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BONSIGNORE
BRINGS IT HOME
Local Drivers Sweep Podium At Riverhead Raceway 200
by
Polly Reid |
 Justin
Bonsignore of Holtsville, NY in the Ken Massa owned,
M3 Technology/Phoenix Communications sponsored
modified passed Timmy Solomito on lap 84, survived a
half a dozen restarts including a red flag and with
a final restart with seven to go, held off the
Solomito brothers to win the NASCAR Whelen Modified
Tour Riverhead 200 at his home town track, Riverhead
Raceway.
Timmy Solomito of Islip, NY crossed for second, his
brother Shawn Solomito also of Islip, NY who earned
his first career NWMT Coors Light Pole Award earlier
in the evening finished third, Tom Rogers of
Patchogue, NY was fourth with Chase Dowling of
Roxbury, CT fifth.
 “To
bounce back tonight, knowing we only have one car
for the next few weeks,” said Bonsignore, “it was
stressful in the back of my mind. We had a really
good car, qualifying is just so tight here, I think
I could have qualified better and made it a little
bit easier but I got a real good gift- when I got to
fifth and I think it was Lia got under Shawn and
they went up to Applebee’s for dinner and I was able
to get by them and got to Timmy (in second) then I
got a really good restart.”
Bonsignore continued about his pass for the lead,
“Timmy got me here in the spring on the green,
white, checker- I got a real good restart- I was
persistent that I was going to get the lead. He gave
me just enough room and I was able to muscle my way
down- it’s Riverhead, you’ve got to do what you’ve
got to do here.”
Completing the top ten was Jimmy Blewett sixth,
Craig Lutz seventh, Max Zachem eighth, Frank
Vigliarolo, Jr ninth and Eric Goodale tenth. Both
Blewett and Goodale rebounded from right front flats
to salvage a solid night.
The month of August has been a checkers, wreckers
and checkers for Bonsignore who took his first NWMT
win of the 2016 season at Thompson Speedway on
August 10th winning the Bud 150 only to register a
disappointing DNF one week later at Bristol Motor
Speedway with a car that was in the hunt for the
win. Ten days later, Bonsignore is back on top at
his home turf to score a gratifying and reviving
victory. “All in all, a great night, a great way to
bounce back,” said Bonsignore. “I can’t thank my
guys enough, the whole team, Ken Massa- this is my
100th career start tonight, so that was really cool
to get back to victory lane. My crew chief Billy
(Michael) wasn’t even here until practice started,
his wife is due any second now and we weren’t even
sure he was going to come but he’s here and now he
gets to take a trophy home to his newborn soon.”
Starting seventh on the grid, Bonsignore was up to
fifth in the early going. As the Solomito brothers,
Shawn and Timmy continued to settle the top spot up
front, Bonsignore used the restarts to set up the M3
Technology machine inching closer to the front. By
lap 44, Bonsignore secured second and was running
with the leader Timmy Solomito.
 Bonsignore’s chance for the lead came on a lap 83
restart. Side by side with Timmy Solomito,
Bonsignore powered on the outside through turns one
and two taking over the lead on lap 84. As the
longest green run stretch of the race continued,
Bonsignore was shadowed by Timmy Solomito making it
a two car break away by lap 115. A caution on lap
127 closed the field again, Bonsignore successfully
held off Timmy Solomito once more while Shawn
Solomito got a strong run to go from fifth to second
by lap 137. Another yellow waved on lap 154,
Bonsignore now had Solomito’s all around with Shawn
on the outside in second and Timmy behind in third.
The scene would be repeated on the next restart, lap
175, only twenty-five to go. The next yellow, two
circuits later came out for point leader Doug Coby
running in fourth who suffered a right front flat.
Coby pitted and rejoined the field at the tail end.
The Bonsignore and Solomito scenario replayed on the
lap 183 restart however this time Timmy passed Shawn
taking over second. The action was then immediately
pulled in for the most damaging wreck of the
evening. On the backstretch, the 89 of Matt Swanson
went into the outside wall collecting up Jeff
Goodale, John Fortin and Doug Coby. Drivers all OK,
the thirteen-minute red flag halted all action on
the quarter mile oval.
At the green, only seven circuits remained in the
Riverhead 200. For the final restart, it was
Bonsignore, Timmy Solomito, Shawn Solomito, Craig
Lutz and Tom Rogers the top five ready to make a
dash to the checkers.
