Pit Board 2010-10-21

WKA's Pit Board - 10.21.2010

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Bonsignore earns NASCAR Modified Rookie of the Year

10.21.2010 - NASCAR announced Wednesday that Long Island's Justin Bonsignore won the 2010 Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.

Bonsignore had a fine season behind the wheel of the M3 Technology No. 51. In 14 series races, he earned four top-10 finishes and was the Sunoco Rookie of the Race eight times. A second-place finish at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway and pole awards at Bristol (Tenn.) and Stafford (Conn.) motor speedways highlighted Bonsignore's season, which saw him finish 13th in final Modified Tour standings.

The Bonsignore family's ties to WKA are strong. Justin finished third in both Briggs Champ Lite and Champ Heavy standings on the Vega Speedway Pavement circuit just last season. His father, Tom, owns Bonsignore Kart Shoppe on Long Island, which is a key Pavement Series sponsor. Tom Bonsignore is also the chairman of the Pavement Series Competition Committee. Justin's cousin, Kyle, is a past WKA racer as well and now runs PASS late models.

WKA congratulates Justin on his fine rookie season in the NASCAR Modified ranks and wishes him the best of luck in his future racing endeavors.

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Kyle Capodice awarded second of six free spots in K&N-sponsored talent search

10.21.2010 (Riverside, Calif.) - Kyle Capodice of Sandusky, Ohio, has won the K&N Filters award for young WKA racers to participate in the Ron Sutton's Winner's Circle talent search Shoot-Out.

Working in alliance Ron Sutton's Winner's Circle, K&N Filters is awarding young drivers $5,000 to $25,000 sponsorships for car racing. Up to 40 top young drivers will be selected to participate in driver tryouts at the 2010 Shoot-Out. K&N Filters is also awarding six free spots in the 2010 RSWC Talent Search Shoot-Out to young racers from various forms of youth motorsports.

Many successful car racers today honed their skills driving something smaller, such as Karts, Legends, Quarter Midgets, Mini/Micro-Sprints, Dirt Karts and other forms of youth racing.

Capodice is an accomplished 15-year-old racer who has won four WKA national championships, seven regional championships and two WKA Grand National championships. He has also been featured on the cover of WKA's Karting Scene magazine. "I just really want to thank K&N Filters and Ron Sutton for this opportunity," Capodice said. "Their support was very important and if it wasn't for K&N I probably wouldn't be able to make it out."

The Shoot-Out process is designed to identify talented, young drivers with the potential to achieve a driving career in NASCAR. The deadline for drivers to submit resumes is October 25, 2010. The Shoot-Out will be Capodice's first time testing in a full-sized race car, as Capodice will drive a USAC Ford Focus Midget race car during the three-day test.

"I'm very excited and I hope I can drive the car well," Capodice said. "A full size race car is a lot different than a kart, but NASCAR is my main goal, so this is the next step for me."

Ron Sutton's Winner's Circle is known as the largest and most comprehensive NASCAR focused Talent Scout and Driver Career Development Program. In the last year, RSWC has coordinated a Talent Combine in North Carolina with four top RSWC drivers testing with NASCAR Cup Teams, an individual RSWC driver test with a NASCAR Cup Development Team and guided a female RSWC driver successfully into the fully funded NASCAR Drive for Diversity program. In addition, two RSWC Drivers secured career building sponsors to sign with top teams for 2011.

"We're pretty excited to see young Kyle Capodice test in the full size race cars. Obviously he has a ton of talent as proven by his many successes in the tough WKA karting series," stated head of driver development Ron Sutton. "K&N Filters support is the key to drivers like Kyle getting an opportunity to drive a top notch race car, and of course, getting their shot to show what they can do and hopefully parlay that into being developed to a racing career."

Young winning drivers ages 11 to 20, and their parents, are encouraged to get all the information and answers to common questions from the website, then submit their resume by the October 25th deadline, in time to be considered. The website is www.Winners-Circle-Racing.com.

-source: wka