{"id":3431,"date":"2010-09-23T21:20:11","date_gmt":"2010-09-24T02:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=9076"},"modified":"2010-09-23T21:20:11","modified_gmt":"2010-09-24T02:20:11","slug":"justin-bonsignore-and-richie-pallai-jr-dueling-for-whelen-modified-tour-sunoco-rookie-of-the-year-honors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/justin-bonsignore-and-richie-pallai-jr-dueling-for-whelen-modified-tour-sunoco-rookie-of-the-year-honors\/","title":{"rendered":"JUSTIN BONSIGNORE AND RICHIE PALLAI, JR. DUELING FOR WHELEN MODIFIED TOUR SUNOCO ROOKIE OF THE YEAR HONORS"},"content":{"rendered":"

JUSTIN BONSIGNORE AND RICHIE PALLAI, JR. DUELING FOR WHELEN MODIFIED TOUR
\nSUNOCO ROOKIE OF THE YEAR HONORS<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Stafford Springs, CT)—With a tight race for the championship on the
\nWhelen Modified Tour this season, there is another tight battle brewing
\nbetween Justin Bonsignore and Richie Pallai, Jr. for Sunoco Rookie of the
\nYear honors. Bonsignore comes to Stafford leading Pallai 116-112 in the
\nRookie of the Year standings, having won 8 Rookie of the Race Awards to
\nPallai\u2019s four this season. Bonsignore is currently 11th in the Whelen
\nModified Tour Standings, while Pallai is 13th in the standings, only 46
\npoints behind Bonsignore.
\n\u201cAt the start of the season, I would say that we exceeded our goals,\u201d said
\nBonsignore. \u201cAt the start of the season, we had a new car, a new team, and
\na new driver. As we got some good finishes, we adjusted our goals midway
\nthrough the year. Lately we\u2019ve had some hard luck getting finishes, so we\u2019
\nre hoping to get some good finishes in the last couple of races this year.
\nWe really weren\u2019t concerned with winning the Rookie of the Year, but we\u2019ve
\nhad good runs this year and now that it is something that we want to win.
\nIt\u2019s a great honor and something that we can use to build on for next
\nseason.\u201d
\nWhile Bonsignore is looking at winning the rookie title this season, Pallai
\nand his team have a different outlook on the rookie duel.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve been watching the rookie points, but we\u2019re more concerned about the
\noverall points standings and staying in the top-15, and getting a win\u201d said
\nPallai. \u201cWe\u2019re 13th right now, and if you\u2019re in the top-15, you get two
\nfree tires every week, which is a huge financial help to us. For us it\u2019s
\nnot about beating another rookie driver, but it\u2019s about beating 33 other
\ndrivers on the track, we want to win a race. Our season has been up and
\ndown, we had a great first 5 races but then we\u2019ve broken a driveshaft,
\nbroken a shifter, and we\u2019ve got caught up in some wrecks. We\u2019ve run really
\nwell everywhere we\u2019ve been, we just haven\u2019t had a lot of luck.\u201d
\nFor Pallai and the #39 Bosch Spark Plugs team, they are coming off a top-10
\nfinish in New Hampshire and Pallai is returning to Stafford, a track where
\nhe has raced weekly for the past three seasons in the SK Modified\u00ae and SK
\nLight Modified divisions.
\n\u201cWe were fast right off the truck in Loudon and that was really a finish
\nthat we needed,\u201d said Pallai. \u201cOnce the race started, it seemed like we
\nwere picking guys off one by one. The race was a lot of fun and we turned a
\nlot of heads with our finish. Stafford is our home track and any time you
\ncan go back to your home track is nice. This Stafford race won\u2019t be an
\nimpound race, so we can throw the kitchen sink at the car for qualifying and
\ngo for the pole without worrying about having a race setup in the car. We
\nknow what we need for the race and we have qualified well for every Stafford
\nrace so far, which we will need to do again because track position is going
\nto be important. Last time out at Stafford I think we had the best car that
\nwe\u2019ve had all year long and we\u2019re looking for a top-5 finish or even winning
\nbefore the season is over.\u201d
\nFor Bonsignore and the #51 M3 Technology team, they are also looking for a
\nstrong finish at Stafford to get their team back on track.
\n\u201cWe wrecked at Loudon last week and we fell out of the top-10 in points,\u201d
\nsaid Bonsignore. \u201cOur goal is to get back into the top-10 and build our
\nnotebook for next season. We\u2019ve run well at Stafford this season, but we
\nstruggled a little bit the last time we were there. We\u2019re getting stronger
\nas a team and I think that as long as we can have a good qualifying run and
\nkeep the car up towards the front, we can be contenders for the win.\u201d
\nRace fans can meet and greet with Bonsignore and Pallai, as well as the rest
\nof the Whelen Modified Tour competitors and Stafford\u2019s NASCAR Whelen
\nAll-American Series drivers, at the CARQUEST Belts and Hose Pit Party on
\nSunday, starting at 11am.
\nThe Whelen Modified Tour cars hit the track for the first time during
\nCARQUEST Fall Final weekend on Saturday October 2nd with a practice session
\nfrom 11:00am-12:30pm. Time trials to set the field will begin at 2:15pm on
\nSaturday and the 150-lap race will take the green flag at approximately
\n3:15pm on Sunday.
\nTickets for the 38th Annual CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend are now on sale at
\nthe Stafford Motor Speedway Box Office. Tickets are priced at $35.00 for
\nadult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, $38.00 for
\nreserved seats, and free for children ages 5 & under. Tickets are good for
\nadmission to the Saturday, October 2nd, and Sunday, October 3rd portions of
\nthe Fall Final. As always, Stafford Motor Speedway offers plenty of free
\nparking with overnight weekend parking available.
\nFor more information, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at
\n860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com
\n.<\/http:><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JUSTIN BONSIGNORE AND RICHIE PALLAI, JR. DUELING FOR WHELEN MODIFIED TOUR SUNOCO ROOKIE OF THE YEAR HONORS (Stafford Springs, CT)—With a tight race for the championship on the Whelen Modified Tour this season, there is another tight battle brewing between Justin Bonsignore and Richie Pallai, Jr. for Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors. Bonsignore comes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[196,197],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-stafford-connecticut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3431\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}