NASCAR Whelen Modified Champion Bobby Santos Turns Fastest Lap at Stafford Speedway
- Aug 31, 2012
There's not a thing you can do to slow Bobby Santos down. The Franklin, Massachusetts, native turned in the fastest lap of 18.205 seconds (98.874 mph) May 25th at Stafford Speedway in Stafford Springs, Connecticut, in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour in his #44 Imperial Cars/Tinio Corporation Chevrolet. Leading the 26-car field on Stafford's half-mile oval for over 100 laps of the 125 lap feature, Santos - of Santos Motorsports - ultimately finished second.
Following after his pole qualifier in the USAC Silver Crown series on May 19th, where Santos qualified with the third fastest time eventually winning the 100 lap feature at Lucas Oil Raceway Park in Cleremont, Indiana, Santos' 2nd place finish at Stafford marked some additional firsts, including the first time racing for a rookie team as well as racing a car with a K&N filter on this tour, making this past May's results a very pleasant surprise. But Santos is no stranger to K&N Filters. He explained, "My first involvement with K&N was when I drove for Western Speed Racing. We had success as a team winning races together so the partnership continued on to my family team, and I also carry K&N on all other cars that I drive. This year I raced many divisions all with K&N on my fire suit and car including a NASCAR Nationwide race in Daytona, Multiple Whelan Modified Tour races, USAC National midget and Silver Crown races, and a Must see Winged Sprint car." The career racer has been closely tied to K&N for three years, since Santos won the 2008 Turkey Night Grand Prix in a K&N sponsored midget, taking 2009's Copper World Classic in his parents' K&N sponsored, family-owned midget and winning the NASCAR Whelan Modified Tour Championship in 2010. "I think the benefits from K&N products is that I get all my filter needs in one place. No reason to get an oil filter one place and an air cleaner another. I can get all quality products at the same time and place, which is very important to racers who are always on the go. The first time I replaced the paper air cleaner with a K&N air cleaner on my NASCAR modified this year, we went out and set the fastest time that race, so that makes me think it is worth some power also because qualifying in a modified is very motor dependable." Concluding, Santos laughed: "Racing was a family thing before I was ever born. My grandfather was a racer and so was my dad. I was born into it. My dad had me driving a go-cart in our backyard on my own before I turned 3. From go-carts I went to quarter midgets at 4 and it has been non-stop ever since." Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world. |
