An already packed schedule of Modified racing for Ronnie Williams in 2020 will be inflated even more with a part-time effort for two NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour teams in 2020.
Williams, the two-time defending SK Modified champion at Stafford Speedway and the defending Tri-Track Open Modified Series champion, will run at least seven events on the Whelen Modified Tour for Skowyra Motorsports and make two starts for team owner Jamie Tomaino.
Skowyra Motorsports acquired equipment from the former Flamingo Motorsports Whelen Modified Tour team, which was owned by Eric Sanderson. It was announced at the final Whelen Modified Tour event of the 2019 season that Sanderson was shutting down his operation.
Williams said the Skowyra team will run the Whelen Modified Tour season opener on March 21 at South Boston (Va.) Speedway. The team will also run all three Whelen Modified Tour events at Stafford Speedway (April 26, Aug. 7, Sept. 27) and all three series events at Thompson Speedway (April 5, Aug. 19, Oct. 11).
“We’re going to try maybe throwing in a Seekonk [Speedway] (June 7) or a Riverhead [Raceway] event (June 20, Sept. 19),” Williams told RaceDayCT Friday.
Williams will also run the Whelen Modified Tour events at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (July 18, Sept. 12) for team owner Jamie Tomaino.
The 23-year old Williams joined Skowyra Motorsports to run an SK Modified at Stafford prior to the start of the 2018 season and went on to score four wins and 14 top-fives in 21 events to win his first track championship.
He backed up his championship season at Stafford by scoring five wins and 13 top-fives in 20 events in 2019 and won his second consecutive title by tie-breaker (total wins) over Todd Owen. Overall Williams has 17 career SK Modified victories at Stafford dating back to the 2014 season.
“Over the last two years we’ve had great success now it’s just bringing it up another level,” Williams said. “… There’s some very good teams on the Tour and we want to be one of those top teams. We’re not just going to be showing up at the race track. We’re going to be working hard and seeing what we can do.”
Williams has made 26 Whelen Modified Tour starts since 2015 with six top-10 finishes and two poles. He finished ninth in the series standings in 2018 driving for the Gershow Recycling team. He didn’t make any series starts in 2019.
Williams is confident that he’ll be in a position to compete for victories on the Whelen Modified Tour for both Skowyra Motorspots and Tomaino in 2020.
“And that’s a pretty awesome feeling,” Williams said. “That’s the best feeling you can have as a driver is showing up at the race track and knowing at least you have a chance if you do your part. I don’t want to be in lower equipment. I want to be in that higher stuff and have that chance to win and really show what the team is made of.”
In addition to adding the Whelen Modified Tour events to their efforts, the Skowyra Racing team will also field Williams in all four Open 80 Tour Type Modified events in 2020 at Stafford Speedway. Williams said the team is still deciding on their plans for Thompson Speedway’s SK Modified division.
Williams will also be defending the Tri-Track Open Modified Series championship he won in 2019 for Gary Casella.
“Gary and I are doing the Tri-Track shows definitely,” Williams said. “And we’re trying to see what the [Modified Racing Series] schedule turns out to be. … I know we’ll be doing some MRS shows, but I don’t think we’ll be doing a full season. But we’ll definitely focus on that Tri-Track.”
Ronnie will be a busy man in 2020. Skowyra Motorsports acquired the former Flamingo Motorsports equipment shortly after the end of the 2019 season and have been hard at work preparing the cars. Things worked out good as Flamingo was in the same building that the 50 team competes out of. Pretty sure all cars will carry the familiar #50 that Skowyra has used since it inception. All this combined with driving for Jamie Tomaino, and Gary Cassella will keep Ronnie quite busy this upcoming season. The Skowyra team always fields top dollar equipment, and pride themselves on car preparation, so Ronnie should be competitive right out of the box. Hope for the best for the team in the upcoming season, and look forward to seeing him in Stafford’s victory lane in the SK, Open and quite possibly the tour modified. Good luck guys.
Old Flamingo Motorsports trailer already redone. Saw it last week.
I’ve known about Skowyra Motorsports buying out Flamingo for about a month. Didn’t comment on it out of respect for the team. Adam, Les and Paul, along with the rest of the team are a great buch of guys. They always show up at the track with well prepared cars, and are always a threat to win, and with the addition of a NWMT car I don’t expect that to change. They’ve got one of the best drivers with Ronnie Williams, who is I say definitively among the top ten in all of modified racing. Just my opinion
Great Opportunity for Ronnie and well deserved. Good luck in 2020!
The Rob p challenge. I’m in. I’m sure you meant top 10 of current drivers. My list.
