Wrenn Tops Seekonk Battle Royal
SEEKONK, MA — With one lap to go at Seekonk Speedway on Saturday night, it appeared that the Valenti Modified Racing Series would have a new winner in points leader Justin Bonsignore. Norman Wrenn emerged from fourth place to claim his first Modified victory in five seasons. The Nashua, NH veteran found success in Pro Stocks and won Pro Four Modified championships before making the move to a Tour-Type Modified.
“That was awesome,” Wrenn said. “It was like my first feature win all over again. I wanted one so bad and I think it’s been three years now we’ve been racing this division. We’ve been close several times, but to win in this division, an elite division, it is its just awesome.”
Wrenn started eleventh and fought a loose racecar throughout the event. Although he considered pitting, the No. 53 continued to gain track position. Once in third place, Wrenn was content to finish in the top five. By the time he got to second, Wrenn was committed to staying out.
“What was going to happen was going to happen.” Wrenn said. “Luckily I was able to hold on and luckily these guys started beating on each other and opened a hole up and I capitalized on it. It was great.”
[Photo Gallery] by Crystal Snape
[Photo Gallery] by Nicholas Teto
Wrenn recalled the final laps that provided an opportunity to take the lead on the last lap.
“The 99 (Savary) was leading and he started protecting his spot,” Wrenn said. “(The) 21 (Bonsignore) started going to the outside and he just kept on moving him up, moving him up, moving him up the track. He was opening up the bottom for anybody else that wanted to come down through. And so I just let ’em do what I thought they were gonna do and they did. They finally came together as the laps kept on counting down. They kept on hitting each other even worse. And that last lap they just came together and opened up the hole on the bottom and I seen the opening and I just shot for it.”
Wrenn credited Dave Berghman for providing a great car. Although he finished third recently at the Cement Palace, Wrenn acknowledged that he has struggled here and Berghman’s knowledge of the circular 1/3 mile helped. Berghman’s DB Fabrication has worked with weekly competitors like Mike Brightman and Rob Murphy this season.
Wrenn was glad to get the victory for his dedicated team, including Chris Nelson and Craig Carter, who has been with Wrenn since 1990. Former Seekonk regular and Pro Four Modified champion Robin Berghman is the tire person for the team. His wife Shirley attends every race and son Norman III helps at every event, Wrenn also helps as a spotter for his son’s Pro Four Modified efforts. The Wrenn team will not have a weekend off until October.
“I’m glad they got the win now we can go and enjoy ourselves and if we finish racing in a decent spot everybody will be happy whether we win or not.”
Wrenn had no interest in driving a Modified when he was racing Pro Stocks. He became familiar with open wheel racing through the Pro Four Modifieds. Since moving to Modifieds, Wrenn is glad he met his goal of winning a race.
Defending champion Rowan Pennink of Huntingdon Valley
“The 99 took us out at the beginning,” Pennink said. “We were able to battle back. … (The) guys did a good job (to) get the car close for me and we battled back to the front and almost came away with the win.”
With a tight race car, Pennink put on a show charging back through the field on the outside lane. He said the car “definitely liked at least arcing into the corners up top there.”
The closing laps were frustrating for Pennink as cautions erased his gains, since the series reverts to the last completed lap.
“The closing laps there the 53 (Wrenn) was blocking me pretty bad and finally got around him and those two tangled together for the lead and thought we were going to come away with the win. And the 21 gave me a good shot coming off of four and I pushed up the track and the 53 got by me, so that’s the way it goes. Put that one in the memory bank.”
Pennink entered Seekonk third in the standings, 33 points out. Pennink said that he only cares about winning at Monadnock Speedway on Saturday night.
Pennink has been on a recent hot streak in the SK Modifieds at Stafford Motor Speedway for Kelly Iverson, with two wins and three podium finishes.
“The car’s been fast all year, just we haven’t had the luck and we’ve had stupid things happen to us the first half of the year ,” Pennink said. “And finally we’re running the way we should have been running the whole year now. So hopefully we can continue that for the rest of the season.”
Pennink skipped the Monadnock NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race last month. He will not attend Wednesday night’s race at Bristol (TN) Motor Speedway, citing the expense to compete there.
“We’ve been struggling a little bit with the 93, so we’re going to take Bristol off,” Pennink said. “….We’ll be back for some races at the end of the year.”
Justin Bonsignore of Holtsville, NY piloted Art Barry’s No. 21 SPAFCO car to his fifth consecutive podium finish. Although the former Riverhead champion had never raced Seekonk before this season, he recorded a podium finish in all three starts.
“We had a good car, really patient all night making our moves,” Bonsignore said. “A lot of restarts didn’t really go our way and we got shuffled back and we’d work our way forward and it just shows how good of a race car these guys bring each week.
“(We) made a lot of changes today, so to have a car as good as that I’m really happy, but when you’re that close and you take lead coming to the white (flag) and the guy (Savary) just moves you right back out of the way, it’s pretty frustrating. But it is what it is and you just put that in the memory back and move forward and you remember how people race you is how you’ll move forward from here.
“So we’ll go onto Monadnock next week and just trying, sooner or later we’ll get a win. We keep saying it every week. We keep finishing on the podium. I think this is like the eighth time in 11 races we’ve been second or third, so we’re really close. We just gotta get a little bit of luck to get the w.”
Perhaps no track bodes better for Bonsignore than Monadnock, site of Saturday’s Victory Johnson Memorial 100 presented by Swanzey Oil. The high banked quarter mile in Winchester, NH is among his best with podium finishes in both races earlier this year. Bonsignore also has won the last two NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour races there.
“I’m looking forward to getting back there and getting through this summer stretch,” Bonsignore said. “Then we’ll startling looking at things as we hit September and roll into October, but really excited to keep going here. These guys bring a great racecar to the track every week and I’m just the lucky guy that gets to drive it. So like I said, we’ll just move forward.”
Bonsignore said it was too early in the season to see if he would return to drive for NEAR Hall of Famer’s Spearpoint Racing team.
“We’ll see what the team wants to do next year and if they want me back.”
Sources: Nicholas Teto, YankeeRacer.com
Photos by Crystal Snape