SANTOS FINISHES 2ND IN THOMPSON FINALE - FINISHES 8TH IN POINTS
By Jason Cunningham, NASCAR
October 16, 2011 - 6:45pm

THOMPSON, Conn. – Ron Silk survived an eventful season finale to take home the 2011 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship in the Sunoco World Series of Speedway Racing at Thompson International Speedway.

Glen Reen took home the checkered flag in a wild event that saw a season-high 16 cautions and the maximum three green-white-checker events attempts for his first career victory, but it was Silk that left with the biggest hardware of the weekend.

A six-year veteran of the Whelen Modified Tour, Silk survived an early-race accident to finish 16th and clinch the first championship of his career.

Silk, a 28-year-old from Norwalk, Conn., brought a 54-point lead on Todd Szegedy into Thompson. Szegedy ran ahead of Silk for most of the event, but the points lead went back and forth as Szegedy looked to work his way into the top 10. He pitted late after avoiding one wreck and then had his chances ended when he was involved in the 14th caution on Lap 149. Szegedy finished 25th.

“It was pretty much the worst day of my life, with a really good ending,” Silk said of the rollercoaster day. “We went around in someone’s oil when they blew up, the guys got it fixed as fast as they could and we only lost a few laps. We were able to go out there and fight for everything we had.”

Silk actually rejoined the field nine laps down in 29th place, but was the recipient of the free pass five-consecutive times and advanced in the running order as other cars fell out of the race.

Silk finished with 2,443 points -- 76 ahead 2003 champion Szegedy. Eric Beers finished a career-best third while Rowan Pennink and Doug Coby rounded out the top five.

Sunday marked the first victory in 43 career starts for Reen, the 2008 Sunoco Rookie of the Year and a part-time competitor from Wilbraham, Mass. Bobby Santos finished second and Matt Hirschman third.

It was an action-packed conclusion to the race for Reen, who led the final 29 laps. He had to hold off the field through the last four restarts to earn his first trip to Victory lane, where the No. 17 Silberman Heating & Cooling/Alloy Wheel Repair Chevrolet had to be pushed because he couldn’t drive it in.

“If you told me this morning that I was going to start 24th and win this race, I’d tell you [that] you were out of your mind,” Reen said. “The clutch actually just broke, it was breaking the last six restarts so I couldn’t get a good restart at all, and I didn’t even know how much fuel was left. I was freaking out and my spotter was the only one calming me down.”

Chuck Hossfeld, Tom Rogers Jr., Keith Rocco, Eric Beers, 2011 Sunoco Rookie of the Year Patrick Emerling, Mike Stefanik and Eric Goodale brought home the top 10 in the 16th and final race of the Whelen Modified Tour season.
Sunday was the best season finish for Hossfeld and Rogers, and the first Whelen Modified Tour races for Rocco and Stefanik with their respective teams.

Pole-sitter Ryan Preece led the first 36 laps, but was caught up in the Lap 145 accident and finished 26th in his first race with Flamingo Motorsports. Three-time defending Sunoco World Series winner Ted Christopher was caught up in an accident 10 laps later and was relegated to 22nd.

The Sunoco World Series tied the Whelen Modified Tour season high for different race leaders with six, also recorded in the season opener at Thompson. It was also the longest race in terms of laps (168) and time (1:46.30) at the track since the 2005 Thompson 300.

Silk and the No. 6 T.S. Haulers/Calverton Tree Farm Chevrolet team will be honored as part of the NASCAR Night of Champions Touring Awards Gala on Dec. 10 in Charlotte, N.C.

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SANTOS FINISHES 27TH AT STAFFORD
By Shon Sbarra, NASCAR
October 2, 2011 - 5:17pm

STAFFORD, Conn. – In thrilling fashion, Ted Christopher won the CARQUEST Fall Final on Sunday at Stafford Motor Speedway.

On a green-white-checkered finish, Christopher, out of Plainville, Conn., got his No. 36 Al-Lee Installations Chevrolet underneath Erick Rudolph to take the lead just after the field took the white flag to collect his 12th career victory at the Connecticut half-mile track. For Christopher, it was his Tour-best fourth win of the season and the 42nd of his storied career.