Preece, Hirschman, Santos, Bonsignor, Dowling, McKennedy,Hossfeld, Silk, Coby, Lutz, Solomito, Soper, Emerling, Jankowiak, Myers, Pasteryak, Blewett, Pitkat, Rogers, Willis, Goodale, Willis.
A biased and seat of the pants list for sure but I don’t see Williams popping in anywhere near the top 10. Pushed out of the NWMT ride. Inherited rides in already proven winners in the 50 and 25.
To qualify to be in the top 10 at the very least I would think you’d need to spend the majority of your time in a tour modified. I love the SK’s but they are not tour modifieds.
Do you mean any current form of modified racing? Asphalt, dirt, SKL, SK, Tour, Super? I would agree Ronnie Williams has the potential to have a great future in asphalt modified racing but depending on what type of modifieds we are talking about I don’t know if he would quite crack the top 10 yet. I for one would like to give it a while longer to see how things shake out. IMHO.
I’m in on the Rob P challenge. Doug was doing so well until Dowling. I’ve got Preece, Hirschman, Coby, Bonsig, McKennedy, Silk, Williams, Hosfeld, Dowling, Emerling,
Doug: fact check- Not being pushed out of a NWMT ride but finished the best ever for the Junkyard #21 team with 2 poles and 9th in points decided to focus on and finish college, play hockey and still have a 15 win 2 but really 3 series championship 2019, is amazing. Before Williams the 50 team had 1 win with Woody in 3 years and 4 wins with Dowling in 2017, Williams in 2 years with that same team has 9 wins and 2 championships, ask Adam who he would like more in his cars. Ask Gary and the 25 team, with his TriTrack and owner’s championship with Ronnie who also won him a ton of money. So your inherited rides argument is pathetic and weak not factual. Your list with Lutz?? Top dollar equipment for 3 years and 1 win. Willis??? No comment. If Williams didn’t miss 3 MRS races and was short 6 POINTS for the MRS championship who wins that? Enjoy what Williams brings to the table every race. Fun, excitement and drive to win. Most of your top 10 are phasing out over the next decade. I’ll bet you’d love it if a quality, hardworking and smart guy like williams was going to Marry your granddaughter!! You can think up a reply while I soak up this nice FL sun anticipating Speed week and New Smyrna.
Doug, it wasn’t a challenge but… On your list you’ve got Preece, a part timer now, and Hossfield is retired. I’m gambling that Ronnie will be successful in both the 50, and 99 tour cars. He’s already successful in the 25, and 50 tour type cars. And he’s young, with a long career ahead, but is already a proven winner. I’ll wait till June to give you my list, see how things shake out.
That’s some pretty snappy repartee you contributed there SK Mod Fan.
It’s impossible to question what you say because you say so many things that are opinion, insider knowledge and self serving but not in the public domain.. The fact is you are in the Williams camp and can’t be objective. Asking you if Williams is the wonder boy of modified racing is like asking Pence who the best candidate for president is. One thing is clear you distort stats. Chase had 4 wins and came in second in the 50 and Williams 4 his first year and was the champ. That’s taking over a good car and getting similar good results with a good car. The 50 and 25 owners uniformly agreed that Williams is superior to Pennink and Dowling? If you say so.
I know it wasn’t a challenge Rob but what’s that harm. It’s just too subjective for anyone to get worked up about and if they do that’s on them. Preece raced 4 times in a modified last year I think and will be at New Smyrna. He’s also built a modified so doesn’t that get him a bit of a pass as far as number of races is concerned. Plus he’s our guy in the bigs. Of course you are right on Hossfeld. However there was some chatter about him driving at New Smyrna and while he sold his equipment he did not discount driving for someone else.
“Your list with Lutz?? Top dollar equipment for 3 years and 1 win”
Putting down Lutz. A win Williams doesn’t have, 9 top 5’s. 3 more top tens and a pole in 2019 in the top modified tier.. Man that’s cold..
Preece built a modified? When did that happen unless I missed something. Last I knew he ran Troyers and had a CD he was experimenting with. Built one? Maybe assembled them but built his own?
Now see right there is the problem I’ve been harping on for a while. Tanks and aircraft are given pet names. How many of us had cars we named when we were younger. My first a 56 VW I painted red the turned orange and was named Sunkist. Name the cars.
To my knowledge and please correct me there are two 6’s. Partridges Troyer that I believe is a TA1 and the CD car Mike Paquette and Ryan collaborated on. At New Smyrna Ryan will be driving the Troyer and Pollard the unicorn but that’s a guess..Were they testing the Troyer or unicorn at Martinsville…who knows. Did Preece actually fab the chassis? I’m guessing no. Did he help design it I’m guessing for sure. To my knowledge they were both housed at Mike’s shop but that’s simply connecting dots from Facebook.
