Newman Shows The Way to Victory Lane in Bristol
Justin Bonsignore both surprised and pleased himself by turning a lap of 129.343 MPH (14.835 secs) on the half mile Bristol Motor Speedway oval in the only combination North - South Whelen Modified Tour race of the 2010 season. Bonsignore, a candidate for rookie of the year on the Northern Tour, started the race from the pole and finished a respectable 6th after experiencing a loose condition early in the race that dropped him from the lead early.
The race was broadcast live on Speed TV, another first for this event from Bristol. With 38 cars on the grid, the 150 lap event, with a mid-race break which allows the teams to work on the cars, was interrupted by only 2 short yellows for minor spins and otherwise ran caution free. Ted Christopher led most of the first half of the race after wresting the lead from Todd Szegedy, the early leader. Christopher set such a torrid pace that only 17 cars were on the lead lap at the half-way mark. Christopher was challenged along the way through the first half by Mike Stefanik and Szegedy, but otherwise had an easy time leading.
After the mid-race break, Christopher led the field once more, but Stefanik patiently waited, passing Christopher to take the lead for a few laps, but Christopher fought back, retaking the lead from Stefanik. As the laps wore on, the field became spread out around virtually the whole track, forcing the leaders to run the high groove most of the time. Stefanik let that work for him, taking the lead from Christopher on lap 126, but just as suddenly, Ryan Newman shot through from running in the 5th position, moving under on the low groove as Stefanik was advancing to the front, and moved into 2nd. 5 laps later, Newman passed Stefanik, and held him at bay as the race approached the closing laps. Another surprise came when Christopher’s engine suddenly expired as he exited turn 2 on lap 141, dropping him from the event (and the WMT point lead). Newman continued showing the way as James Civali passed Szegedy to take 3rd, while Bobby Santos III moved up from 6th to challenge Szegedy, who worked as hard as he had all race just trying to hang onto a top 5 finish. Bonsignore hung with these veteran’s throughout, coming in with a fine 6th place finish, as Ryan Newman held off every move Stefanik tried right up until the last lap. Civali, with an overall finish of 3rd, was the highest finishing SWMT driver of the race, which moved him to 1st on the SWMT, while Bobby Santos III moved into the point lead with his 4th place finish. Todd Szegedy hung on to claim 5th, as Bonsignore, Dale Quarterly, Eric Goodale, Ryan Preece and Erick Rudolph rounded out the top 10 in the race, which was completed in under 50 minutes.
News and Notes: There are some great photos from this race, taken by Mike Mercurio, that can be found HERE ... Bad weather in the area resulted in showers interrupting practices being run early in the day, but the skies cleared and stayed that way despite a forecast of 70% or better for bad weather… 9 pre-entered WMT drivers withdrew and didn’t travel to Bristol for the race… 14 SWMT drivers and 21 NWMT drivers, along with Ryan Newman, Andy Petree and Dale Quarterly comprised the 38 car field… Bob and Steve Park also at the track to take in the race... That’s all for this abbreviated story. Until next time, live well and be safe. WJ
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