When the green flag falls on the 44th Annual NAPA Spring Sizzler this season, Oxford, MA native Troy Talman will find himself making his Sizzler debut in one of the most recognizable rides on the Whelen Modified Tour. Talman teamed up with the #3 Boehler Family team for the 2014 season ending race and that relationship has blossomed into a full-time ride for the 2015 season with sponsorship from Cape Cod Copper, Riverview Industries, and NAPA Ayer Auto Parts.
“The plan is to run the whole season,” said Talman. “Last year I gave the Boehler’s a call because the car wasn’t running to see if we could work out a deal. I got along really well with the crew guys, especially Greg Fournier and Scott Richards. We didn’t really have any time to shake the car down beforehand and the first practice session was my first time driving a Modified Tour car. I think we were around 19th in practice, we qualified 23rd, and the race went pretty well. I got a lot of experience and I’m ready for the season. It’s really cool to be driving for the Boehler family in such a legendary car and I’m very thankful for the opportunity. The Boehler team has a really good system of how they do things at the shop and my dad and I have been helping them at the shop doing what they tell us we need to do.”
Although Talman is still new to the world of Whelen Modified Tour competition, his track experience at Stafford should be a big help. Talman came to Stafford for the first time in 2013 where he ran in the SK Light division. In only his second race at Stafford, Talman piloted his family owned car to victory lane and he ended the season third in the points standings. Talman’s ability to quickly adapt to new situations and surroundings will be an asset to him as he will see some of the tracks on the NWMT schedule for the very first time.
“Thompson, Stafford, and Waterford are 3 tracks that are pretty crucial to have success on the Tour,” said Talman. “And the tracks that I haven’t been to yet, I feel like I have the ability to adjust quickly to them. In 2011 I used to travel all over new England with my dad with our Legend Car and I seemed to adjust to those tracks pretty quickly and I’m hoping I can do that again. I’m really excited. The Sizzler will be the longest race I’ve ever participated in and we’ll see how it goes. My ultimate goal is to finish all the laps, be there at the end of the race, and if we could come out of there with a top-10, that would be amazing. I’m not expecting to go out there and win in my first Sizzler. The plan is to not use your car up early on and make sure you’re there at the end of the race. You almost have to ride around until you come into the pits for tires and then you can try to charge towards the front.”
Talman says that his main focus during the 2015 season will be his Whelen Modified Tour effort, but he says that he could also make a couple of starts in the SK Modified® division as well this season.
“We’re going to focus on the Tour stuff this season but you might see us for a race or two for the SK Modifieds®,” said Talman. “The car is all ready to go and you might see us out there for the NAPA SK 5k. Rookie of the Year would be nice but we’re kind of on a one race at a time approach and you can’t look at the big picture because you’ll lose track of what you’re focusing on right now.”
Talman and the #3 team will kick off their NAPA Spring Sizzler weekend with practice and Coors Light Pole Qualifying on Saturday, April 25th as part of the 44th Annual NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler. The 200-lap NAPA Spring Sizzler will run on Sunday, April 26 at approximately 3:15 pm following the NAPA Pit Party from 11am-12noon and the SK Modified® and Late Model feature events beginning at 1 pm.
The 2014 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season was a breakthrough year for Justin Bonsignore. The West Islip, NY native doubled his career win total from 3 to 6 and was in the championship race with Doug Coby until several mechanical issues late in the season relegated him third in the final standings. Fast forward to the 2015 season and Bonsignore is ready to once again be a championship contender. To add to his busy schedule he will be pulling double duty at Stafford during Whelen Modified Tour events as he will pilot an Art Barry owned SK Modified® for the entire 2015 season.
“We definitely ran better at Stafford last year and I think the seat time in the SK this season will really help me,” said Bonsignore. “I always like coming to Stafford but don’t run as good as I like. I’m really optimistic for this season. We had a really good year last season and on paper we should be better this year, especially with the chemistry of me and my crew chief Bill Michael being together for a year.”
One area that might work out to Bonsignore’s advantage this season, and during the 200-lap NAPA Spring Sizzler at Stafford, is the increase in NWMT teams utilizing the NASCAR Spec Engine. Last year, Bonsignore and Woody Pitkat were the only 2 cars in the field using the spec engine and they both made 2 pit stops during the race while most other competitors only had to pit once. Bonsignore and Pitkat both finished in the top-5 last year, but with more teams using the spec engine, they won’t be the only cars having to make two pit-stops during the race.
