Stafford Motor Speedway management made official Monday the news that was reported exclusively by RaceDayCT early Saturday morning.
As had been expected, track officials have dropped Justin Bonsignore from his second place finish in Friday’s NAPA SK 5K to a ninth place finish because of a weight violation found in post-race inspection.
Bonsignore’s car was found to be seven pounds under weight following the event.
For violations of the minimum weight rule, Stafford Speedway drops a driver one position pound of the violation. That left Bonsignore, of Holtsville, N.Y. getting dropped from second place to ninth place in the final official running order.
The new running order moves Keith Rocco of Wallingford to second place behind race winner Ryan Preece of Berlin.
Ronnie Williams of Tolland is now scored in third place for the event.
Give Stafford credit on this one. Not many tracks would penalize a car that the owner of the car is also the owner of the track parts truck.
Good move on Stafford part but just wondering why Justin was not moved to last place or DQ with no points and no money. I realize it was just 7 pounds (1 gallon of fuel) but a rule is a rule. Maybe Stafford did the least they thought they could get away with regarding the penalty.
If they didn’t do 28 laps under caution waiting for Golden boy Preece to fix his car he wouldn’t have been light and Preece would have never won he would have been at least 18 laps down. The track only did that because Preece is the one they want to win each and every week. There really is not reason to watch a race when it is fixed each week…
Larry, the rulebook states 1 position per 1 pound under weight.
Why the heck would Stafford want Preece to win each and every week? Why would they want any driver to win every week? How would that ever help their business? I don’t understand this argument….
Preece won one race all year in the sks and its fixed for him?
ModFan the speedbowl used to think it was a good idea with Rocco winning every week in two divisions.
Bill, thanks for the clarification. I have not taken the time to read the rules on the SMS website. As long as there is consistency that’s all that matters. Consistency and credibility is all most racers want without favoritism.
If they would have red flagged the race like they have done in the pass to clean the track he wouldn’t have been light but no they ran 28 caution laps so Preece could work on his car..
I am surprised no one is talking about Preeces right rear tire change. The tire appeared to be inflated when it came off the car. No one else changed tires during the race, so I assume it was not allowed unless damaged. It made for a great race watching him come through the field a few times.
I actually like the Penalty, 1 position for each lb underweight. There was a lot of caution laps, and I dont believe the drivers knew how many laps the race was going to be when they prepared the car. Couple those two variables and its easy to see how a car could be a few pounds underweight. The penalty hurts the team but does not completely ruin the night.
If I was to suggest anything, I would say drop the long driver intros. They must have wasted 40 minutes on that on a very long night. They seemed to use the regular handicapping for the event. So any outsiders, which there were only about 5, had to start the heats behind all the regulars. I think that is a major reason why they did not get more cars when both Thompson (ran Wednesday before) and Waterford (off Saturday) were not running for a couple weeks, I would add lap money to leader out of the gamblers pot. I liked the bands, they should consider doing that more often. Unfortunately due to the length of the show the band after the race didnt have much of a crowd and the couple songs I heard were good . I also thought the pricing was a little high for a 50-100 lap sk race. We really didnt know how many laps the race would be when we bought the tix
28 laps under caution? Unless there was a good reason to do that then how can you not say they were giving as much extra time as possible to Preece?
Unobserved to this point: Preece, Rocco and Williams all “made weight”.
@CSG -your post sums up why this is the most over hyped racing event in New England!
CSG, I think they just did an invert from qualifying. Frank Ruocco started pole, he’s only raced once all year. and agreed, Pre-race waayyyy to long. Good race though, got my money’s worth.
Good comments. I agree race took too long to get started. Drivers and teams knew after the heats what the line up would be and how many laps would be run so no excuse there for under weight. I agree a red flag should have been thrown for the beach in turn 1, that would have changed the outcome. The 9 car put on a clinic on how to block, protect the bottom and run cars up if they tried to pass on the outside. When the #59 raced him hard, set him up for a great clean crossover move out of turn 4, with 14 to go, to me the 9 panicked and did the only thing he could do which was hook him. If that doesn’t happen, the 59 runs away with the race. Some dirty drivers never change. The 9 team is so proud, they should be embarrassed. The race was overall good and fun to watch. I’m already looking forward to next year.