On the final lap Christopher got inside of Rudolph entering Turn 1, Rudolph went to block, Christopher held his ground and the two banged nerf bars rolling through the turn. Christopher came out of Turn 1 with the lead and rode to victory.

“You can’t have every lane, especially since I’m already there,” Christopher said of Rudolph’s attempt to protect the lead. “If you think you’re going to hold me off on a green-white-checker here at Stafford, well that ain’t happening.”

Christopher is now two victories shy of tying Reggie Ruggiero for second on the Whelen Modified Tour career wins list. Sunday marked his 114th win at Stafford across all weekly and touring series.

Ryan Preece capitalized on Rudolph’s misfortune to earn the runner-up position for his highest finish of the year, and best result in 19 starts in his family-owned No. 40 Chevrolet.
“It just was awesome being able to drive up to second,” Preece said. “I wish could have got up there a little sooner, maybe we could have dueled it out with Teddy [Christopher] if we had couple more laps.”

Donny Lia crossed the line third in his first start at Stafford since his 2009 championship season. Eric Beers finished fourth and Rudolph ended up in the fifth position after being shuffled on the last lap.

Kevin Goodale recorded his best career stand-alone race finish in sixth place while season points leader Ron Silk, Matt Hirschman, Doug Coby and Justin Bonsignore rounded out the top 10.

Bonsignore, who picked up his third career Coors Light Pole Award on Saturday, had an answer for all comers over the first 79 laps when he made a trip to pit road for fuel and tires. In the early going, overtures were made by Christopher, Lia and Preece. However, after everyone cycled through pit stops, Bonsignore was not able to work his way back through traffic.

Todd Szegedy, who entered the day just eight points behind Silk, suffered an early-race spin and made multiple pit stops before climbing back as high as second in the race. Another late-race incident resulted in a 22nd-place finish. Silk’s top-10 effort combined with Szegedy’s misfortune means that Silk will take a 57-point lead to the season finale.
Patrick Emerling, from Orchard Park, N.Y., clinched the 2011 Sunoco Rookie of the Year Award in Sunday’s race with a 23rd-place finish.

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will close out the 2011 season and crown a champion on Oct. 16 at Thompson (Conn.) International Speedway in the Sunoco World Series of Speedway Racing.

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SANTOS FINISHES 18TH AT NEW HAMPSHIRE
By Jason Christley, NASCAR
September 24, 2011 - 2:41pm

LOUDON, N.H. -- Ron Silk pulled away from the field on a green-white-checkered finish to win the New Hampshire 100 Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and take back to the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour points lead.

Silk got a push from Todd Szegedy on the final restart to open some ground on the rest of the field and was unchallenged over the final two laps. Szegedy, who won the tour race at New Hampshire in July, finished second followed by Justin Bonsignore. Ted Christopher and Eric Beers completed the top five.

Silk won the Coors Light Pole Award Thursday and led the most laps in Saturday's race to erase a 12-point deficit to Szegedy with two races remaining. Silk leads 2182-2174.
Saturday was Silk’s second career win at New Hampshire and his third checkered flag of the season.

“The car was really great right from the beginning,” Silk said. “We didn’t make any adjustments at the pit stop, I was happy with the car, it was actually a little bit better the second half of the race and I was able to get right up to the lead.”

Erick Rudolph, Zane Zeiner, Mike Stefanik, Matt Hirschman and Eric Goodale rounded out the top 10 finishers in the third in final race of the year at New Hampshire for the Whelen Modified Tour.

It was Zeiner’s first Whelen Modified Tour start since 2005 and his first top-10 finish at New Hampshire.

Defending race victor - NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Ryan Newman - finished 28th following engine failure after 40 laps.

There were a season-high 17 lead changes among five drivers. The race was delayed 24 minutes early on due to rain.

The New Hampshire 100 aired live on SPEED.

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will return to the track Sunday, Oct. 2 for the CARQUEST Fall Final at Stafford (Conn.) Motor Speedway.