“This year should be interesting with more teams going with the spec engine,” said Bonsignore. “Last year it was only Woody [Pitkat] and myself with the spec engines. We had to pit for fuel as well as tires because we’ve calculated it out and we’re about 20-30 laps short of going the whole race without pitting. We figure we’d need around 80 laps of yellow to make it so it’s not even worth taking that risk. It was tough coming back through the field with the two stops but if more guys show up with the spec engine, then we’ll all be in the same situation and it could make for a really interesting race and it should make our jobs a little bit easier in the race.”
If there are more teams that come to Stafford with the spec engine, then Bonsignore may actually have a small advantage over the field as he has already ran a Sizzler with a two-stop strategy.
“Last year we pitted around lap-50 for fuel once we were comfortably in our window and it’ll be interesting to see how that will change up other teams’ strategy,” said Bonsignore. “It was tough to have to come from the back twice last year, but I think that most guys will be making the switch. You have to make sure you don’t do anything stupid until you get your fuel and then go as hard as you can to get to your pitstop for tires. There usually seems to always be a caution right around halfway and that will turn the race into a 100-lap sprint to the checkered flag.”
In addition to his Whelen Modified Tour duties with the #51 M3 Technology team, Bonsignore will make his SK Modified® debut NAPA Spring Sizzler weekend driving the #21 SPAFCO car for Art Barry.
“Art, Kenny, and the whole 21 team do a great job preparing the car for me and it shouldn’t be any problem for me going back and forth,” said Bonsignore. “If anything I think I’ll be able to pick up on some small things that I can apply to the Tour car to get around the track even better. I’m excited about it. You keep hearing almost every week about someone new joining the SK division and it should be hectic to just make the show the first race. I’m thinking we can make our presence known and hopefully we can win some races this year.”
Bonsignore will kick off his double duty at the 44th Annual NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler on April 24-26.
Last season, Southington native Doug Coby captured his second career NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship with 1 win, 9 top-5, and 12 top-10 finishes in the 13-race season. As Coby and the #2 Dunleavy Truck and Trailer Repair / Hex Performance Mike Smeriglio owned team prepare to defend the championship this season, they made an almost unprecedented move of changing both their chassis and engine. The #2 team switched their chassis from Troyer to LFR and will utilize the NASCAR Spec Engine this season.
“It’s very rare to win a championship and then take everything you won with and push it to the side in favor of something else,” said Coby. “We have to keep up with everyone else and we felt like last year the spec engine guys had a bit of an advantage over us at some of the tracks so we decided to upgrade to that. When Rob Fuller came out with the chassis, it was kind of a no-brainer for us with how close our team is with Rob’s team so we jumped on board. The only way to find out if something works is to try it and if something doesn’t work for us then we won’t do try it again. I think the only thing I’m worried about is having something unexpected break on the car. The combination we had last year was tried, true, and reliable and reliability is a big part of winning championships. It’s awesome to start a season knowing that you ended last year on top, but it also makes the bull’s-eye on your back bigger.”
Coby and the #2 team took a trip last month down to Caraway Speedway for the Southern Whelen Modified Tour opener to shake down the new chassis and engine combination. That experience, plus a test session at Thompson have Coby and the #2 team feeling comfortable as they prepare for the NAPA Spring Sizzler.
“We’re all ready to go,” said Coby. “I’m sure there will be some ups and downs during the season and we’ll have to deal with things as they come. It could be 14 or 15 awesome races or it could be 12 crappy races, we really don’t know. I think our goal is to improve on the car week to week. We went down to Caraway last month for the Southern Tour race and we had a small issue in practice and in the race. We lost some practice time and we lost 30 laps in the race. We had a fast car and it was really important for us to get the car out on track to try to work out some of the bugs. That would have happened to us at Thompson if we didn’t run that race at Caraway. I think we put right around 100 laps on the car during the Thompson test and now it’s all about focusing on the setup and finding out what the car will want on a longer run and what it will need after a pit stop. The car reacted how we hoped it would and we’re heading into the start of the season with more confidence than we had at the start of last year.”
Coby has 2 career NAPA Spring Sizzler victories with wins in the 2006 and 2012 editions of “The Greatest Race in the History of Spring.” Coby’s shakedown runs of the new chassis and engine combination have him feeling confident about his chances of adding a third Sizzler trophy to his resume.
“I think the car setup will be pretty similar to what we had in our Troyer car for Stafford,” said Coby. “We’ll know around lap-150 how we’re doing. I’ve had plenty of awesome runs at Stafford and I’ve had some races where we haven’t been that good. We’re coming out for the Sizzler this year with what will hopefully will be a good piece that can contend for pole position and stay up front for the entire race.”
In order to keep the car up front for the entire 200-lap distance, Coby will need to have a good qualifying effort. With the competition so close on the Whelen Modified Tour, Coby says that a good qualifying effort will go a long way toward helping the #2 team have a good finish.