Now if they would just name the car they came up with something cleaver like Pegasus seeing as how it’s kind of a unicorn we would’t have these problems. My dander’s up for sure. Name the friggen cars. Everyone loves names for vehicles.
Super bowl time. Beer stat!
Doug Ryan has two CD cars now. The orange and white one we saw at New Smyrna and Stafford is his and Paquette’s, the white with red numbers car is the one that he campaigns under Partridge on the Tour that he ran at Thompson and New Hampshire last year. I’m not sure what they’ve done with the two Troyers, last I knew Ryan had them down south
As far as naming cars goes, my father had a run of giving his chassis’ that he built the names of his “hottie of the year”, starting with Phoebe Cates from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, then Elle for Elle McPherson, followed by Kathy for Kathy Ireland, and his last car Shania for Shania Twain, how’s that for naming cars? Haha
There you go. Many thanks Adam!
Ok Doug here we go. 1. Richie Evans 2. Mike Stefanik 3. Ted Christopher 4. Ryan Preece 5. Reggie Reggario 6. Matt Hirshman 7. Ronnie Williams 8. Keith Rocco 9.Doug Coby 10. Justin Bonsignore.
As you can see, I went for an all time performance based countdown. Coby and Jbon both fall after Williams and Rocco because I don’t think that the fact that you drive on the tour should be the only deciding factor. There are so many great modified drivers, that it is really hard to come up with the top ten. Just my opinion.
DeSarro, Stevens, Flemke Sr., Evans, Stefanik, Christopher, Bouchard, G Bodine, Ruggerio, Mclaughlin.
Exactly right Rob p. It’s your own list, you can make it by any rules you like so well done. Bold outside the box thinking. Almost controversial. Going by your own rules at the very least you’d have to put Rocco ahead of Williams. Three championships at Stafford to Williams two ;plus all the Waterford and Thompson championships. And Williams never smacked TC out of the way for a win. Career wise it’s not even close.
In other news Jimmy Blewett said on last Mondays Morning Bullring that while he will be at New Smyrna driving the 21 for Bertuccio he has no deal or plans in place other then to race his dirt car this season.
There are so many great modified drivers, both past and present that it’s really impossible to compile a comprehensive list, that everyone would agree with. One thing is certain, the top 3 I listed are rock solid the top 3, and really they are a 3 way tie. Just my opinion
Doug, the reason I put Williams ahead of Rocco was because of his tour type racing. In order to really clarify things would take multiple lists. Pre- tour, tour, tour type and SK. Some drivers might show up on multiple lists. Just thinking about it makes my head hurt. As for Showtime, he recently took delivery of a car from TFR. Not sure if the make, but saw pics of it.
Great call Rob on Blewett that makes his comment on the Morning Bullring all the more perplexing.
LFR on Facebook 1/7
“Jimmy Blewett’s new LFR Chassis is just about completed. It will be on display at the TFR Chassis seminar in 2 weeks. Stephen makes these cars look like pieces of art when he’s done! Can’t wait to work with Showtime!!”
Gotta watch for Solomito’s new LFR creation number 66 as well. A lot of change and realignment this year in the NWMT. Still no word of Coby? The clock is ticking. What’s that wascally wabbit up to? The simple fact that there is complete radio silence indicates something is in the works.
Time is growing short for Coby, hopefully he’s secured a ride just hasn’t announced it yet. For years, everyone thought TC had retired, because he didn’t show up on any rosters but come race day there he was. Some people claimed he was playing head games with his competitors, a rumor that was neither confirmed or denied
Got to go to bat for Rocco who is my choice to pop into the upper echelon of modified drivers. Yes I know Williams is pretty talented and dreamy as well I’ve actually seen women swoon as he made his way to the press box for interviews on occasion. I bet SK ModFan swoons as well as he walks by.
As for personality….meh. About as colorful as an accountant. His appearances on The Show series are very professional. Always says the right thing. Very colorless. Do we really want a field of accountants as our racing hero’s. That’s the trend in the Cup series isn’t it. Calculating kids that know nothing of building cars always saying the right thing .Hows that working out?
Now Rocco is a pistol. The Kid Roc nickname has to go. He’s not a kid and deserves more then copying a celebrities nickname. My suggestion would be Freakin Rocco in an endearing sense. Charismatic, talented, hard working, entrepreneurial with a healthy dose of mischief. Freakin Rocco, he’s the best and we need more entertaining guys like him not accountants.
Bottom line if Williams retired and went onto be an accountant tomorrow the 50 and 25 would plug in new drivers and the beat would go on. If Rocco retired from his personality to the cars he fields and consults on and drivers he mentors the loss would be devastating.
Ann his lovely wife is as much of an entertaining scamp as him.