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SANTOS FINISHES 17TH AT LIME ROCK
By Kevin W. Green, NASCAR
September 17, 2011 - 3:31pm

LAKEVILLE, Conn. - Todd Szegedy battled back after losing the lead during on a pit stop and then making a pair of off-track excursions to win the NASCAR Whelen Modified 66/99 presented by Town Fair Tire at Lime Rock Park on Saturday.

It was a sweet win for the Ridgefield, Conn., driver - who led all but the last four laps before being relegated to second in last year's inaugural tour visit to the 1.5-mile, eight-turn road course. With his victory on Saturday, he took over the lead in the championship standings.

Szegedy, who had experience at Lime Rock in other racing series prior to his NASCAR career, dominated the early action on Saturday. He started from the pole in his No. 2 Wisk Detergent/A&J Romano Construction Ford and opened up a lead of more than two seconds early. However, he fell to fourth following a pit stop during a caution on Lap 44. He went off course twice during the last one-third of the race, but quickly recovered and set out after the leaders.

After moving up to second on Lap 60, Szegedy took the lead from Mike Stefanik a lap later and then pulled away from the field to win by a margin of 1.796 seconds.

“It got pretty dicey there, we got real tight with the new set of tires for some reason, it just wouldn’t come in and I drove off the track twice,” Szegedy said. “On that last restart I got a good restart and got by Justin Bonsignore and then I made a pass on Mike Stefanik in Turn 1. I had to out-brake him and out-down shift him. He ran me clean and I just had to hit my marks after that.”

The win was Szegedy's 17th career victory and the third this season for the 2003 tour champion. Three wins and podium finishes in six of the last eight events have propelled him to the top of the standings, with 2,004 points over 1,992 for Ron Silk, who finished 15th on Saturday.

Stefanik finished second followed by Bonsignore, Richie Pallai Jr., and Ted Christopher. Rowan Pennink, Erick Rudolph, Eric Beers, Kevin Goodale and Patrick Emerling rounded out the top 10.

Saturday marked the best career finish for Pallai and the fifth-consecutive top-10 finish for Bonsignore, who has vaulted from 19th to seventh in the season standings since his first career win at Riverhead (N.Y.) Raceway in late July.
“We’re still learning [road course racing] and every year we’re going to get better and better,” Bonsignore said from the podium at Lime Rock. “These guys [Szegedy and Stefanik] have done it a lot, but this is just my second time doing it, so I’m pretty proud.

“We’ve turned this season around since we got our first win and hopefully we can just build towards next year.”
The race winner last week at Thompson (Conn.) International Speedway, Doug Coby looked poised to go back-to-back but wrecked while in the lead on Lap 55 and finished 18th.

The inaugural visit for the Whelen Modified Tout to Lime Rock had just one lead change, but Saturday’s return engagement featured seven among five different drivers. Szegedy led a race-high 49 circuits.

The Lime Rock race marked the fourth of six-consecutive weeks of racing for the Whelen Modified Tour. The busiest portion of the 2011 schedule started at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway on Aug. 24 and will get a one-week break following Stafford (Conn,) Motor Speedway on Oct. 2, a stretch of six races in 40 days.

The next event on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour is the New Hampshire 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday, Sept. 24.

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MYSTIC MISSILE FINISHES 11TH IN CANADA
By Shon Sbarra, NASCAR
September 4, 2011 - 4:45pm

DELAWARE, Ontario, Canada – Ron Silk appeared to have a game plan that even a 48-minute rain delay could not derail. He patiently waited for the right moment on Sunday at Delaware Speedway and won the Delaware 150 in NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour action.

In the tour’s inaugural race beyond the borders of the United States, Silk, out of Norwalk, Conn., started from the outside pole position and held on to that track position until it was time make his move. That time came with a Lap 107 pass of Erick Rudolph, who led the race’s first 106 circuits after earning his second career pole position on Saturday afternoon.

From there, it looked as if it was going to be smooth sailing for Silk behind the wheel No. 6 T.S. Haulers/Calverton Tree Farm Chevrolet. By Lap 132, he built a 1.222-second lead on Rudolph, but a spin in Turn 4 by Rowan Pennink brought out the caution flag and allowed weather into the equation.

