” Tinio said. “(It) causes people to pay attention. The drivers, the owners that make the decisions that they need to make sure that they stay competitive. We’ve made changes in the past that really helped us out and I hope that the changes that the other teams are making help them out. There’s nothing like watching a good race. You want to make sure that the competitive guys are still there. You want to make sure that the teams are still there. We need the car counts or we’re not going (to have a series). As far as teams go I’d just like to see more people throw their hat in the ring.”
Currently three former tour champions have not secured a full-time ride: Ted Christopher, Mike Stefanik and Todd Szegedy. “I hope those guys all do secure something before the season starts,” Tinio said. “They all are top notch drivers, top notch guys. It would be very disappointing to not see those names on the entry list when we get to the Icebreaker. I really hope they can work something out to get themselves secured into the seat. Those are three names that the fans do come to see. Without car counts and without fans we really don’t have a race to go to.”
A second car will not be fielded by Tinio’s team. “That’s financially not realistic, not to mention time consuming, to have to have two cars ready to go to race as well as deal with different driving styles and personalities and having to make sure that you have the car setup for this or that,” Tinio said. “Where do you put your resources? I don’t think that’s fair to either driver if you were running two cars. Surely, it’s been done and some other teams they try to do that, but a team’s a team and I don’t see any need to. Wow just trying to comprehend that logistically (in) my head drives me bananas. That’s just sounds like a lot of extra work for not a lot of return.”
“There are a lot of new combinations with new teams and new drivers, which I think a lot them are still going to be stout,” Santos said. “They’re good teams. I think with new blood in the #2 team with Doug (Coby) and those guys, I think they’re going to be a tough combination. Who knows Todd (Szegedy) will probably end up in the #52 or something like that and that would be a tough combination. I know Ryan (Preece) is going to comeback hot after a championship. The competition is definitely going to be there but I’m confident with my guys that we have. … (The team has) proven that we’ve got the speed; they just got to close out the deal. I think that we have as good a shot as anybody next year.”
“I think for a lot of people the grass is greener on the other side of the fence,” Santos said. “Some of its economics. I’m disappointed not to see (Mike) Stefanik in a car. I look up to him and I respect him. I think he’s a great thing for our tour. I think that he’s still one of the best. He proved it this year winning at Bristol. In my mind, there’s no doubt how good he is and still I don’t think he’s lost a step. It’s disappointing. I’d like to see him come up with something good.”
“I don’t know what Teddy (Christopher) is doing. I’d like to see him in something good. I think guys like that are important to this tour to keep them racing. To me they’re the reason why I feel like people like myself and Doug (Coby) and Phil (Moran) … the middle aged group guys that are now, I think those are the guys that we grew up looking up to racing. It would be disappointing not to see Mike in a car this year.”
“It’s not real sure if they’re (the #52 team) even going to racing full-time or not,” Santos said. “If they could get a little bit of money help they would. And then the #3 car in my opinion is an awesome ride. I think it’s just a matter that they need the money to function. It would be good to see someone that had a little bit of money be able to keep them guys going. I think that as important as Mike (Stefanik) is, … the #3 car is just as important to the Tour too. I know they might be doing some MRS, but I’d like to see them get the funding so they can continue to run full-time too. I think that’s an important thing for the tour not to lose someone like them.”
Santos cites the cost of racing as “one of the bigger issues.” ”Through every rank of racing, people that deserve rides aren’t in rides, where they’re losing out to someone who has money. It’s unfortunate. Right now Ryan Preece is probably as good of a driver as anyone in the country. He’s young and he probably deserves a shot to be in a stock car as much as anybody. And I hope that he gets that shot, but unfortunately if he doesn’t the only reason he won’t is because of money and I think the tour has the same issue.”
“Look at Doug Coby how long he battled to get himself in a top-notch modified ride. He’s been one of the top guys for years, he just never got a shot to show his talent until recently how good he is and people are like’Where did Doug come from?’, but Doug’s been that good he just hasn’t had the ride or the opportunity because of money or whatever other reason.”
