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By KEVIN RICE
Loudon, NH- Tyler Rypkema won the Mohegan Sun 100 for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday morning in spectacular fashion, crashing across the finish line after a last lap pass for the lead. It was Rypkema’s first career NWMT win in 83 starts, for a $17,342 payday.
A crash on lap 93 set up a two-lap sprint to the finish, with Justin Bonsignore in the lead as the field took the white flag. The reigning tour champion dropped low to block Rypkema down the backstretch, but the Owego, New York driver saw an opportunity to make history and he did just that.
Rypkema dropped under Bonsignore on the turn three apron, coming off turn four with the lead. After Bonsignore’s failed attempt to cross over “Ole Blue”, he moved to the outside, and Rypkema slid high and into the wall off Bonsignore’s front bumper, but he kept the rear wheels turning to cross the line 0.072 seconds ahead of Bonsignore, with Craig Lutz a car length behind on the inside at the finish.
“It sucks that the car is tore up, but I wasn’t lifting until I was across that start-finish line,” Rypkema said. “Justin protected really early, really low and so I went back to the top and got a better arc down into (turn) three.
“We made a little contact there, but nothing I haven’t seen him do many times here. I knew we were really good and I just had to get up and be there going into (turn) three and I got a run off of two.”
Bonsignore was about to win at NHMS for a third consecutive time, but he had to settle for second. That was still good enough to reduce his points deficit with three races remaining on the season from 17 to 10 behind Austin Beers, who finished ninth.
“He had such a good run in (turns) one and two and he was closer than he had been all day,” Bonsignore said of Rypkema. “There was not much I could do. I tried to cross him over and I just didn’t get a good (turn four) exit. He had me clear off of (turn) four. I just don’t know why he decided to go to victory lane junk, but congrats to him. He did a good job.”
Craig Lutz finished third, with Andy Seuss and Matt Hirschman rounding out the top five. It was a remarkable improvement for Hirschman, who qualified outside of the top 20 and he raced there as well for many laps before advancing forward.
Mohegan Sun 100 NWMT Finish: 1. TYLER RYPKEMA, 2. Justin Bonsignore, 3. Craig Lutz, 4. Andy Seuss, 5. Matt Hirschman, 6. Woody Pitkat, 7. Anthony Nocella, 8. Eric Goodale, 9. Austin Beers, 10. Jon McKennedy, 11. Matt Kimball, 12. Chase Dowling, 13. Ken Heagy, 14. John-Michael Shenette, 15. Mike Marshall, 16. Mike Christopher Jr., 17. Patrick Emerling, 18. Sam Rameau, 19. Stephen Kopcik, 20. Kyle Bonsignore, 21. Trevor Catalano, 22. Tommy Catalano, 23. Gary Putnam, 24. Ron Silk, 25. Joey Cipriano III, 26. Jacob Lutz, 27. Doug Coby.
