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07/10/2014 |
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JUSTIN
BONSIGNORE HOPEFUL ABOUT CHANCES IN
LINCOLN TECH 80 AT STAFFORD MOTOR SPEEDWAY |
 As
the drivers and teams of the Valenti Modified Racing
Series prepare for the July 18 Lincoln Tech 80 at
Stafford Motor Speedway, one driver who is looking
forward to the race is Justin Bonsignore. Bonsignore
joined forces with Art Barry’s #21 Spearpoint /
SPAFCO team for the 2014 season, and the results
have been an instant hit. Although Bonsignore has
yet to win a race, he has several podium finishes to
his credit and the team is among the contenders for
the VMRS championship.
“The VMRS has been a lot of fun this season,” said
Bonsignore. “The whole team is a great bunch of guys
and it’s a little different from my Tour team. The
Tour team has a lot of younger guys who are newer to
the sport where Art’s team is a lot of veteran guys
who have been around a long time. There’s a good
balance between both teams and we’ve been running
really well with the VMRS car. Since we started,
we’ve felt we could be a championship team. We’re
right up there now and I think we’re about halfway
through the VMRS schedule so things should start
shaking out and you’ll see who you’re going to be
battling against for the rest of the year. We’ve
been to every track on the schedule I think except
for Airborne and we’ve run really good everywhere as
long as we minimize any mistakes and hopefully have
no part failures or get caught up in any wrecks.
There’s a few tracks that I had never raced at
before and we’ve had some good finishes, so I’m
excited to start getting back to some of these
places again and we’ll see how it plays out at the
end of the season.”
One area where Bonsignore may have an advantage over
the rest of his competition is the fact that he runs
the same SPAFCO chassis for his VMRS and Whelen
Modified Tour efforts. With the similar cars, his
two teams have twice the data to look over when
preparing their cars for different tracks.
“It definitely gives us more ideas to bounce off of
between the teams,” said Bonsignore. “Both Kenny, my
crew chief on the VMRS car, and Billy on the Tour
car, are good friends and they’re able to bounce
ideas off of each other as to what might have worked
and what didn’t work because we run a lot of the
same tracks with both Tours. Aside from the tires,
the cars are exactly the same. There are a few
minimal changes with the rules from the VMRS car to
the Tour car, but they drive nearly the same and we
do have a lot of things that go to and from each car
that work for both, so that should help us out.”
Bonsignore made his first Stafford VMRS start in
last month’s Town Fair Tire 80 and he finished 7th
behind Todd Szegedy, Ted Christopher, Keith Rocco,
Rowan Pennink, Eric Goodale, and Tommy Barrett, Jr.
With the exception of Goodale, every driver who
finished ahead of Bonsignore is either a current or
former weekly racer in the modified ranks at
Stafford. While the Stafford regulars will once
again be the favorites to take the checkered flag in
the Lincoln Tech 80, Bonsignore is confident that he
will have a good shot at taking the checkered flag
himself.
“We ran pretty good the last time out at Stafford,”
said Bonsignore. “There’s a lot to the VMRS series
with the different motor packages you can run. Right
now it seems to be a bit of a disadvantage for the
motor package we’re running at the bigger tracks
like Thompson and Stafford, but they made a couple
of rule changes for this upcoming race and we think
it will balance the field back out and give us a
better chance of winning the race. The qualifying
draw has been the toughest part that I’ve found so
far. It definitely makes things interesting and
exciting for the fans and it’s a different format.
I’ve actually grown to like it this year, some weeks
it works against you and others it works for you. At
places like Stafford and Thompson, where they get a
big car count and have the heavy hitters like Ted
Christopher, Keith Rocco and Ryan Preece, etc., it
makes it even tougher when you draw a tough number
but that’s all part of it and it makes it more
exciting for the fans. I think we just need to bring
the same type of racecar that we had at the first
Stafford race and hopefully the engine rules will be
a little better for our side. We’ll make a run at
winning the race otherwise we’ll try to get the best
finish we can and move on to the next race.”
The July 18 Lincoln Tech VMRS 80 will be the second
of three VMRS events to be held at Stafford during
the 2014 season. The VMRS will return on August 29
for the 5th Annual VMRS 80. Tickets for each race
are priced at $27.50 for adult general admission,
$5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5
and under are admitted free of charge when
accompanied by an adult. Reserved seating is priced
at $30.00 for all ages. All ticket prices include
10% CT Admission Tax. Stafford Speedway offers free
parking with free overnight parking for
self-contained RV’s available.
For more information about the 4th Lincoln Tech VMRS
80, please contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track
office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at
www.staffordspeedway.com. |
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Source: Scott Running / Stafford Motor Speedway
Posted:
July 10, 2014 |
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