THOMPSON – On September 11, 2011, Steve Masse was ready to celebrate his first career victory at Thompson Speedway.
Masse looked on the way to victory in the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour event at Thompson that day before it was deemed that he jumped a late restart in the event and he was penalized.
Saturday Masse, of Bellingham, Mass. got the trip to victory lane he’s been waiting for, and he did it in dominating fashion.
Masse led every lap on the way to victory in the 75-lap Valenti Modified Racing Series feature at Thompson.
“I’ve been waiting to win at this place for a while now and it feels good to finally get the win here,” Masse said. “… I just had to dig down deep and prepare the car well for this race and that’s what we did.”
Woody Pitkat of Stafford was second and Keith Rocco of Wallingford third.
Justin Bonsignore of Holtsville, N.Y. was able to hang on for a 14th place finish to clinch his first series title.
Bonsignore was involved in a lap-65 crash in turn four, but an extended red flag period allowed his team to repair his car and get him back on the track for the final 10 laps.
The long delay took place as track safety crews worked for about 50 minutes to remove driver Brian Schofield from his car after he was involved in the wreck that began with Bonsignore and Dan Meservey Jr.
“I ran a ran a good race up until lap 65 and I made a stupid move,” Bosnignore said. “My thoughts and prayers are with Brian right now. I really hope everything is going to be ok. I thought I had position on [Meservey] and he kind of squeezed me down a little more than I was expecting and we kind of banged wheels a bunch and that was it. … It’s unfortunate the red flag was so long but that was the only way we were going to get back out. We had to replace the whole right front. … And the year was just amazing on the series, but not the way we wanted to end it. But we’ll take the title.”
Schofield was removed from the track by medical helicopter. There was no immediate word on his condition.
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