Pennink’s broken oil line forced NASCAR officials to display the red flag to allow the clean-up crew easier access to the spill which trailed from Turn 1 all the way into Turn 3 on the half-mile track. In the meantime, rain began to fall on the track. The weather coupled with the clean up sent the cars to pit road on Lap 143.

After the weather delay, Silk survived two green-white-checkered finish attempts before beating Doug Coby to the finish line.

For Silk, it was his second win of 2011, having emerged victorious on May 27 at Stafford (Conn.) Motor Speedway, and the sixth of his tour career.

Todd Szegedy picked up third followed by James Civali and Eric Beers in fourth and fifth, respectively.

Eric Berndt, Justin Bonsignore, D.J. Kennington, Jaime Tomaino and Patrick Emerling rounded out the top 10.

Kennington, the reigning NASCAR Canadian Tire Series champion hailing from nearby St. Thomas, Ont., was making his NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour debut at his home track.
Pennink’s DNF caused him to drop from second to third in the season standings with 11 of 16 races complete. Silk now leads Szegedy by 77 points and Pennink by 117.
The race was slowed due to caution a season-high 13 times.

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour heads to familiar territory for its next outing to take on its counterparts from the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour on Sunday, Sept. 11 at Thompson (Conn.) International Speedway in the UNOH Showdown. Each tour will have a 125-lap feature event followed by a 50-lap exhibition event with competitors from each tour pitted against one another.

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MYSTIC MISSILE FINSIHES 26TH AT BRISTOL
by Jason Christley, NASCAR
August 24, 2011 - 8:05pm

BRISTOL, Tenn. — NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Ryan Newman drove away with the UNOH Perfect Storm 150 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Wednesday.

Newman successfully defending his 2010 Bristol win and registered his fourth career NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour victory overall.

Wednesday’s triumph came in Newman’s first start on the tour after he was disqualified from a win in July at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H.

“This is a little bit of a redemption for us, to come out here and redeem ourselves a little bit in respect to people’s opinions after Loudon,” Newman said.

Newman led twice for a race-high 109 laps. After one top-10 effort in his first four Modified races, Newman has won each of his last four official starts.

“It was just a really fun race,” Newman said. “The yellow flags at the start kind of slowed everybody’s thoughts, but getting back to green flag racing, I thought we saw some really good racing. It was a lot of fun.”

Justin Bonsignore finished second in the annual combination race between the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour. The pole winner in 2010 at Bristol, Bonsignore has earned top-five finishes in three of his last four outings this year and is up to a season-best 10th in the standings.

“I’m just a go-kart racer - where you flat-foot it - and this is similar,” Bonsignore said of his fondness for racing at Bristol. “It just fits my driving style. I like it, and it’s a lot of fun. I’ve been looking forward to coming back since last year and I can’t wait to go back next year. Maybe we should get two races here.”

Todd Szegedy rallied from an eventful day for third place. An engine change relegated him to the rear to start, and he was caught in multiple on-track incidents that preceded a spark plug wire falling off. He then came back from a lap down for his fifth podium finish in the last seven races.

James Civali and Patrick Emerling rounded out the top five. It marked the first top-five finish of Emerling’s rookie season and the best finish of the year for Civali.

Eric Beers was sixth, followed by Ron Silk, Frank Fleming, Andy Seuss and Eric Goodale.
Fleming was the top finishing NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour driver and will be credited with a win on the tour. It is his first career victory.

The race, which aired live on SPEED, saw four lead changes among three drivers and was slowed by caution nine times for 51 laps. It was the third edition of the combo race at the ‘World’s Fastest Half Mile.’

Silk stretched his NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour points lead to 41 over Rowan Pennink, who finished 21st overall. Szegedy is third, 16 points behind Pennink. George Brunnhoelzl III, the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour points leader, finished 29th overall and his lead is 110 over John Smith and 123 over L.W. Miller.

The NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour will return to the track in just two days at Caraway Speedway on Friday, Aug. 26. The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour gets back on track with the inaugural event at Delaware (Ont.) Speedway on Sept. 4.

