Bobby Santos III To Run Whelen Modified Tour Event At NHMS With Tinio Motorsports

THOMPSON – In May Tinio Motorsports’ part-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour team ventured for the first time away from Thompson International Speedway when the organization fielded a car for Bobby Santos III in the May 25 TSI Harley-Davidson 125 at Stafford Motor Speedway.

(Photo: NASCAR)

After a very successful venture west to Stafford, now the team has decided to head north with Santos behind the wheel.

After fielding cars for Santos in two of the first four Whelen Modified Tour events this season, the Tinio Motorsports team has decided to head to Loudon, N.H. to attempt to run the Town Fair Tire 100 on July 15 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

“It’s been such a huge change for us this year with Bobby,” said Lawney Tinio, son of team owner Sully Tinio and a crew member with the team. “The excitement level is off the charts. So we just decided we should try to do this.”

Tinio Motorsports fielded a Whelen Modified Tour car for three events in 2011 at Thompson for driver Rick Gentes, with a best finish of 18th.

In his first start for the Tinio team, Santos qualified third for the April 15 Icebreaker 150 at Thompson. He ended up relegated to a 17th place finish because of an accident.

On May 25 at Stafford Santos gave the team its first Whelen Modified Tour pole qualifying effort and led most of the event at before losing the lead late to eventual race winner Doug Coby. Santos ended up second in the race.

“We just hope that everywhere we go we can keep this heading in the right direction,” Lawney Tinio said. “Bobby is excited every time we call him and tell him what we want to do next. We have a such a great team right now and there’s never any stress with what we’ve been doing. When this becomes not fun for us then we won’t want to do it any more.”

After the race at NHMS, the Tinio Motorsports team plans to field Santos in three more Modified Tour events this season at Thompson and in two more at Stafford.

“We’re looking one race at time,” Lawney Tinio said. “Right now we do want to keep focused on the local tracks, Thompson and Stafford, as much as we can and then see what else we can do.”

Tinio Motorsports fields a Late Model at Thompson Speedway weekly for Sully Tinio’s son Damon Tinio. The team is also involved in other weekly divisions at the track. Lawney Tinio said at this point fielding a full-time Whelen Modified Tour is probably not in the works for the group.

“Do we want to?” Lawney Tinio said. “Of course. Is it realistic? Not likely. We’re very busy with what we have going here. It’s very consuming and challenging at that level. But you never know what might happen.”

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