RIVERHEAD, NY :: Doug Coby entered the Mr. Rooter 161 at the Waterford Speedbowl with the top spot in the points standings and power rankings. Bobby Santos took the win and moved up from his fourth place position in the rankings. Meanwhile there’s a new points leader in the points and power rankings.
1. Justin Bonsignore (LR: 2)
Bonsignore’s fourth place finish last Saturday night at The ‘Bowl was enough to move him back into the points lead, though he’s just two points ahead of Doug Coby. Bonsignore has an average finish of three after four races, which is a series best. And he heads to Riverhead Raceway, his home track, this week for the Hoosier Tire 200. Bonsignore is a native of Holtsville, New York, and won the track championship at Riverhead in 2011. It was also the site of his first NWMT victory.
2. Bobby Santos (LR: 4)
With his win on Saturday night Santos became the first repeat winner in 2014. Santos made a bold move to wrestle the win away from Donny Lia. Lia wasn’t very happy with the move, but it had just about every fan in attendance on their feet. It’s the type of move that people come to expect from the Modifieds on bullrings. The win has Santos third in the points standings, five markers behind Bonsignore.
3. Doug Coby (LR: 1)
Coby entered Saturday night’s race expecting greatness. He competed for the win in both previous Waterford races and won at Stafford the race before. But his bid for the win came to an end when he got shuffled out of position around lap 100. He was running fourth when contact sent him into the marbles and caused him to lose 10 spots. But it didn’t end there as he and Ron Yuhas got together trying to avoid Gary McDonald on lap 111. The contact sent Coby spinning into the turn one grass. Coby was able to salvage a 10th-place finish, but it certainly was not the result he was looking for. He now heads to Riverhead where he has finished no better than 14th in his last three starts, including one DNF and one DNS.
4. Woody Pitkat (LR: 3)
Woody Pitkat seems to have cooled down a bit since he’s fast start. He came very close to winning the season opener at Thompson Speedway and led a bunch of laps at the Spring Sizzler at Stafford Motor Speedway. But he didn’t really contend for a win in either of the last two races, though he did score a top 10 in both. Pitkat is now sitting fourth in points, eight back of Bonsignore. Pitkat only has four prior Riverhead starts. His best Riverhead finish of fourth came last September.
5. Ted Christopher (LR: NR)
2014 has gotten off to a quiet start for Ted Christopher. He’s consistently been in the top 10 in all four races, but hasn’t been noticeable until this past race at Waterford. For the first time in a while “TC” was up there late in the going battling for a win. He said that as he watched Santos and Lia bang off each other that he thought he had a good chance at the win. But instead Christopher had to settle for third. Christopher is a three-time winner at the Long Island bullring. He was leading on a green-white-checkered in this race last year when he was spun out and crashed into the pace car.