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MYSTIC MISSILE TAKES 6TH AT LOUDON
By Shon Sbarra, NASCAR
August 13, 2011 - 6:34pm

LOUDON, N.H. – Mike Stefanik survived several restarts and two green-white-checker attempts in the closing laps and picked up a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour win in the Granite State Classic on Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Stefanik, out of Coventry, R.I., in the No. 16 Diversified Metals/R.B. Enterprises Pontiac, earned his first win of the season and the 71st of his Tour career by edging Woody Pitkat at the line. It was Stefanik’s seventh Whelen Modified Tour win at the track and first since Aug. 2, 1998. Additionally, it was his first overall victory since winning at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway on Sept. 27, 2009.

Pit stops in the middle portion of the race shuffled the field which left Stefanik, Pitkat and Todd Szegedy out front at the end in a three-way tussle for the checkered flag. The veteran Stefanik had to use all of the track on the final lap to hold off the charges.

“It’s been a long time since this team had won a race, I told them on the green-white-checker, ‘This might get ugly, I’m going to try to do whatever it takes to try to win this race,’” Stefanik said. “I’m not going to wreck someone, but I’m going to try to use up as much track as I can and try to make myself difficult to pass.”

The race featured a season-high 10 lead changes among five drivers and was extended from the scheduled 95 laps to 105 with the two green-white-checker attempts.

“I got on the radio after numerous lead changes and was like, ‘This is pretty exciting,’” Stefanik said. “It was exciting inside the car just trying to lead the race.”

The win extended Stefanik’s Whelen Modified Tour record for overall career victories and placed him in a tie with Tony Hirschman for the most Tour triumphs at New Hampshire. With two more NASCAR K&N Pro Series East wins at the track to his credit, Stefanik’s total of nine career victories is one shy of Ted Christopher’s track record.
The runner-up finish for Pitkat, from Stafford, Conn., was his first top-five in nearly two years and the best placing in 51 career Whelen Modified Tour starts. He did it without pitting during the 105-lap event.

“We had a good car here in July – we had that 88-lap green flag run – so we knew our car was good on long runs,” Pitkat said. “With me not qualifying very good we figured we’d have to make up positions by not pitting. Our times never really fell off so we stayed out and grabbed some track position.”

Pitkat led two different times for eight circuits in the second half of the race.
Szegedy, who got the victory in the July race at New Hampshire, crossed the line in the third position followed by Justin Bonsignore and Eric Beers in fourth and fifth, respectively. Bobby Santos, Ryan Preece, Glenn Tyler, Erick Rudolph and Doug Coby rounded out the top 10.

The eighth-place effort was also a career-best finish for Tyler in his 68th start.
A five-time Whelen Modified Tour winner at New Hampshire, Christopher experienced mechanical problems on Lap 33 and had to go behind the wall for repairs that relegated him to a 28th-place finish.

In Friday’s qualifying session, defending Tour champion Bobby Santos claimed his second Coors Light Pole Award of the 2011 season and the sixth of his career. He led a race-high 57 laps on Saturday.

Ron Silk and Rowan Pennink entered the race with one point separating them atop the season standings. The pair was involved in two incidents on the day that saw Silk finish 11th and Pennink 16th. As a result, Silk left Loudon with a 16-point advantage on Pennink and an 81-point lead on Szegedy. Christopher’s misfortune now has him 109 points back in fourth.

The second of three events scheduled for 2011 in Loudon saw a total of 10 caution periods, the second-highest total in 54 Whelen Modified Tour events at the 1.058-mile speedway.

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour is in action next on Wednesday, Aug. 24 at legendary Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway for a combination event with the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour. The event is set to be telecast on SPEED at 6 p.m. ET.

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NOW 5TH IN POINTS

By Jason Christley, NASCAR
August 5, 2011 - 10:25pm

STAFFORD, Conn. -- Through his career, Ted Christopher has proved he can win in many different cars at a variety of facilities. But nowhere has he been more dominant than his home track, Stafford Motor Speedway. The Plainville, Conn., driver collected his 41st career NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour victory Friday night in the Town Fair Tire 150.

It was Christopher's 11th career tour win at Stafford, where he is a seven-time track champion in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series. He is the track's wins leader over all divisions with 113 victories.

