Six-time Whelen Modified Tour champion Doug Coby and three-time Whelen Modified Tour champion Justin Bonsignore each have one series victory this season. Bonsignore sits fourth on the Whelen Modified Tour career win list with 36 victories. Coby is tied with Tony Hirschman Jr. at fifth on the list with 35 series victories. The top-three on the list are Mike Stefanik (74 wins), Reggie Ruggiero (44 wins) and Ted Christopher (42 wins). Today’s poll question asks, who will match Christopher for third on the list first, Bonsignore or Coby? Vote below.
Just talking about these two and TC in the same conversation makes my head hurt. Lol But I’d say most likely JB, only because coby seems to be slowly stepping away.
Longtimetourfan,
Just curious where you see the “slowly stepping away” for Coby? He ran 12 of 19 events on the Whelen Modified Tour in 2022 and then returned to doing a full-time schedule in 2023. I’m not sure of the exact numbers for both, but I think of you include other Tour Type Modified events, Coby ran more events in 2022 than Bonsignore and will definitely run more events overall than him in 2023. Not sure how the guy who is running more events than the other is “slowly stepping away.” from anything.
Just as a fan from the bleachers. After the 2 sold everything, and Coby and Moran parted ways the following season. It felt like the writing was on the wall,I also thought Coby said he wanted to try other things. So to me it felt like he was slowly moving on from the tour. Then obviously the Baldwin ride came along. But no one seems to stay in that car very long. As an outsider I would just think JB is in a more stable situation. However that’s purely based on how long he’s been in that car. Obviously you know more about the situation of both drivers.
Let’s see what does the RaceDayCt archives have to say about Coby’s post Mike Smeriglio plans.
Smiriglio announced his retirement in early November 2019. Late February 2020 Coby announcing he would be an owner driver. Bought his favorite car from Smiriglio and got commitments from his old team members including Moran to run the entire 2020 season. Signed their old sponsor Mayhew as well and ran all 9 races in the abbreviated pandemic season.
No signs I can find of stepping away in that time frame or since.
Bonsignor mid thirties, Coby early 40’s. If Massa sticks with the Tour Bonsignor has to have the best shot. If Massa dropped out Bonsignor has had no meaningful success in any other car in any series in recent history. He tried driving the 00 in MMTTS races with limited success and no wins. Passed on opportunities to drive other cars saying he was too busy and the 51 his only priority. That would give Coby the edge since he seems to be more of a hustler with better skills getting good rides plus he does have his own car.
Just a side note there shooting for Teddy’s 42 total wins the funny thing is from 1995 to 1998 only four years Mike Stefanik won 32 tour races .
Several of those recent Justin wins should have an asterisk
* = with assistance from the 22 or 34
It helps to have his cousin or the hack in the 34 hold up / block the leader so he can get wins
The way I see it , These two guys are part time drivers during a season , Justin can’t drive anything else he’s only good in a pack of 20 cars and starting up front, an 15 races a year is not racing. And they drive in a field that has only six good cars🙄
Well, let’s look at this a little bit deeper.
After the 2 team shut down, Colby couldn’t get a ride, no team owner would take him on, so he had to start his own team. Luckily, he had Moran for a season. And even that season (’21) he missed a race. Then his own team collapsed, Moran left, and the 10 didn’t run that often. Colby was not running full-time. Then in ’22, the 7NY had the contest by putting Blewett, MCJr, and Colby in the car. I think Colby ran only the 7NY races that season, 12 of 19 races.
Somewhere around the time the 10 was collapsing and Colby was again not able to run full-time, Colby was talking like he “wanted to spend more time with the family”, and we all know what that means. It may not have been here on RaceDayCT, but it was out there somewhere.
And then a miracle happened and Colby is now running full-time in the 7NY, and there’s no more talk of spending more time with the family, or trying something else. Funny the way things work out.
The bottom line is that Colby can’t fund his own operation to run full-time, and since the MSR 2 shut down, Colby hasn’t been able to get a team owner to take him on, until this season. We shall see how this unfolds.
JBon is a highly desirable driver working with a very dedicated team owner.
All things point to JBon reaching and surpassing the TC wins mark.