On Oct. 13 at Thompson Speedway Justin Bonsignore showed he was on a mission to make sure the championship battle on the Whelen Modified Tour remained a tight contest by winning the Sunoco World Series 150.
Sunday the Holtsville, N.Y. driver went from being the chaser to the one being chased in the series’ championship deciding event.
Bonsignore, in absolutely commanding style, won the Whelen Modified Tour Brushy Mountain Powersports 150 at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Bonsignore checked out from the field over the second half of the event, leading second place Matt Hirschman by just under seven seconds in the closing laps. Bonsignore lapped all by four of the other 19 cars in the field.
The victory completed a weekend sweep at North Wilkesboro for Bonsignore, who also won in his SMART Modified Tour debut on Saturday night at the track.
“This car is two-for-two this year,” Bonsignore said of Sunday’s winning car, which was also victorious at Thompson last week. “Brought it out right at the best part of the year. Just a great job to everybody. [Crew chief] Ryan Stone has been working his guts out and these cars have been lights out. Won last night here. It’s just really special.”
Bonsignore led 130 of 150 laps at North Wilkesboro. It was the 44th career Whelen Modified Tour victory for Bonsignore, which tied him for second place with Reggie Ruggerio on the division’s all-time win list. The late Mike Stefanik leads the division’s win list with 74 victories.
“Can’t thank [team owners] Ken Massa and Janine Massa enough for everything they’ve done,” Bonsignore said. “Fifteen years and 44 wins, it’s really special to do it. And to do it in that fashion today, I don’t think we’ve ever had a car that dominant. This series is really tough. Just waiting for [Hirschman] to turn it on and start running us down.”
Bonsignore, who won series titles in 2018, 2020 and 2021, came into the event sitting five points behind reigning series champion Ron Silk.
Silk finished a lap down from Bonsignore in 11th place. It means Bonsignore will take a 10-point lead into the division’s final event of the season on Saturday at Martinsville Speedway.
“Fourty-four is cool, but there’s a bigger goal next week.” Bonsignore said. “… I’m looking forward to Martinsville. Can’t come soon enough.”
Hirschman, of Northampton, Pa., finished second and Austin Beers of Northampton. Pa. was third.
Patrick Emerling finished fourth and will go to the final event of the season as the long-shot title contender sitting third in the standings, 24 points behind Bonsignore.
Hirschman used the opening lap to overtake pole-winner Beers for the lead. On lap seven Bonsignore got under Beers to move into second place.
Bonsignore continued to the push forward, challenging Hirschman for the lead on lap nine. On lap 11 Bonsignore made the move to the front work, getting by Hirschman for the lead.
With Bonsignore leading, Hirschman second, Beers third and Silk fourth, Sam Rameau spun off of turn two on lap 27 to bring out the first caution.
After pit stops the race restarted on lap 36 with Hirschman out front, Beers in second, Bonsignore in third and Silk in fourth.
Hirschman and Beers went side-by-side for two laps following the restart with Beers leading laps 37 and 38. Hirschman went to the lead on lap 39 with Bonsignore following to second. On lap 42 Bonsignore made the move to get by Hirschman and move back to the lead. He would never trail again.
By lap 75 Bonsignore had opened about three-quarters of a second lead over Hirschman with Beers in third. Behind the Silk had fallen back eighth place.
After the halfway mark Bonsignore put the domination, marching forward and lapping much of the field. On lap 112 Bonsignore passed then eighth place running Silk to put him a lap down.
Silk’s 11th place finish was his first finish outside of the top-10 this season.
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The whole weekend was pretty bad. 3 demo derbies Saturday night and over 6 hours to get 3 races in. Not many people in the stands.
Pretty dull tour race, that’s lone saving grace was the point battle implications going on throughout. Even less than not many people in the stands.
Was really hopeful wilkesboro could become a short track crown jewel type place (NWMT or not). Bloom is sure off the rose, though.
@zig13 really shocked how few people there were in the stands. I know none of these are big national touring series but North Wilkesboro was supposed to be hungry for racing to return. It’s not like CARS or SMART are small-time either. The NASCAR showing was really pathetic. If the Whelen tour is going to become a southeast-based series as some suggest they need to do better than that, though I suppose racing on a Sunday during football season is probably not a great idea.
Zig 13, I’m with you on this one I shut the race off and watched an AHL hockey game on Flo Hockey pretty boring race. Sure wish we could bring back the old days.
I sure didn’t turn it off as the laps were winding down the wild card spin could have happened at any time that could have lead to a dramatic ending after teams got a chance to make changes. Hirschman not that far off, he is known for timely adjustments so it could of ended up a barn burner with a struggling Silk rallying back. None of that happened but it could have.