Christopher took the lead for the final time from Mike Stefanik on Lap 135 Friday and led the rest of the way for his third win of the year in the No. 36 Al-Lee Installations Chevrolet.
“At the end there, you just gotta go,” Christopher said. “It [the car] started to get tight, so I had to run a different line there to hold Michael off. It was a lot of fun.”

When the field pitted on Lap 120, Stefanik won the race off of pit road and led until Christopher’s decisive pass. While he had to settle for second, it was a season-best finish. After a strong start to the season, the seven-time Whelen Modified Tour champion suffered three straight DNFs entering Friday’s race.

“I’ve got to thank the crew for getting me out front, that was a fantastic pit stop,” Stefanik said. “We were just a little too snug getting going to hold it, but it was great to have a car up front like that.”

Bobby Santos, Eric Beers and Eric Goodale’s career-best effort brought home the top five.
Rowan Pennink finished sixth, followed by points leader Ron Silk. Silk leads Pennink by one point after eight races. Between the two, the only finish outside the top 10 through the season’s first half was Silk’s DNF in the season opener.

Erick Rudolph, Doug Coby and Jimmy Blewett completed the top 10. It was the best finish in five starts this year for Blewett.

Earlier in the day, Coby won his second Coors Light Pole Award of the season. Both of Coby’s poles have come at Stafford. He went on to lead a race-high 72 laps before finishing ninth.

The race was green the first 117 laps and featured just two caution periods total, the second time in the last three Whelen Modified Tour races that there have been just two yellows.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour returns to the track Saturday, Aug. 13 for the Granite State Classic and the second of three events in 2011 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H.

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MYSTIC MISSILE FINISHES 9TH AT RIVERHEAD

By Jason Christley, NASCAR
July 30, 2011 - 10:36pm

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. -- Justin Bonsignore converted his home-track advantage into his first NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour victory. The 23-year-old from Holtsville, N.Y., drove away with the Lighthouse Mission 200 Saturday at Riverhead Raceway.

Bonsignore, the 2010 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Sunoco Rookie of the Year, also runs regularly in Riverhead's weekly NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Modified Division. He is second in the track's point standings.

“The car was perfect. It didn’t change from Lap 1 to Lap 175. We nailed the setup perfect tonight,” Bonsignore said. “It’s just a pleasure to get it here, my first win at my home track, the first [Riverhead] regular to do it here in a long time.”

Todd Szegedy was second, followed by Ron Silk, Ryan Preece and Doug Coby. Rowan Pennink rebounded from an early wreck to finish sixth.

Silk’s sixth-straight top-five finish allowed him to overtake Pennink atop the season standings. Silk now leads by five tallies with nine races remaining.

“We’ve had a really good car for awhile now, throughout last year and this year we’ve had a bunch of good runs,” Silk said. “I think we could have raced with Justin and Todd there a little bit more if we just didn’t start 16th. I had to use a lot of the car up toward the front.”
Szegedy now has four top 10s in a row – including two wins – and has improved from 15th to third in the standings during the run.

“I struggled for so many years here, got into so many wrecks and never qualified well,” Szegedy said. “This is a win to me. This is the best finish we’ve ever had here.”

Jamie Tomaino, Patrick Emerling, Bobby Santos and Richie Pallai Jr. rounded out the top 10. It was the best finish of the year for Tomaino and Pallai, and the best career finish for the rookie Emerling.

Earlier in the day, Riverhead veteran Howie Brode earned his first career Coors Light Pole Award on the Tour. His night ended early, though, when he was caught up in a multi-car accident in the first half of the race.

Brode led the first 17 laps before Bonsignore made the decisive move to the front on Lap 18. With track position a premium at Riverhead, Bonsignore felt fortunate he was able to get around Brode, a longtime weekly competitor at the quarter-mile bullring.

“I was trying to get a rhythm on where he was going on the restarts and time it to beat him into [Turn 1],” Bonsignore said. “He got me pretty good the first couple of times and the third time I got down into [Turn] 1 and I had my left front ahead of his right front. I knew at that point he was either going to wreck or have to give up his spot.”

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will be back on track Friday, Aug. 5 for the Town Fair Tire 150 at Stafford (Conn.) Motor Speedway.

