No matter how one may remember it, there is no romanticizing what happened in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic forced many into their homes and away from the things and people they loved.
That includes the teams and drivers of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour who watched their planned season evaporate as the pandemic took hold of the country.
However, by the time summer rolled around, plans began to materialize for a return to racing. The first event of the 2020 Modified Tour season took place at Jennerstown Speedway on June 21. Due to restrictions in place at the time, there were no fans in attendance.
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A few weeks later, the series was back in action with a limited number of fans in the stands. That race took place on July 4, 2020 at the sight of Sunday‘s Thunder in the Mountains 200, White Mountain Motorsports Park in North Woodstock, New Hampshire.
“We were finding out maybe three, four or maybe less weeks in advance where we going to be racing next,” said Justin Bonsignore, who won not only that race at Jennerstown, but the event at White Mountain, as well. “All of a sudden (NASCAR) said, ‘Hey, we‘re going to go to White Mountain.‘
“Nobody was really familiar with that. We‘d never been there. It kind of came out of left field.”
Built by racer-turned-track owner Donnie Avery, White Mountain Motorsports Park opened for business in May of 1993. The track is located, as the name would suggest, in the heart of a mountain range called the White Mountains.
While the high banked quarter-mile bullring has similar characteristics to other venues on the Modified Tour schedule, there is no track quite like it.
“In a way it is kind of similar to Monadnock,” Bonsignore explained. “For a quarter-mile high banked track, at that time it was before Monadnock was paved, so really it was different at the same time.
“There are not really too many high-banked tracks in New England that have grip like White Mountain does even though the pavement was not new. It wasn‘t too far out in left field from some places, but there is no direct comparison I‘d say to tracks we‘d been to at that time.”
While White Mountain Motorsports Park has hosted plenty of Modified events in the years since, at that time, there had been almost no Modified events, NASCAR or otherwise, held at the track.
Which made preparations to go racing at White Mountain, on top of the other challenges faced by teams in 2020, that much more difficult.
“There really was not much video to watch,” Bonsignore said. “Not really any Modifieds had raced up there that we were aware of. (There was) nothing to really study and to learn from. Then you get out there and you‘re wondering how the track is going to react at night, how is it going to race, just so many different unknowns.
“At the end of the day, it‘s just another race track and we just had to adapt and figure it out with the theme of winging it.”
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There were an abundance of logistical challenges, as well.
“It was definitely challenging for everybody,” Bonsignore said. “It was a lot to balance. Trying to find hotels last minute at places that would take our teams and the travel of getting everybody there.
“(We were) just kind of winging it just a few weeks in advance. Usually, we‘re planning our travel months in advance. It was just different, but it was still fun to go to the race track and be able to race.”
Bonsignore and his Ken Massa Motorsports team were lucky enough to figure out White Mountain first. After watching Matt Hirschman dominate the first 193 laps, Bonsignore was able to overtake him and led the final 12, which included surviving an overtime restart, to win.
The win proved vital for Bonsignore, who went on to claim his second Modified Tour championship that year.
Perhaps more important for everyone involved: For a few hours, a limited number of fans were able to forget about what was going on in the world and enjoy a night of racing at their local short track.
“The race before there were zero fans, so it was cool that they were able to do that,” Bonsignore said.
Fast-forward five years, and the Modified Tour is returning to White Mountain Motorsports Park for the first time since the 2020 season.
This time there are no restrictions in place, and Bonsignore is looking forward to experiencing White Mountain properly — with a full grandstand of fans.
“It‘ll be great to go there and have a normal day,” Bonsignore said. “Hopefully the crowd packs in. It‘s not typical Modified country, it‘s more Late Model country. So hopefully we‘ll race in front of full crowd and put on a great race because it is a racey race track.
“Hopefully we can have a good, solid day as a series and put on a good event for the fans. Hopefully the fans are able to come out in full force.”
Bonsignore hasn‘t been back to White Mountain since 2020, but he‘s confident in his team and his own skills as they look to build on a win two weeks ago at Riverhead Raceway as he pursues his fifth series championship since 2018.
“I‘m trying to watch some video. They‘ve obviously had some open Modified stuff since we‘ve been there,” Bonsignore said. “My crew chief Ryan Stone does a great job of keeping up with those things. He helps some people in some of these other divisions with setup ideas and stuff, so he‘s been on top of it.
“As far as from a race-car driver (perspective), you just watch film and get an idea. But getting out there in practice, utilizing the full practice as much as you can for learning is the biggest thing. There is nothing that can replace track time.”
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