Justin
Bonsignore began his racing
career with go-karts at the age of 8. His
father Tom and Uncles Bill and Frank, own
and operate one of the top kart racing
shops in the country, so for Justin, it
was a natural.
In 1997,
Justin competed for his first national
event at the Rockingham Speedway, in North
Carolina, where he finished 13th. Justin did
well in go-kart racing with 18 national
event wins, 13 poles, 45 top-5 finishes in
81 national starts. He had five straight
feature wins and two championships in the
same year. He has also won some of
kartings most prized races such as Len
Sammon's Indoor Kart Race at the Dunkin'
Donut Center in Providence Rhode Island
and Riverhead Raceway's East End Shootout.
Justin,
now 22 years old, has continued his racing
career in NASCAR Modifieds at Riverhead
Raceway and on the NASCAR Whelen Modified
Tour.
Justin
started racing stockcars in 2005, in
Riverhead Raceway's Charger Division,
where he entered into the NASCAR Dodge
Weekly Racing Series. In this particular
year he ended up finishing third in the
championship standings, which is the
highest position ever held by a rookie. He
was awarded Rookie of the Year by NASCAR.
In 2006,
Justin joined the NASCAR Modified
Division, where he scored three top-5 and
nine top-10 finishes. He also ended up
finishing 7th in the standings, which once
again was the best ever by a rookie and
for the second year in a row he was
awarded Rookie of the Year by NASCAR.
In 2007,
Justin had hoped to win the Riverhead
Raceway Track Championship, but an injury
to his wrist prevented this from
happening. He did however, get his first
stockcar win in 2008 and finished 4th in
the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.
In 2008,
Justin was unable to secure a full time
sponsorship which resulted in a more
limited schedule. Due to sponsorship woes,
Justin did not score a win in 2008, but
scored the divisions most top-5 and top-10
finishes enroute to an 8th place points
finish.
For the
2009 season, Justin took on more of the
ownership role, of the team and decided to
run a schedule at Riverhead Raceway which
was best fitted for the budget of the
team. He experienced his most successful
season, performance wise, however, the
luck was not there much of the season.
Justin was able to break a long winless
streak and win the Cromarty Cup 50 lap
race in dominating fashion, qualifying on
the pole and leading every lap. A few
weeks later, the good runs continued and
Justin was again able to match a career
best of 4th place in the NASCAR Whelen
Modified Tour at Riverhead. With these
runs, he was able to catch the eye of a
man by the name of Ken Massa, who wanted
to start a full-time NASCAR Whelen
Modified Tour team. In the team's first
race together, they scored a 2nd place
finish at the Sundance Vacation Speedway
in the King of the Mountain 150.
To start
the 2010 season, Bonsignore and his newly
operated M3 Technology Race team are
competing weekly on the NASCAR Whelen
Modified Tour and are seeking the Sunoco
Rookie of the Year award. So far this
season, Justin has two top-5 and four
top-10 finishes, including a 2nd place
finish at Martinsville Speedway. Justin
also won the Coors Light Pole Award and
set a new track record at the Bristol
Motor Speedway.
Justin has
also been very fortunate to appear and
represent some of racing's great
companies, such as Area Auto, WKA Karting
Scene, National Kart News, The Inside
Track, Riverhead Raceway's Weekly Program,
as well as advertisements promoting
products for Horstman Manufacturing,
Digatron Data Acquisitions, Bonsignore
Kart Shop, and Big Sal's Race Engines.
Justin has also teamed up with companies
such as The United Spinal Association and
The North Shore Animal League as a
spokesperson.
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