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MYSTIC MISSILE FINISHES 12TH AT NEW HAMPSHIRE

By Jason Christley, NASCAR
July 16, 2011 - 3:13pm

LOUDON, N.H. - Ryan Newman capitalized on a relatively caution-free race to sail to his fourth straight NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race Saturday in the F.W. Webb 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Newman, who will also won the Coors Light Pole Award for Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at the 1.058-mile oval, led a race-high 61 laps. He passed Ron Silk on Lap 84 and won by 1.901 seconds over runner-up Todd Szegedy.

The race was slowed by just two cautions and featured an 88-lap green-flag run to the checkered flag. Newman led the first 33 laps and drifted back to third under the long run before moving back to the front in the closing stages.

“We didn’t really know what to expect of the race and how it was going to unfold, we typically have multiple cautions here,” Newman said. “We were way loose, but it turns out we were the tightest off the loose guys and that was all it took to be able to get past those two cars.”
In addition to three consecutive wins at New Hampshire, he also won at Bristol Motor Speedway last year -- all for crew chief Kevin Manion. Manion, from Boylston, Mass., is the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series crew chief for Jamie McMurray.

Szegedy edged Silk at the finish line for second. Matt Hirschman and Doug Coby rounded out the top five.

“Second, to me, was kind of a win. We beat all of the regulars,” Szegedy said. “We’ve had some bad luck here for probably the last four or five races, so it was definitely a good run.”
Silk was running second at the white flag and made one last attempt to close in on Newman, but it ended up costing him a position at the finish.

“I got a little bit close to Newman there on the last lap, Eric Beers gave me a tow to get me within range of him,” Silk said. “I really tried to sail it down into [Turn] 1 there and I just got up in the loose stuff, and once you get up in there you can’t get out. That’s how Todd was able to get me on the last lap, but it was a good day.”

Points leader Rowan Pennink was sixth, followed by Eric Goodale, Ron Yuhas Jr., Ed Flemke Jr. and Woody Pitkat.

Silk’s fifth-straight top-five finish shaved 20 points off of Pennink’s lead in the season standings, which is now down to just 10. Christopher is third, 53 tallies back.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will go from the largest track on the schedule to the smallest when it races next in the Lighthouse Mission 200 at the quarter-mile Riverhead (N.Y.) Raceway on Saturday, July 30.

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June 30, 2011

THOMPSON, Conn. – For most drivers, getting sent to the rear of the field would end any chance of picking up a win at Thompson (Conn.) International Speedway. However, most drivers don’t have the history Ted Christopher has at the track.

Christopher was sent to the rear of the field at the start of the race from his pole position after missing the driver’s meeting, and then had to come through the field again after getting involved in a spin on Lap 66, but it didn’t stop the Plainville, Conn., driver from picking up his fourth-consecutive NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour win at Thompson.

The Budweiser ‘King of Beers’ 150 was the first run for a new No. 36 Al-Lee Installations Chevrolet for Christopher. It took some adjustments, but the team got it dialed in for a late charge through the field.

“It’s probably a good thing I didn’t start on the pole because that thing was evil,” Christopher said. “It was good that we could make some changes with it. We made some and then I said to make some more.

“At the end I said ‘give it some stagger and some wedge and let me do what I’ve gotta do, and it turned out pretty good.’”

Christopher pitted for a second time on Lap 121 and knifed through the field after restarting outside the top 10. He made the decisive pass of Ron Silk on Lap 142 and survived a four-lap sprint to the finish after the final caution flag was given to the field on Lap 143.

The victory was the 40th in Christopher’s Whelen Modified Tour career and 13th at Thompson. He has won seven of the last nine races at the .625-mile oval.

Silk held on for second and point leader Rowan Pennink enjoyed another consistent run with a third-place finish. Bobby Santos and Eric Berndt completed the top five.

Todd Szegedy, Doug Coby, Eric Beers, James Civali and Eric Goodale rounded out the top 10.
It was the fourth-straight top-five finish for Silk, who trails Pennink by 30 points atop the season standings after five of 16 races.

“It would have been nice to win,” Silk said. “We were leading so late there in the race, but it wasn’t meant to be.”

