LOUDON, N.H. – Justin Bonsignore and Kyle Bonsignore have been competing together on four wheels since they were kids and had plenty of bruising battles for victories over the years.
On the Whelen Modified Tour the 36-year old Justin Bonsignore and 35-year old Kyle Bonsignore have been competing regularly together since 2017, but over that span the day hadn’t arrived yet where they squared off for victory, until Saturday.
The Whelen Modified Tour Mohegan Sun 100 turned into the Bonsignore vs. Bonsignore showdown Saturday.
Justin Bonsignore held off Kyle Bonsignore in a three-lap heads-up battle out front to win the Mohegan Sun 100 Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
“It’s never worked out where we’ve gone head-to-head for a win,” three-time series champion Justin Bonsignore said. “We were working together. Our spotters were communicating on how we could get away from the pack. It was like we were eight years old again racing. My dad pointed out that it was probably the first time since we were eight that we were didn’t crash each other because we grew up racing Go-Karts everywhere against each other. That was really cool to go 1-2. I think the day I clinched my first championship (Sept. 18, 2018 at Stafford Speedway) he won that race. It’s cool to have these moments with your family.”
It was the 42nd career Whelen Modified Tour victory for Justin Bonsignore, tying him with Ted Christopher for third on the division’s all-time win list. Reggie Ruggiero is second with 44 wins and Mike Stefanik leads the list with 74 victories.
It was the second consecutive victory for Justin Bonsignore at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and his third overall in Loudon. He led 76 of 100 laps.
“We have 16 awesome races in our year but this is our Daytona 500 and everybody wants to win this race,” Justin Bonsignore said. “There’s so much that goes into put yourself in position and having a good car. We’ve had an amazing car up here like four years in a row.”
Kyle Bonsignore ended up finishing second.
The race restarted on lap 98 with Kyle Bonsignore staying on the bumper of Justin Bonsignore. Kyle Bonsignore didn’t make any moves on lap 99. On the final lap Justin Bonsignore was able to power off of turn two and get a huge gap on Kyle Bonsignore heading into the final two corners.
“I gave it away going into turn one,” Kyle Bonsignore said. “I was trying to set myself up and get a good enough gap coming off of [turn] two and I thought I had time and I just got a little greedy and over drove it in the center of the corner and I got [high on the track]. I didn’t lose a lot but I lost enough to where I had no momentum coming off of [turn] two. I really wish that last caution didn’t happen because I feel like we were in a better spot with more room behind us and I could have been more aggressive and tried something earlier.”
Said Justin Bonsignore: “We definitely were working together through our spotters. I have a lot of experience here on working together on restarts with people. We executed it pretty well. … I’m assuming he just went for it too early in [turns] one and two and then kind of bobbled. That was probably the most stress free lap I’ve ever ran here at Loudon coming to the checkered.”
Chase Dowling, making his first series start of the season driving for Tinio Motorsports, finished third.
“We knew we had a really good car yesterday,” Dowling said. “We didn’t really draft too much. We were kind of just making sure our car was good. I’ve raced here a lot of times, I knew what I had to get out of the car. We were happy with it. We had to start 22nd … but we drove through the field, had a great strategy … and the thing drove to the front.”
Reigning series champion Ron Silk, who came into the event as the points leader, finished 10th to remain atop the standings. Justin Bonsignore cut Silk’s lead from 16 points to two points. Jake Johnson, who finished eighth, remained third in the standings, now 28 points behind Silk.
The race was originally scheduled to be run at 6:30 pm Saturday. On Friday NASCAR moved the start of the race to 10 am. Rain began falling at NHMS minutes after the conclusion of the Mohegan Sun 100.
The race began with the front row starters of Silk and Justin Bonsignore playing swap the lead out front.
Justin Bonsignore went past Silk for the lead into turn one at the green flag. Silk briefly went back to the lead on lap two, but Justin Bonsignore regained the top spot in turn three. It was the same scenario on lap three.
On lap four Silk went to the lead. A lap later it was Justin Bonsignore moving back out front.
On lap nine Silk overtook Bonsignore out front again. Justin Bonsignore went back to the lead on lap 10 before caution flew on lap 11 for the car of Mike Marshall in the backstretch wall.
The caution flew with Justin Bonsignore leading, Silk in second, Austin Beers in third and Johnson running fourth. Just before the caution Doug Coby’s car was showing smoke under green. Coby went to pit road under caution.
On the lap 18 restart it was Silk getting by Justin Bonsignore for the lead into turn one, but Justin Bonsignore regained the top spot into turn three. On lap 19 Silk went diving under Justin Bonsignore into turn three to take back the lead. A lap later Justin Bonsignore used the same move to overtake Silk for the lead.
Silk briefly got back out front in turns one and two on lap 26, but Justin Bonsignore went back to the front through turn three on the same lap. On lap 27 Silk moved back to the lead by Justin Bonsignore. On lap 29 Bonsignore once again used the diving move into turn three to get by Silk.