I’ll never get the logic. Richmond, Martinsville, North Wilkesboro races with images of stands with few patrons. Now chatter about Bristol being added another empty stands special. One of the best things about that race in my view was the announcers that did the best job possible to keep the caution scenario alive that could have changed ho-hum to wow. The dots faint but if you consider announcing and overall production of the race that was really good. Perhaps more of these fan-less races south of the Mason-Dixon line is NASCAR showing it’s hand on what they view as important. Perhaps getting great viewership on FloRacing that in turn adds up to better advertising opportunities. How else can you explain it?
Can’t fault the field of cars it was loaded with some great cars and drivers the track was just too perfect. That race no indication of what could happen next year if it’s on the schedule but the empty stands situation likely not changing significantly.
So who’s your daddy now race fans? Could it be much maligned Bowman Gray to the rescue. Prognosticators have it on the 2025 schedule and as much as the purists up here in the northeast look down at the track it can give them what only New Smyrna has so far as tracks down south is concerned. Enthusiastic fans in the stands and the aura that someone locally actually cares a race is being held.
The modified tour has become a very disappointing division. Only two or three competitive cars. Poor car counts on top of it all. Even Thompson the jewel for the modified tour is no longer. I can see the day I only take in the tri track modified shows. Next year it will be Silk and Bonsignore doing the two car battle. No longer an exciting division.North Wilkesboro was terrible race to say the least. Absolutely no fans in the stands. Agree with Zig 13. The one time very popular and powerful modified tour is long gone. Looks like next year I will settle for Monaco Modified Racing Division and Stafford Friday night racing program the best racing show in New England. There is no better show than their 40 lap SK modified feature and their 20 lap SK Lite features.
@Doug I can fault the field a bit… NASCAR is struggling to get 20 cars while SMART got 29. Up north the supposedly struggling Modified Racing Series got 30 teams to show up on Saturday at NLWS. Last week Tri Track got 32 cars, and the Outlaw race got 24, while NASCAR managed 22. There are a lot of modified race teams out there but they’re choosing to run non-NASCAR races. NASCAR said when they make their schedule they ask the teams where they want to race, and yet more teams are showing up where NASCAR isn’t going.
Wont gloss it, dismal turnout for sure. But, Thompson holds what, about 5,000? Stafford a tic more? And North Wilksboro 25,000, Bristol in its heyday, 160,000.
My point, is, even if you get a Thompson sized modified crowd on a good day, spread that in a 25000 seat capacity, and it looks like crap on tv. Any less, and well, it looks like yesterday. Dismal.
Really surprised that Baldwin & Dowling didn’t dominate late . they were the only ones who changed a couple tires on that first caution , Maybe the 22 did also. Really crazy most of the field did all 150 laps on the one set of tires !!!! They had 8 tires available behind pit wall… Those tires that were changed maybe got used up as the 7ny & 44 & 22 came back up through the field… 1 caution was a probability because of the track size and low car count… I got to see 3 Smart Tour Races this year & look forward to more next year… They have a good thing going with planned cautions with cold
pit stops that produce more drama and competitive Finishes…. Lofton in the 23 is super talented but didn’t get much of a chance to show His talents with no pit stops for tires and adjustments… It’s tough being a Crew Chief… You try and plan for 150 laps with tires & fuel & you get hit with a one caution race and it throws most of your planning down the drain… Silk
like many others was completely out of RUBBER and made for a terrible race to watch… Maybe Stage breaks at 45 & 100 to allow cold pit stops for fresh tires and adjustments & fuel would make an EXCITING FINISH and produce more comers & goers in the top 10…. That race desperately needed a few more Cautions…..as Doug and the crew pointed out already…
Many people in the North Wilkesboro area and points just west and south of there have a lot more issues to deal with than attending races. Surprised they ran there at all this weekend.
“really shocked how few people there were in the stands. I know none of these are big national touring series but North Wilkesboro was supposed to be hungry for racing to return. ”
So many “NASCAR fans” of the early 2000’s were simply Cup hyped fans. I don’t think they really liked actual racing beyond celeb hyped personalities.
Similar things have happened to other series, but they either look like street cars of F1 style true race cars.
NASCAR is the father of the mysterious debris caution aren’t they ? North Wilkes needed one
Separating fact from bias.
-Competitive cars
You’re welcome to like or dislike any driver, team or racing series you like for any reason. But saying things like there were “only two or three competitive cars” in the Tour race Sunday that clearly is not true doesn’t advance this conversation at all. By any standard the 51,16, 64, 60 and 1 are outstanding race teams fielding great cars. Of the cars vying for points add in the 46, 22 and Ole Blue all very competitive cars. Include the pop-ins with name recognition like Dowling, Newman, Labonte, Loftin and the 7ny. An exceedingly interesting cast of characters for a race going in. Didn’t play out well as has been well documented for the counter intuitive reason it was too clean a race. But seeing Silk lay down lap after lap, hoping for a caution that never came and at the end making way for cars helpless to do anything about it was interesting for those of us that closely follow the series.