Pennink led a race-high 105 laps en route to his fourth podium finish of the year.
“When we were out front, that thing was just unbelievable and I could drive that thing anywhere I wanted,” Pennink said of his No. 93 Monk Mechanics Hand Cleaner Chevrolet. “When that caution came out, I don’t know what the tires did, but we didn’t need that heat cycle on the tires. The thing gave up a little bit after that caution.”

The race featured four different race leaders and was slowed just five times by caution.
The next event for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will be at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the F.W. Webb 100 on July 16.

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BOBBY SANTOS TAKES 15TH MONADNOCK
June 26, 2011 - 6:12pm

Winchester, N.H. - Todd Szegedy showed everyone why he is still someone to watch on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.

Szegedy, the 2003 champion, started from the pole and led every lap to win the Monadnock 200 Sunday for his 15th career tour win and first since August of last year.

With his win Szegedy became the fourth different winner in as many races this season on the tour and it was his first top-five finish of the season.

Szegedy held off Justin Bosingnore who followed in second while Matt Hirschman was third. Ron Silk was fourth and James Civali completed the top five.

Defending race winner ted Christopher finished sixth with Mike Stefanik seventh and Ron Yuhas Jr. eighth. Erick Rudolph and points leader Rowan Pennink completed the top 10. The race was slowed six times for caution.

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour returns to action this Thursday in the Budweiser 'King of Beers' 150 at Thompson International Speedway.

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BOBBY SANTOS TAKES THIRD AT STAFFORD
May 27, 2011 - 10:56pm

STAFFORD, Conn. - Ron Silk returned to Victory Lane for the first time in a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race since 2009 and he did it in dominating fashion with a wire-to-wire run in the TSI Harley-Davidson 125 Friday at Stafford Motor Speedway.

Silk, who hadn’t taken a checkered flag home since winning at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sept. 19, 2009, led all 125 laps to collect his fifth career win in his 25th start at Stafford.

Points leader Rowan Pennink followed in second with defending Whelen Modified Tour Champion Bobby Santos third. Ted Christopher and Erick Rudolph completed the top five.
“The car was just flawless the whole time,” Silk said. “At the beginning of practice we struggled a little bit. They worked really hard for that hour and a half, and really made the right changes.”

Following those adjustments, Silk went out last of the 31 cars in time trials and claimed his fourth career Coors Light Pole Award. Once the race began, he was rarely challenged, and at one point had nearly two seconds on the field.

The Norwalk, Conn., native became the first Whelen Modified Tour driver to win a race leading flag-to-flag since Ryan Preece did it at Riverhead (N.Y.) Raceway on Aug. 1, 2009.
With the win, Silk improved from seventh to second in points after three races.
Silk also delivered the No. 6 TS Haulers/Calverton Tree Farm Chevrolet team its third win in the last four years at Stafford. The two previous victories came with Jimmy Blewett behind the wheel.

Friday was Pennink’s third runner-up finish in a row to start the season, and it extended his lead in the standings to 51 points.

“Just ran out of time at the end there, I couldn’t quite get to Silk with the lap traffic,” Pennink said. “I’ve been saying this three weeks in a row, but hopefully we’ll make that one more position up next race.”

It was a bounce-back night for most of the rest of the top 10; Todd Szegedy, Chuck Hossfeld, Doug Coby, James Civali and Matt Hirschman. All but Hirschman suffered DNFs when the Whelen Modified Tour visited Stafford on May 1.

On the other side of the ledger were Mike Stefanik and Preece. Stefanik trailed Pennink by just 20 points following the first two races, and brought a streak of nine-straight top-five finishes into the race, but had to settle for 15th. Preece entered the race sixth in points, but suffered engine failure with five laps to go and was relegated to 24th.

The race was slowed just three times by caution with the red flag displayed during the second yellow on Lap 53 to clean up a multi-car incident.

The TSI Harley-Davidson 125 marked the 100th Whelen Modified Tour race at Stafford since the Tour’s inaugural season of 1985. Stafford’s Chief Operating Officer and General Manager Mark Arute was presented with a commemorative checkered flag prior to the race with the signatures of all 31 of the Tour drivers.

The Whelen Modified Tour will return to action with the Monadnock 200 on June 25 at Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, N.H.

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