On lap 36 Jake Johnson got by Silk for second place. Johnson passed Justin Bonsignore for the lead through turns one and two on lap 40, but Justin Bonsignore grabbed the lead back from him in turn three.
Ryan Preece went to pit road under green just before caution flew on lap 42 for the slowed car of Gary McDonald. Caution flew with Justin Bonsignore leading, Johnson in second and Silk in third. Preece went to the garage under caution.
With a mix of stops for fuel and tires, the field shook out with Justin Bonsignore leading, Eric Goodale in second, Silk in third and Luke Baldwin in fourth. Johnson, who was third at the caution, fell to 12th after the stops.
On the lap 49 restart Goodale got the run under Justin Bonsignore to take over the lead. On lap 51Johnson got on the brakes hard into turn one and went up the track. Johnson tried to come back down a groove and made contact with Jon McKennedy. Johnson spun and McKennedy ended up against the outside wall.
On the lap 56 restart Justin Bonsignore went under Goodale for the lead into turn three but behind them Silk and Trevor Catalano made contact in turn three, getting Silk sideways. Silk then collected Craig Lutz through the corner with Lutz riding up the wall. Silk was able to drive away from the incident. The caution negated Justin Bonsignore’s pass for the lead.
On the lap 63 restart Goodale was able to power by Justin Bonsignore off of turn two with Tommy Catalano following by Justin Bonsignore for second place. On lap 65 Justin Bonsignore got back by Catalano through turns one and two and then went under Goodale for the lead into turn three.
Caution was back out on lap 67 for a hard crash into turn one for Andy Seuss, who had been running 13th. The wreck brought out the red flag for cleanup and wall repairs in turn one.
On the lap 75 restart Justin Bonsignore was able to get some breathing room with Goodale. A lap later Chase Dowling moved past Goodale for second. On lap 78 the battle for second between Goodale and Dowling got feisty. Contact sent Goodale up the track while Dowling saved a sideways car through turn two. The incident ended up collecting Luke Baldwin in the turn one wall. The incident shook up the running order, putting Kyle Bonsignore up to second, Trevor Catalano to third and Patrick Emerling to fourth. Goodale fell to fifth and Dowling to seventh.
The race went back to green on lap 85 but it was short-lived run. Caution was immediately back out for a wreck in turn one involving Tommy Catalano and Tyler Catalano.
On the lap 90 restart Justin Bonsignore and Kyle Bonsignore were able to break away from third place Emerling. Goodale went by Emerling for third on lap 91. On lap 93 Kyle Bonsignore was stalking all over the bumper of Justin Bonsignore. On lap 95 Anthony Nocella got into the wall to bring out a caution.
Counting caution laps for race laps is as bad as telling you cannot change a tire unless its flat. Meanwhile you can spend a couple hundred thousand to race all year.
@JOE MARKS I’ve been meaning to do this experiment by counting caution laps at open races that don’t count caution laps, but I feel like the Whelen Tour counting caution laps but running longer races results similar if not longer race times. I was at the Northeast Classic back in August where the open mods ran 50 laps without counting yellows and I don’t think I was cheated out of a good race either weekend. I’m interested in what the teams prefer, and for the most part they seem to want shorter races to save on costs.
Somebody at NASCAR forget to update the NWMT standings?
We still ain’t got no updated standings!!!!!
WTF NASCAR!!?!?!?!?!?!
Next NWMT race is July 20.
I’m watching the Tour de France, a bicycle race, and results are instantaneous and real-time. It’s been this way for years.
The last NWMT race was at Loudon on June 22, and the standings have still not been updated.
Way to go NASCAR!!!!! Great way to disrespect the fans, teams, drivers, owners, venues, tracks, vendors, supply chain, et al.
@darealgoodfella the NASCAR website is pointing to Racing Reference which has the updated standings here: https://www.racing-reference.info/standings/2024/N/
Marshall,
Yes, that is indeed the link for the Whelen Modified Tour standings. And yes, most of the statistical categories on that table have been updated. But, the point standings listed have not been updated to reflect the standings following the June 22 event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Silk has 300 points, Bonsignore has 298 points, Johnson has 272 points. The points column and points difference column at that link are not updated.
@Shawn Ooooohhhhh you’re right. Where the heck did I see that updated points table then? I know I’ve seen those numbers somewhere… don’t tell me if the answer is one of your articles xD
Marshall,
Yes, I had updated points published the day of the race.
Marshall, you have to be careful, the official standings, on that Racing Reference page are often updated in bits and pieces, over several days, usually weeks. But before the next race.
Shawn has taken matters into his own realm and gets the standings updated right away, on RaceDayCT. Thanks.
Watch the Tour de France, results for the stage and overall are immediate, seconds after the rider passes the finish line.