“I don’t know that is the most disappointing thing about racing I think that decisions and a lot of things happen now because of money,” Santos said. “And that’s the biggest thing I hate about racing. I hate it in racing that it’s like that that it’s so money driven. And honestly in my opinion those three upper series right now in NASCAR are a joke because it’s all about money. In my opinion there is more talent at a Modified Tour race than a Truck or a Busch race by far.”
Back in 2006, Santos competed across a number of divisions: ISMA Supermodified, NASCAR Whelen Modiied Tour, PRA Big Cars, USAC Silver Crown. Santos was a development driver for Bill Davis Racing in 2006-07. He competed in four ARCA Racing Series races and four NASCAR Nationwide Series races.
“It was a great experience,” Santos said. “When I look back at it, I think I’m lucky to have that experience that I had. I feel like I caught it at the wrong time. … Right when I got my opportunity and I was the right age and the whole deal, the economy (went bad). .. “Obviously, I’m thankful for Tommy Baldwin to give me that opportunity. .. I felt like I was at the point where I was really ready to do well and to be successful down there and then the opportunities dried up because of money.”
“The biggest thing it makes you (is) a little sour towards racing,” Santos said. “And then I see people getting opportunities that I’ve raced against and I’ve chased my whole life and then they’re getting opportunities because of money or whatever reason. It makes you a little bitter towards the way things are run down south. … I believe I learned stuff that helped me with my racing for sure … It was definitely a learning experience.”
“I feel like in New England and in general I think I’ve raced everything that I want to race,” Santos said. “… One of my goals right now is I’d love to try an IndyCar. … I’ve done the NASCAR stuff and it was fun, but I feel like an IndyCar would suit my style of driving and my style of racing. .. I’d love to go to race at the (Indianapolis) Speedway and try an IndyCar. It’s definitely one opportunity I would love to have but again its money driven, and likely the main factor of something like that ever happening.”
Regardless if the ride came in IndyCars or NASCAR, Santos believes he has matured since his initial driver development deal in 2007. “If I ever got the opportunity again, I feel I would do a better job of taking advantage. … I would be a lot more grateful for it and understand the opportunity more. I would have a lot better outlook on the whole thing and I feel like I would do a lot better job with my career.”
“I think that there’s a lot of talent in New England and there’s a lot of great racers. I feel that I’m still young and still learning and every year I get better. Even in the modifieds, my outlook on modified racing and stuff has really changed and I feel that even in the last year and a half I’ve gotten better.
“That’s one good thing about racing compared to stick and ball sports I think that its unique, you can peak not only at an older age. … Look at Ted Christopher. I think he’s better than he ever was and I think that he’s still getting better. He’s the best driver there is. Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson all included I think Ted Christopher by far is the best driver in the country. He’s peaked in his 50s. That’s the one thing that you’ve got going in racing is that you can continue to get better.”
“To sum it all up, honestly I’m just really excited for next year and the opportunity and I feel like I’m just only getting better and our team is only getting better,” Santos said. “I’m just really looking forward to racing with the Tinios this year. I want to thank those that make it happen – Sully (Tinio) and Mike Curb for giving us the opportunity.”
Tinio confirmed that his brother Damon will continue to drive the #45 Late Model at Thompson Speedway next season. Tinio believes the reduced schedule has “a little bit more excitement thrown into it,” Tinio said. “I think that that’s going to hopefully bring a little bit more appeal for folks to come to the track. That was the big thing trying to get them out there. The racing was there but the fans weren’t. And that was a tough thing for the Thompson management to try to contend with. I mean they love racing so much but at the end of the day it’s a business for them. So they need to do what is best for them, but we’ll continue to run there as long as there’s racing going on there.”
Tinio concluded with his outlook for next season. “We go to every race to win. We would love to win the championship but at the end of the day we just want to be able to race, be competitive and put on a good show.”
Sources: Nicholas Teto/YankeeRacer.com
Photos: Paul Fohlin, Jim Feeney, Nathan Teto & Nicholas Teto