Bonsignore Learning TQ Midgets in Own Car
Allentown, Penn. — Justin Bonsignore will attempt his second indoor TQ Midget start tonight at the PPL Center. Bonsignore debuted at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall last year in a second Ted Christopher entry.
“It’s a really nice arena. Parking’s a little tight but we’re kind of accustomed to those with these races. It seems pretty good so far. (The) track’s starting to rubber up. It’s tough with the one day show I feel to get the track rubbered the way it needs to be, but we’ll see what it does in the heats. And we’re just hoping really to get into the A main and run all the laps tonight and just keep learning. We’re all new to this me and my whole team of guys that came out to help me so just trying to learn, keep the car hopefully in one piece and we’ll go on to Atlantic City and just using really this whole year as a learning curve. But we’ve been pretty fast so far so we’ll see what we can do.”
Bonsignore’s car is an ex-Patrick Emerling car sporting a new black and red paint scheme with support from Dunleavy’s Truck & Trailer Repair. Bonsignore plans to run the remaining Len Sammons Motorsports indoor races January 28-30 in Atlantic City, N.J. and February 26-27 at Trenton, N.J., and any outdoor shows as well.
“I bought the car from Patrick Emerling towards the end of the summer and took it all apart repainted everything, went through all the components and trying to just learn the cars and what’s the ins and outs of ’em and just trying to have some fun. It was a little project for myself and a lot of the guys on the island to toy around with when we weren’t so busy and it’s something to do during the winter to get all the guys back together at the races and really just have some fun. It’s an expensive way to have fun, though.”
[Photo Gallery] by Nicholas Teto
Bonsignore expects to be back driving the No. 21 Modified for the NorthEast Race Cars Tri-Track Open Modified Series at Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, N.H., Seekonk (Mass.) Speedway, Star Speedway in Epping, N.H., and New-London-Waterford (Conn.) Speedbowl. Bonsignore won the 2014 Valenti Modified Racing Series championship with NEAR Hall of Famer Art Barry and raced part-time in the SK Modifieds® at Stafford (Conn.) Motor Speedway last year.
“I’ll probably be running the Tri-Track races and maybe a few MRS shows. We were only looking to do six to eight races together this year just kind of starting to scale back a little bit on that. It’s just starting to be a lot of work for Art and he’s pretty much a one man band for the most part. So we’re just going to pick and choose, have some fun with that series.”
“…That will probably be our number one priority is all those series races. They’re paying really good money to win. … We might hit a few of the bigger at like the Connecticut tracks with the MRS series just do a few here and there but Modified racing’s looking pretty strong right now. There’s a lot of big paying races and the tours got good car counts and it’s fun.”
The 50th Annual World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway will keep the John Blewett III Memorial Tour Type Modified 76 February 17 and the Richie Evans Memorial Tour Type Modified 100 February 19. The compressed schedule has five Modified races between February 15-19.
Bonsignore said his team’s goal is to win the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Championship in 2016 and New Smyrna will be the beginning of that. He prefers the old format of racing spread out over two weeks.
“I don’t think you’ll get any more cars. I’d prefer it the other way. … It was kind of nice to go down and get a couple of days off here and there to regroup and everybody works so hard at the shop and it’s kind of like a mini vacation when you get those days off. But we go golfing and hang out at the beach stuff like that. It’s cool for the guys to kind of relax, but I understand why they’re changing the schedule. It definitely makes more sense from a work standpoint for everybody that they only have to take a week off. … The money it is to run a whole season pretty much in a week, so people like to allocate that sponsor money or their own money for what they feel is more important and to trek all the way down to Florida is really I guess not that important to most people these days and we’re just really lucky that my owner’s willing to go and use it as a test for up here ’cause the weather will be nice and we can try some stuff every day and it just keeps building a notebook to try and get better as a team.”
Bonsignore will remain with Ken Massa’s M3 Technology team, driving the No. 51 on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. He may run some “spot” races at his home track, Riverhead (NY) Raceway.
Bonsignore suffered four DNFs last season en route to the worst finish since his rookie season, 2010. He finished tenth in points with 2 wins (both Riverhead races), 7 top fives, 8 top tens in 15 races. His best stretch was three consecutive top tens at Monadnock, Stafford and Thompson. He finished thetyear with theree top fives in the last four races.
