Reigning NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Justin Bonsignore got to another highlight checkmark to his stellar racing record with the series.
Bonsignore got to add another historic venue to his win list with the series Saturday with his victory in the Toyota Mod Classic 150 at Oswego Speedway.
It was the first victory at Oswego for Bonsignore, from Holtsville, N.Y., his fourth of the season and 24thseries victory overall.
“It’s awesome to win up here,” Bonsignore said, “We don’t get to come up to Western New York too much. It’s always a great crowd, especially to be here on Classic Weekend. A lot of history here. To finally win here, I’ve been close a few times. A lot of heritage here, I wanted to win and get my name in the record books here.”
Matt Hirschman of Northampton, Pa. was second and Ron Silk of Norwalk third.
Bonsignore held off the charges of Hirschman over the closing laps. Hirschman moved past Silk for second on a lap 139 restart when Silk missed a shift.
Hirschman was able to get a peak under Bonsignore once late, but settled back in for second place.
“With [Hirschman] behind you you know he’s going to run you clean but you’re just on top of it as hard as you can,” Bonsignore said. “I actually messed up a little bit through [turns] one and two.”
Said Hirschman: “I had a little wheel coming down the backstretch and he closed that off. If I had hooked him in the left rear that, that’s a dangerous place. … I don’t want to see somebody get hurt.”
Rob Summer scored the pole in qualifying and led much of the early going.
Justin Bonsignore secured a $2,480 bonus for leading lap 80. The bonus was in memory of longtime short track racing photographer Howie Hodge.
“It was an unbelievable car tonight,” Bonsignore said. “[Crew chief] Ryan Stone brought a great … car today. We unloaded really good. I made a long run in practice, about 30 laps, and I was really impressed with the speed. We got to second there early and they got that bonus money so it was kind of in the back of my head to and get to the lead for that.”
Bonsignore snapped a tie for second in the standings with Silk. Series points leader Doug Coby was sixth.
“I thought I was really pretty good until that last restart and I messed up and missed a shift,” Silk said. “A good run for us. Third is respectable.”
Good job great race
Warched on fans choice. Pretty good race. Only thing is the 01 & 33. Whaothe deal
Best pure race announcer this year so far. Best call of a race so far this year. One guy., a lot of information, lap after lap.
Really good race……and Wade Cole gets the move over flag, again.
I agree dog announcing was perfect spot on lap after lap a far cry from Buccleuch and his tire some at that Stafford
How’d that Oswego announcer do it? Know all the cars and drivers so well and almost faultless in the call. You could literally close your eyes, listen and still have a great mental image of what was happening. No flowery metaphors, no fillers or asides. A straight call. Who was that guy?
Come on Matt why the hang dog look in victory lane. You drove a brilliant race, beat a lot of heavy hitters and were right there at the end for the win. My view Hirschman is one of the best things in asphalt modified racing. He’s brings the juice everywhere he goes.
We got Hirschman’s lightning bolt and Catalano’d at the same time so this was special. How one family fields over 10% of the field in on race with the cost being what it is but we’re loving it no matter what. Not bad Ms Catalano. Didn’t even have the families best stuff but raced what you had to a very nice 17th place finish beating a bunch of guys with a lot of NWMT experience in the process. Fall Final?
Oswego is first class.Best show all year..Roy Sova is one of the best…once again 01 and 33 talk of the field….LOL…it was a good race ….glad to see Chucky do good and the 82 wasn’t bad either
I agree Doug financing was perfect I enjoyed the show very much on fins choice and I think the 01 was lapped coming off the scales
Apologize for spelling errors. I hate typing on my phone. Doug is spot on about the announcing. He was great
Some kind of crazy drive J Bon had off 4 Wow that was the difference. 60 from 13th was a great show and had a great car again but Justin did what needed to secure the win. That’s one fast crew as well. Congrats too as well to Chucl in the 21. I knew he was going to be a contender with all the experiance he has at the Big O.
Good race… Truly great sangria!