Bonsignore prevailed to take down his second win of
August, a win on his 100the NWMT career start, his
third win out of the last four Tour visits to his
hometown track, Riverhead Raceway.
“Racing against the Solomito boys that I’ve been
racing against for twenty years makes it even
tougher,” said Bonsignore, “because they know my
moves and I know their moves. The top was getting
good drive on the starts but once I could get it in
line, the bottom was definitely better and I could
drive away from them. You got to do what you’ve got
to do, be a little wide to make sure you hold onto
the lead.”
“The 51 beat me a little bit,” said Timmy Solomito
about the restart that helped launch Bonsignore into
the lead. “He beat me on that one restart then I
just didn’t have enough to get back by him. He did
everything he had to, kind of made the car a little
wide to do what he had to do to stay out front, but
that’s part of racing here at Riverhead, you have to
do what you have to do. It’s definitely good to get
back out here and get a good finish. I’m just really
happy for the guys, they did a good job. We’re going
to Oswego, we’ll build on this and see what we have.
It was a little rough out there tonight but that’s
Riverhead.”
“It wasn’t easy,” said Shawn Solomito. “We got
shuffled there early on, knocked back to sixth or
seventh and had to make our way back to the front.
We got second there, had a couple of tough restarts,
battled with the 51- came up short tonight and
finished third. Our first pole, best Tour finish,
overall, a good night.” Shawn currently leads the
points in the weekly modified division at Riverhead.
“We’re having a pretty good year, I’m not going to
complain at all.”
 The crowd had plenty of opportunity to cheer for
their local favorites from Bonsignore, to the three
Solomito brothers- Shawn, Timmy and Jerry to the
Goodale’s – Eric and Jeff to long time familiar
faces of Tom Rogers Jr., John Fortin, Frank
Vigliarolo Jr., Dave Sapienza, Ken Heagy, Gary
McDonald, Donny Lia and Craig Lutz. The history with
Bonsignore and the Solomito brothers is two decades
in the making.
“Our families used to travel with go karts,” said
Timmy Solomito. “It’s good to be up front, it’s good
all the home town guys were up there at the end of
the night and hopefully it was good for the crowd.”
While Bonsignore was working to stay out front which
as he puts it, “just another hard fought Riverhead
race for sure, they’re never easy here.” Timmy and
Shawn were right there racing each other hard but
with respect.
“We talked before the race,” said Timmy. “We pretty
much said run your own race and whatever happens,
happens- that’s pretty much what we did, we both
finished up here on the podium, just wish it could
have been one spot better. I just can’t thank Eric
Sanderson and Sly Szaban enough for all the help and
the crew does a great job.”
“It’s like racing on ice,” said Shawn Solomito about
racing against his brother. “You don’t want to
touch, bang or thrash anybody by accident, it makes
it tough for the family but it’s also great memories
and a lot of fun.”
 Point leader Doug Coby will head to Oswego this next
weekend with 465 points, Justin Bonsignore was able
to gain some tallies and is up to 452 with Timmy
Solomito gaining as well up to 430. Five races
remain on the 2016 NWMT schedule, this one if far
from over.
“I said after Bristol,” Bonsignore added, “Doug did
the same thing last year, he came back from a
Bristol wreck to win the championship. We have two
more races this year to make up that deficit than he
did. Tonight shows we can still do it. We’ve had a
lot of speed all year, but recently, even more speed
the last bunch of races which is really a good sign
– we’re going to Oswego and Seekonk, that’s two new
tracks. I’ve been to Seekonk a bunch of times, love
that place, we run good there- Oswego, for the most
part it will be a crap shoot for everybody, nobody
really has any laps there so that’ll be fun. We
usually adapt well to new tracks so I’m excited to
get there as well.”
“We’re still there,” said Timmy Solomito, “still
knocking and we’re not giving up yet. These guys
don’t stop fighting and I’m not going to stop
either. We’re going to keep going out there and run
as hard as we got to. Hopefully we’ll come away with
some really strong runs here, finish the year off
and see what next year brings for us.”
The NWMT Riverhead 200 is currently scheduled to air
on NBCSN on Thursday Sept 1st at 7pm ET. A big thank
you to Connie and Ed Partridge for the welcome to
Riverhead Raceway. It was wonderful to see the many
improvements and upgrades at Riverhead.
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Source:
Polly Reid / TheChromeHorn.com
Posted:
August 28, 2016 |
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