THOMPSON – On April 7 at Thompson Speedway, NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour driver Ron Silk rolled to a second place finish in the Icebreaker 150. It was a showing that followed up a victory for his Kevin Stuart Motorsports team on March 30 at South Boston (Va.) Speedway.
Despite a win and a second place in the first three events of the season, that day at Thompson Silk said his team was still looking at running race-to-race for the season with no commitment at the point to running full-time.
“The plan is to do well and run full-time,” Silk said on April 7 at Thompson. “So if we run to a point where we’re struggling and we need to regroup we might think about doing that. But I would say right now things are going pretty good. I don’t see why we can’t keep it going.”
And keep it going they did.
Silk went on to record top-five finishes in six of the next seven events, including back-to-back victories at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (July 20) and Stafford Speedway (Aug. 2).
The team that wasn’t sure if they were going to run full-time in April put themselves right in the mix for a championship battle.
Some rough luck late in the year at Thompson, Riverhead Raceway and NHMS took the team out of contention, but the proof had shown that the Stuart Motorsports team was ready to chase a title.
The 36-year old Silk – who has 13 career victories in 194 series starts dating back to 2003 – won a series championship in 2011 driving for team owner Ed Partridge
“I would think so,” Silk said when asked if the pieces are in place now for the Kevin Stuart Motorsports to contend for a championship in 2020. “I think we ran really well. We won three races, could have won a couple more realistically. … Things have to go your way. A championship, a lot of it is luck. You can’t get caught up in someone else’s mess. But I think we should be considered a team that’s capable of winning every week.”
After a devastating day in the Musket 250 on Sept. 21 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway when he was wrecked while leading with just over 25 laps remaining, Silk closed out the season strong with a sixth place in the NAPA Fall Final 150 at Stafford on Sept. 29 and a second on Sunday at Thompson in the Sunoco World Series 150.
Silk ended up third in the series standings, 62 points behind Doug Coby, who scored his sixth series title.
“We’re going to try hard over the winter and put in a lot of effort and see if we can come back stronger next year,” Silk said. “It’s good. I’ve been in that situation before. It’s really about what kind of opportunity that you get. Kevin Stuart and Kenny Stuart and all the guys have really put in a lot of effort and that’s what it takes to compete with guys like [Justin Bonsignore] and [Doug Coby] and [Craig Lutz] and a bunch of other cars. It’s not easy to run up front. I can’t thank them enough for all their effort. Hopefully we can build off this year and be better next year.”
Eye of the tiger baby! Love it. I’d love to see Bobby Santos back full time to make this a real party.
Only 4 months to New Smyrna.
For a team that started the season tentatively, just testing the waters, they did pretty darn good. ’20 should be good to them.
I’d like to add Max Zachem as someone I’d like to see run full time.
Funny how they started out not quite sure they would compete in every race. Then they roll out a new TA3 for the first NHMS race and a brand new Fury for the second. Somewhere along the line they went from we’ll see to all in and in the process had a banner season.
My view their success qualified the 85 as a major surprise for disrupting the 2/51 vise grip on the series.
I’d say that may rate as one of the major surprises of the 2019 season. Way to go guys!
Team has come a long way since Todd and Woody drove, they had trouble completing races , seems they have the mechanical issues solved and certainly have found some speed and silk has been pretty easy on equipment also , best of luck 2020
Ron Silk and the #85 team are on my short list of potential 2020 champs. Along with them I’ve got the #1 with Woody, of course the #2 with Doug and the #51 with Justin. Long shots #7 with Jon, and #46 with Craig. With the whole Fuller/ Troyer/ Fury thing going strong it will be an interesting season.