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By Travis Barrett,
Special To NASCAR
THOMPSON, Conn. – Not that Jimmy Blewett needed
to live up to his nickname, but “Showtime” was at it again on Sunday
at Thompson International Speedway.
Blewett drove from 27th in the 32-car UNOH Showdown field and
finished second after challenging eventual winner Ted Christopher
for the lead in the late going of the non-points showcase featuring
both the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and NASCAR Whelen Southern
Modified Tour. After being a non-factor in the Town Fair Tire
Northern 75 earlier in the afternoon, Blewett was a force in the
main event.
“I enjoy making runs like that, because it proves to the people who
work with me how much I really appreciate this, you know what I
mean? They stick with me no matter how many bad runs I have or how
many good runs I have,” said Blewett, who finished 20th in the Town
Fair Tire Northern 75.
“It's nice to show people you can still do it.”
One person who didn't see Blewett's impressive performance was his
grandfather, John Blewett Sr. – though the family patriarch had some
pertinent advice for his grandson before the 50-lap UNOH Showdown.
“My grandfather, he's getting a little older and he funds the whole
operation, he came and watched the first race. The car wasn't
running the way we needed it to run today, and he left after the
first race because he didn't realize we were in (The Showdown),”
Blewett said. “He said, 'I'm on my way home, I'm really tired, but I
just want to tell you: Don't give up, keep going.'
“It's a shame he couldn't be here to see it, because everybody knows
this place has a weight on our shoulders.”
In 2007, Blewett's brother, John Blewett III, was killed in a crash
at Thompson during a Whelen Modified Tour event.
For a myriad of reasons, Blewett was happy to have returned to his
“Showtime” ways on Sunday.
“This place was (at) one time my home track weekly,” said Blewett,
of Howell, N.J. “To come from the back like that and be able to show
some of the fans that are still here from when I used to race here
that I can still get it done, it feels good.”
TWO-TIME: Justin Bonsignore's championship season never took
shape, but he's rounding into form in the late stages of 2012.
Bonsignore passed Ryan Preece with 14 laps remaining Sunday
afternoon and went on to survive a green-white-checkered finish to
win the Town Fair Tire Northern 75 at Thompson. It was Bonsignore's
first win of the season and second of his career, and it came at a
track where he had three DNFs in his three most recent starts.
“This is unbelievable. This is just long overdue for this team,”
Bonsignore said. “We've been struggling all year. We were so close
last year, we thought we could contend for the title this year.
Things just didn't go our way. We made some changes, and it just
proves that hard work and dedication can (come through) when you
need it.”
Bonsignore's victory wasn't without its anxious moments.
Bonsignore had to compete with two of the best competitors Thompson
has seen – both this year and in recent years – as well as some
radio issues in the No. 51. He had to chase down the pole-sitter
Preece – who has nine wins in NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK
Modified competition at the track this season – while holding off
Christopher. Christopher has 13 career Tour wins at Thompson and has
now finished in the Top-5 in 15 of the last 18 Tour events at the
track.
“We had a lot of radio trouble, and I was complaining a lot,”
Bonsignore said.
“I had to work Teddy over, and he's the best around this place. I
can't thank Ryan and Teddy enough for racing me clean. It was a lot
of fun racing with those guys.”
The Tour now heads to Riverhead Raceway – Bonsignore's home track –
where he won a Whelen All-American Series Modified feature two weeks
ago and earned his first career Tour victory last season. He's moved
to sixth in the Tour standings, 13 points out of fourth.
NEW LOOK: Andy Seuss' win in the NASCAR Whelen Southern
Modified Tour GreenPointe Energy Southern 75 came as a result of
having found a new way to get around the high-banked Thompson track.
Seuss rode the high line all the way along the wall for most of the
event, holding off Matt Hirschman in heavy traffic to record his
12th career victory.
His best previous finish at Thompson was ninth in a Whelen Modified
Tour race in 2007.
“I just went where the car was fast, and that's where they told me
the car was fastest,” said Seuss, a native of Hampstead, N.H., who
recently moved to North Carolina. “I could get good momentum on
people.
“It was loose the whole race. I was chasing the rear end right up
the hill, but it worked up there.”
Seuss qualified third for the GreenPointe Energy Southern 75, but he
said his car hadn't been that good during practice and qualifying on
Saturday.
“This crew worked so hard in practice yesterday,” Seuss said. “We
threw everything at it this morning. It's a different car. I just
had to drive it how it was handling.”
FURTHER BACK: While Bonsignore was winning the Town Fair Tire
Northern 75, the point leaders were engaged in one of the quietest
point battles seen in quite sometime. It may have lacked the
lap-by-lap drama of last season's XtraMart World Series 150 at
Thompson last October, but it may end up having no less of an
impact.
On a day that looked like leader Doug Coby's point lead was going to
take a big hit with an ill-performing car, things changed on the
final lap when Ron Silk brought out the caution with a wrecked car
in Turn 2.
Silk was running seventh on the green-white-checkered restart when
he brushed the frontstretch wall and then ended up having wrecked a
quarter of a lap later as a result of the damage he suffered. He
lost five points to Coby – who started third but spent the bulk of
the race running outside the Top-10.
Unofficially, Coby now holds a 32-point lead over Silk with four
races remaining. |