-Comparing car counts
Car counts matter. Pretty clear the Tour has issues there and I’d bet anything they do nothing meaningful to fix it. But cherry picking races doesn’t serve to advance the discussion either. The NWMT has had respectable car counts this year including New Smyrna, Riverhead (May), Loudon and the Thompson mid week event with 27 cars was notable. Meanwhile the MMTTS races at Thunder Road, White Mountain and Star fielded 19, 21 & 24 respectively so it’s not like you have a MMTTS race and you automatically get 30 cars. Sure getting over 30 MRS cars at the Speedbowl was great for a season ending show but you could have mentioned car counts like 12, 18 and 16 at Wiscasset, Hudson and Claremont.
Say the Tour has averaged 21 cars the last 5 races including a number of local tracks that makes the point about car counts. Cherry picking car counts with no context doesn’t have much meaning in my view.
-North Wilkesboro impacted by hurricane.
Check back for the race at North Wilkesboro last year and what you would see is exactly the crowd you’d expect to. Well populated on the front stretch a robust crowd that would appear to lend credence to the observation that the hurricane Helene destruction to the west of the race could definitely have affected fan turnout. The track unaffected but you could see how fans not wanting to deal with or intrude on a region in pain, issues with roads and bridges or hotel accommodations would be a wet blanket to say the least.
-Huge race facility crowd capacity tends to make any crowd for Tour races look anemic.
Checked the video on FloRacing of a couple events, here are my observations.
3/24 Richmond- seating capacity 51,000. Could what appears to be a smattering of attendees add up to 10% of capacity or 5000. Doubtful but it definitely was in the thousands.
10-23 Martinsville-seating capacity 44 to 65,000. like all of these visuals it’s a judgment call but in my view there easily was over 5000 people at that event in the stands. Would have filled up all the front stretch seats at Monadnock and most of the seats in the third turn bleachers.
Is it self defeating to have races at cavernous facilities that make the interest in the race look anemic is a moot point at this stage. NASCAR apparently gets the number of attendees that work for them, probably like the viewership numbers on FloRacing, the races are usually associated to other events and they’ve been doing it for a long time.
Note to Stafford:
You blocked me on Facebook probably for good reason I would guess. Nonetheless consider this suggestion that may provide an added revenue stream.
Those big Styrofoam blocks providing the cushion for the flexible barrier give them the credit they deserve. Plop a camera down the back stretch like the front stretch speed shot and sell advertising or private messages from fans for each block. Let Ben Dodge do his thing drawing attention to it on the big screen and at home. Perhaps you can get something out of yet another inanimate object like David did with the rubber leavings from the Cleetus McFarland show.
Give it some thought.
@Doug I’m not arguing with any of your information, I think your view is perfectly valid. But I still think these last two weekends point to something… teams had their choice of NASCAR or another mod series, and for the most part they chose a different series at the same track. North Wilkesboro in particular is supposed to be a special historic track, but it didn’t draw many northern teams like New Smyrna probably will in February. NASCAR is supposed to be THE tour, but it’s kinda drawing like it’s just another tour. To me NASCAR is missing something that could potentially grow the series
So Dr Neville made a great point about the hurricane. So maybe this year a mulligan as far as uncontrollable, terrible events in the weather, had an impact. So maybe one more shot in order.
I can’t help but think though, the great turnouts of last year were due to the Jr factor. Late model events with some star power carried over (imo) to the modified events somewhat.
It’s terrific that state government and locals, brought back a racetrack. How often does that happen? But maybe, it closed for a reason. (I know, Bruton Smith and Bob Bahre) being the deciding death knell to track to move cup dates.
Without cup or xfinity, love it or hate it, maybe the demand just isnt there, unless Jr is. Jmo
There aren’t any wrong answers here just different takes on things.
The NWMT my favorite but I’d never dream of trying to convince anyone it’s “THE” premier series. It’s a hodgepodge of different sanctioning groups, tracks, partnerships and individuals promoting events. Bet we could get to near 10 different entities promoting tour type races from SMART up to NY and New England if we tried.
Did teams actually have a choice of racing the SMART and NWMT races it would be nice to get more opinions on that. The Tour with cost prohibitive crew demands for the hot pit stops has to exclude most SMART teams. They’re used to the mid race mandatory caution and frozen field pit stops. Bring an RYR spec engine to a SMART race they accommodate that well. A SMART engine package either may not meet the Tour rules easily or be non competitive if it is allowed. Seems like it’s more of an apples and oranges deal isn’t it as opposed to a legitimate choice?
Started a data base of individual tour modified teams earlier this year, got up to a 115 and that didn’t even include SMART or ROC. It became clear there were so many more I gave up. Tour modified teams are all over the place, many multiple car operations far more then when it was only the Tour 25 years ago. NASCAR either too bureaucratic or thick headed in that ivory tower of theirs exclude themselves from much of the tour mod population of cars. Could take a page out of the Chris Williams (SMART) or MMTTS method of operation, do a deep dive into what teams would need to race in Tour events and change their rules. Odds of them doing it so long they’re not even worth handicapping.