Why do you boys complain about the 01 and 33. They ran their own race and stayed out of the way. I watched the race from Darlington, SC late last night and contend that the LaJoie 32 affected lead lap cars more often than than Melissa or Wade ever did at Oswego. Where on the Internet can I find your sophomoric-grade commentary on that? I’m sure I’ll get drunk looking for it because it’s nowhere to be found! #Hypocrites
To be fair I think it was the strength of the announcers call that may have brought attention to the lapped car situation on this particular occasion. He was meticulous about advising the audience of who the leaders were approaching and the challenges involved. He mentioned Fifield, Cole, Sutcliffe and many more. It transferred to this thread where the 01 and 33 were mentioned together not just the 01.
There are many times Fifield is singled out to be mocked excessively. This doesn’t appear to be one of those occasions in my view.
Liz Cherokee, your icon, Fifield in the 01, didn’t make it past 59 laps. The reason listed is “rear end”. I went through this before for you. That car seems to have many dubious mechanical issues that take it off the track. With the way that car is run, the rear end should last FOREVER. All these “issues” seem to be code or a euphemism for something else.
🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴
The slower cars were indeed a factor on this track, as with all other bullrings and smaller tracks. The traffic made for dicy situations. The line of fast cars had to swing high, effectively losing a racing lane. It’s a small track, not much racing room as it is. Having to take a car like the 01 into the calculation on making a racing move, makes racing more complicated than it needs to be.
Fifield was fine. Cole was fine. Sutcliffe was fine. I actually saw Amy Catalano cause a problem in one situation mixing it up when she should have been lower. It happens.She adjusted.
Putting laps on cars happens hundreds of times a race. Fifield is fine. Why she or Cole race is a mystery but they’re fine.
Claiming that there is some kind of invisible black flag afoot is kind of like claiming someone is cheating with no evidence. It’s a conspiracy theory. Could be true. No one can say for sure it isn’t true. In the absence of any proof it’s more like a brain fart. Smelly for a while but no staying power.
Who drove the 82? Where did they start and finish?
Rob P.
Chase Dowling. Finished ninth. Started eight. Full results from Oswego.
“Fifield was fine. Cole was fine. Sutcliffe was fine. I actually saw Amy Catalano cause a problem in one situation mixing it up when she should have been lower. It happens.She adjusted.
Putting laps on cars happens hundreds of times a race. Fifield is fine. Why she or Cole race is a mystery but they’re fine”.
So Amy caused a problem while mixing it up, at least she was racing hard for position. When you race, you will make mistakes fighting for spots not just be “fine” what ever that means.
Earl, it’s just Insipid Sybil and one of his many disordered personalities, being judgmental while criticizing others that are judgmental or expressing an opinion. Or massive profound narcissistic personality disorder.
Crazy, JBon did have great drive off 4, and that was probably a key advantage for him.
Best comment by the announcer was when he called the track a big skidpad.
Rob Summers gets the Charlie Brown Award.
Cars are passed hundreds of times in a race when they are not fighting for position in a race. I count 517 in this Oswego in competition less the laps put on when cars were getting service that can’t be accounted for with the data I have available.. We tend to notice the leaders lapping cars and especially slower cars like Fifield and Cole but the same thing is happening literally all the time throughout the race with cars on different laps. Not notice so much because they are closer in speed but represent and risk nonetheless.
Ms Catalano put Ebersole, Barney, Rypkema and Fortin one lap down to her. She put Sutcliffe 3 laps down to her, Cole and Carrol 7 laps down to her. That was her race and every bit as important to her as the eventual winner. That comes out to 21 occasions when she passed cars not for position that included some measure of risk. Not only to her and the other car but cars on different laps fighting for position trying to get by other cars not on the same lap while they fight their own battle for position.
It’s a multi tiered competition we tend not to notice because it’s impossible to keep track of the different battles at one time. So we concentrate and pick on Fifield as a proxy for all lapped cars. We label her as some kind of danger simply because she’s the easiest to pick out and the most glaring example.
I understand why you mock me DGF for making this point. You specialize in provocation and like to constantly harp on the low hanging fruit. You have your themes from Sybil to Rob Fuller, to Hirschman to the Speedbowl and on and on and it never changes throughout the years no matter what happens in the current time line.
There are far more serious and better informed people in this forum then you or me and it would be nice to hear one of the more credible voices say if I’m on the wrong track here and why.
So I still want to know what is “fine”? If I wanted to read a book I would have gone to Barnes and Noble lol……..