“Especially at Stafford, qualifying is always important because most of the top-15 or top-20 is separated by only a couple tenths of a second.
There’s usually a couple of guys that are a step ahead of everyone in qualifying and then from 3rd or 4th down through about 17th you’re either on the right side of the fence or the wrong side. I’ve had plenty of times where I thought I’d have a great run and start 5th or 6th and I ended up about 14th or 15th. It’s going to be competitive for sure and when you go to a track like Stafford where everyone has such a good notebook, combined with good drivers and crew chiefs making good decisions, that’s why the field is always so close.”
Coby and the #2 team will begin their quest for NAPA Spring Sizzler victory with practice and Coors Light Pole Qualifying on Saturday, April 25th as part of the 44th Annual NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler. The 200-lap NAPA Spring Sizzler will run on Sunday, April 26 at approximately 3:15pm following the NAPA Pit Party from 11 am-12 noon and the SK Modified® and Late Model feature events beginning at 1 pm.
Last season, Southington native Doug Coby captured his second career NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship with 1 win, 9 top-5, and 12 top-10 finishes in the 13-race season. As Coby and the #2 Dunleavy Truck and Trailer Repair / Hex Performance Mike Smeriglio owned team prepare to defend the championship this season, they made an almost unprecedented move of changing both their chassis and engine. The #2 team switched their chassis from Troyer to LFR and will utilize the NASCAR Spec Engine this season.
“It’s very rare to win a championship and then take everything you won with and push it to the side in favor of something else,” said Coby. “We have to keep up with everyone else and we felt like last year the spec engine guys had a bit of an advantage over us at some of the tracks so we decided to upgrade to that. When Rob Fuller came out with the chassis, it was kind of a no-brainer for us with how close our team is with Rob’s team so we jumped on board. The only way to find out if something works is to try it and if something doesn’t work for us then we won’t do try it again. I think the only thing I’m worried about is having something unexpected break on the car. The combination we had last year was tried, true, and reliable and reliability is a big part of winning championships. It’s awesome to start a season knowing that you ended last year on top, but it also makes the bull’s-eye on your back bigger.”
Coby and the #2 team took a trip last month down to Caraway Speedway for the Southern Whelen Modified Tour opener to shake down the new chassis and engine combination. That experience, plus a test session at Thompson have Coby and the #2 team feeling comfortable as they prepare for the NAPA Spring Sizzler.
“We’re all ready to go,” said Coby. “I’m sure there will be some ups and downs during the season and we’ll have to deal with things as they come. It could be 14 or 15 awesome races or it could be 12 crappy races, we really don’t know. I think our goal is to improve on the car week to week. We went down to Caraway last month for the Southern Tour race and we had a small issue in practice and in the race. We lost some practice time and we lost 30 laps in the race. We had a fast car and it was really important for us to get the car out on track to try to work out some of the bugs. That would have happened to us at Thompson if we didn’t run that race at Caraway. I think we put right around 100 laps on the car during the Thompson test and now it’s all about focusing on the setup and finding out what the car will want on a longer run and what it will need after a pit stop. The car reacted how we hoped it would and we’re heading into the start of the season with more confidence than we had at the start of last year.”
Coby has 2 career NAPA Spring Sizzler victories with wins in the 2006 and 2012 editions of “The Greatest Race in the History of Spring.” Coby’s shakedown runs of the new chassis and engine combination have him feeling confident about his chances of adding a third Sizzler trophy to his resume.
“I think the car setup will be pretty similar to what we had in our Troyer car for Stafford,” said Coby. “We’ll know around lap-150 how we’re doing. I’ve had plenty of awesome runs at Stafford and I’ve had some races where we haven’t been that good. We’re coming out for the Sizzler this year with what will hopefully will be a good piece that can contend for pole position and stay up front for the entire race.”
In order to keep the car up front for the entire 200-lap distance, Coby will need to have a good qualifying effort. With the competition so close on the Whelen Modified Tour, Coby says that a good qualifying effort will go a long way toward helping the #2 team have a good finish.
“Especially at Stafford, qualifying is always important because most of the top-15 or top-20 is separated by only a couple tenths of a second.
There’s usually a couple of guys that are a step ahead of everyone in qualifying and then from 3rd or 4th down through about 17th you’re either on the right side of the fence or the wrong side. I’ve had plenty of times where I thought I’d have a great run and start 5th or 6th and I ended up about 14th or 15th. It’s going to be competitive for sure and when you go to a track like Stafford where everyone has such a good notebook, combined with good drivers and crew chiefs making good decisions, that’s why the field is always so close.”