“I’m always confident in myself and my team. It definitely got a little frustrating towards … the beginning and the middle part of the season when we just seem to couldn’t do nothing right. But it was really never anything of our doing for the most part. We’d get caught up in wrecks or just the weirdest things would happen. Stuff that you can’t prevent. You can try all you want, but you just in a million years it will probably never happen again and that’s just the bad side of racing. You gotta have luck more than anything I feel. We got fast cars. We got a great team, great pit crew, most days have a good driver and we just need the luck part of it so the whole package comes together and hopefully we can get back to that 2014 type of year where we contended for a championship and we showed plenty of speed. We could run with the best of ’em. We could run with the 2 car for the most part at that last race at Thompson. We gotta get a little better and were working on things but were close and I’m excited for it.”
Bonsignore ended the season with a victory in the North-South Shootout at Concord (N.C.) Speedway. He inherited the win after initial race winner Matt Hirschman was penalized.
“That’s one or our toughest tracks just passing on it and getting around yourself is hard enough, so to actually race people on that track is tough but it was a fun race this year. The tires wore out, people were coming and going throughout the day, and we got a little bit of a lucky break with the Hirschman deal. But at the end of the day, we were right there with ’em. We were just one adjustment away from probably running with ’em and maybe contending for the win outright. But I’ve said it a million times right now, the rules are the rules and I don’t blame them for trying what they did. But it is what it is and we’ll try and go into next year with some momentum.”
The 2016 season has two additions on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour schedule. For the first time since 1989, Oswego (N.Y.) Speedway returns on Labor Day weekend and Seekonk (Mass.) Speedway hosts its first series race since 2005. Bonsignore has never raced at Oswego’s 5/8 mile oval. In four starts at the ‘Cement Palace’, Bonsignore has three podium finishes in the Valenti Modified Racing Series driving for Art Barry.
“I’m pretty excited. We always want to see new tracks on the tour. It does get old going to some of the places four times, so it’s cool to have more races and it gives you a little bit more of a chance to have a mulligan or two the more races. Seekonk is (exciting). I’ve always run good there in the MRS car. … so I’m excited to go back there. It’s cool. The more the merrier. I think maybe one or two more and that’s a good limit. We don’t need to have too many races to keep the car counts up, but I think where we’re at right now is a pretty good balance.”
Bonsignore is not concerned with teams not returning for this season such as Buzz Chew’s team or Our Motorsports.
“It always happens. Teams come and go. Money dries up and new teams come into the sport and there’s a lot of movement right now with some drivers and crews and stuff moving around. It’s just kind of how the tour’s always been. It’s just the deal with social media now you hear more about it and you see more of it so it’s NASCAR the tour’s never going to go anywhere. The tour it’s going to have its highs and it’s going to have it’s lows. I think it will be another strong season of good car counts and they didn’t make many rule changes, so it’s easier. Save some money for the teams and I think it will be another good year. They had a great points battle last year. Hopefully, … I think a lot of people would say they’d like to see a little more parity amongst who wins. It was only four or five of us that won races so but Doug (Coby) had a year like no other and dominated so everybody’s just got to work on their stuff us included to get a little better but it’s modified racing. It’s going to come and go. It’s just tough. Nobody has disposable money anymore, no corporate sponsors. It’s tough, it’s a tough industry to be in, but we all love it so we try as hard as possible to get to the races every week.”
For the first time in several seasons, the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour had most races broadcast on NBC Sports Network.
“The TV thing should help again this year with another year under its belt. Hopefully, that will start paying dividends for some of the teams. You never know. But it definitely gives you a little bit more to go with when you talk to people about sponsoring you with saying that you’re going to be on TV and TV did a great job this year I felt. Obviously, it could always be a little better, maybe a little longer, but for what we’re given NBC does a great job and I’m sure this year they’ll come with some newer and better things to make it even better. So there’s a lot of positives. There’s always a lot of negatives people always come up with but I think racing, in general, is pretty good right now and you just got to take it for what it is.”
“I think things are starting to come around for the economy and all that type of stuff so social media sometimes does have good sides where people pressure and voice their opinions to help racing and boost the purses and just voice their opinion and owners and promoters are starting to listen to help their own cause and keep racetracks going so everybody’s got to work together from the fans to the drivers to the owners to the track owners. It’s a big group effort and we all just gotta pull in the same direction. It seems to be getting better and better.”
Sources: Nicholas Teto/YankeeRacer.com