The Spring Sizzler remains as one of those iconic events that every Modified driver wants more than most others to have on their winning resume.
Bobby Santos III can boast of having three Spring Sizzler wins to his credit.
And in 2022 the former NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion will be looking to make it four Sizzler wins.
Tinio Motorsports team manager Lawney Tinio confirmed to RaceDayCT that the team has filed its entry Saturday for the 50th NAPA Spring Sizzler at Stafford Speedway with Santos driving their car.
The April 24 Spring Sizzler will be contested as an Open Modified event. Santos, the 2010 Whelen Modified Tour champion, has wins Spring Sizzler wins as a Whelen Modified Tour event in 2011, 2013 and 2014.
The Sizzler wins in 2013 and 2014 came with Santos driving for Tinio Motorsports.
Lawney Tinio said when it was announced that the Sizzler winner will get a starting spot in the SRX Series event at Stafford on July 2 it made the decision easy for the team.
“When the race first was announced the purse was very desirable,” Tinio said. “Then once the SRX part of it got announced that became a pretty big deal. That sealed the deal for us. It would be great if we can win that race and get Bobby in. That would be really cool.”
Of Santos’ 19 career Whelen Modified Tour victories, six total have come at Stafford.
Santos is the fourth former Whelen Modified Tour champion committed to the event, joining fellow former series champions Doug Coby, Ron Silk and Ryan Preece on the entry list.
Tinio Motorsports will run its first event of the season with Santos in the Whelen Modified Tour event at Richmond (Va.) Raceway on April 1.
The team also plans on running Whelen Modified Tour events at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (July 16), Thompson Speedway (Aug. 17), Oswego (N.Y.) Speedway (Sept. 3) and Martinsville (Va.) Speedway (Oct. 27). Tinio said the team is also planning on running the Thompson 300 on Oct. 7 at Thompson Speedway and could possibly look at some other selected Tour Type Open Modified events.
Now it’s getting interesting. The heat is getting turned up a bit!
So how is Rich doing in his December prediction on the Sizzler car count?
“Rich says
December 19, 2021 at 12:29 pm
If you guys were paying attention, alot of Sk teams have built Tourtype mods or are building one now, then you got freed up Wmt teams, and tri track teams. Here is my guesstimate
10 Sk teams
8 wmt teams
25 Tri Track/MRS teams
10 randoms from Ny,PA,NJ,Riverhead,NC
53 is my #”
SK Teams-11,24,31,35,48,50,52,55ct,57,81
WMT-3,7ny,10,16,58,79,44ma
TTOMS/MRS-4ma,4nh,5,9ct,79k, 21,25,75ct,55b,28
Randoms-0,01,1,25ct,44nj,66,81nj,88
Rich is either nailing it or is close to nailing it except for the Tri Track/MRS teams.
Noticeably absent: Hirschman, Robie, Zachem, Hinckley, Alexander, Savory, Rameau, Izzo, Nocella. They’re voting with their registrations and so far the smaller track specialists are not interested so much in taking on quirky and longer SMS.
In the December 18th poll 63% predicted less the 50 cars in the Sizzler and they look to have the edge at this point over the optimists.
Rob p predicted 39-42 cars and is on track to being very close to the final number.
Last minute surge or will it slowly grind to 40?
Like mentioned before, anyone that calls themselves a racecar driver will find a way to get in the field and have a chance for immortality. Even if the actual race is anticlimactic it doesn’t matter at this point, the build up has been over the top.
Was there a pole that asked how many tour champions would be in the Sizzler? Can’t remember right now… either way, I didn’t think Santos would miss this opportunity for the world especially with Tinio behind him, such success with that team.
In my opinion, Bobby Santos is a top 2 favorite right now he is such a savvy and intelligent racer. Really looking forward to the show.
I’m gonna guess right now above 42. Of the 9 notably absent Doug mentions I’d estimate 8 show up. If they don’t they might as well stop calling themselves racers at this point. This is the biggest race of their generation for modified IMO and you stay home? NO WAY.
Money Matt is definitely there, all those others that have raced Stafford before will be there. Even if you have never had any success there, you think well I’m gonna do this and that different this time and be top of the charts!
Someone will earn the right to race in front of over a MILLION people on CBS TV live. Maybe only Preece has done that to be honest.
LETS GO!
Okay, so who is still on the outside? Who is missing???
JBon is one. It would be great to have him in the SRX race.
Forget Matt Hirschman, he has no chance against all this Stafford talent… no chance whatsoever, and he knows it. He won’t be there.
Any news on the IceBreaker entry list?