At the 2023 World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing Ron Silk kicked off his NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season with a victory.
But his hopes of successful week of action in the Tour Type division of the World Series went bad in the first race of the week. Engine issues cut short the week for Silk and his Haydt-Yannone Racing team.
This year Monday at New Smyrna proved a much better occasion for the reigning Whelen Modified Tour champion.
Silk followed up another Whelen Modified Tour win Saturday with some domination of on Monday.
Silk went to the lead early and had few challengers up front on the way to victory in the 50-lap Tour Type Modified feature Monday at the World Series at New Smyrna Speedway.
It was the first of five consecutive nights of Tour Type Modified features at the World Series.
“A lot of great people around me, great equipment,” Silk said. “The car was fantastic. I think we can make it a little bit better for tomorrow night. A lot of fun to be down here racing in February. To get two wins in a row to start it off is great and hopefully we can get another one tomorrow.”
Ryan Preece was second and Ronnie Williams third.
Silk’s victory snapped Matt Hirschman’s streak of seven consecutive victories in Tour Type Modified features at New Smyrna Speedway, dating back to 2022. Hirschman won the final three events of the World Series in 2022 and won all four nights in 2023. One event cancelled in 2023 due to rain. Hirschman was fifth on Monday. Patrick Emerling, who finished second in all four World Series Tour Type Modified events in 2023, was fourth.
Emerling went past Anthony Nocella for the lead at the start with Silk quickly moving to second.
Tyler Rypkema got into the wall hard off of turn two on lap six but was able to continue on to pit road. Caution was out on the next lap for the stopped car of Tommy Catalano in turn four.
The race went back to green with Emerling leading Silk, Nocella in third and Ronnie Williams in fourth. At the green it was Silk using the low lane into turn one to grab the lead from Emerling. Behind them Williams got by Nocella for third and Hirschman jumped from seventh to fifth.
Caution was back on lap 15 for the stopped car of Tom Martino with Silk leading, Emerling in second and Williams third.
On the lap 15 restart it was Silk easily holding the top spot. On lap 16 it was Preece going by Hirschman for fifth off of turn four.
Caution was back out on lap 23 for the stopped car of Trevor Catalano in turn two.
On the lap 23 restart it was Silk once again checking out with Williams overtaking Emerling for second place while Preece was moving to fourth and Hirschman to fifth.
With 20 laps left Preece went by Emerling for third place. At the front Silk opened up a one second lead over Williams in second by lap 37.
With 12 laps remaining Preece got under Williams for second off of turn two. When Preece got to second Silk had opened a 1.2 second lead on the field. Preece was able to cut Silk’s lead in half over the closing laps, but was never close enough to challenge.
“I was kind of just making sure I didn’t make a big mistake,” Silk said. “I knew when he got to second I had a pretty big gap and I had to manage some lapped traffic. We’ll see, maybe we’ll have a battle tomorrow night.”
Results From The Tour Type Modified Feature At New Smyrna Speedway on Monday Feb. 12
Nice race.
Preece is learning what his new car needs, it shows. His car was getting better.
Silk sure does love that track.
Overall, nice race. No absurd idiocy, and that is a good thing.
Expecting to see 51, but they went home.
What’s going on with the 60?
Emerling looks pretty good in his (?) car.
The 51 team, the one an Done team, they took their toys and they went home, they have to get ready for the next boring tour race🙄
The 51 never stays and plays. … The EDGE that BIG money had is now in the past…When I was there he Won almost every night.. The Silks , Preece & Emerlings have stepped up their game and leveled off the field….It should be must see racing the rest of the week…That LANCI power plant in the # 16 is really STRONG…!!!! I expect the # 60 to rebound quickly ….we will see what happens…
Something is off with the 60. All the other cars don’t just step up like that and leave the historically dominant car behind the dust. Hope the 60 gets it figured out.
That 16 car LANCI power sure is more equal than the others.
The 24 was not that strong, was hoping for better from that car.
Looking forward to see the 40 and how he gets that car running.
I’d like to see Matt figure it out as well. It’s only 1 Race (open) and he is certainly far from out of a championship. Historically, he is as consistent as hell. That always figures in, even if he doesn’t win every night. Extremely experienced, I’m sure they will be there at the end, and I’m confident as I’m sure you guys all are, he will pick up a win or 2 along the way this week.
As for Preece, much better showing last night. But I think its all or nothing for him both in cup and modifieds. My old eyes could be wrong, but he just seems to use everything up way early, and he has to battle from behind. I’m just not so sure the patience side of Preece has caught up to his talent side. I know this, on the cup side, Mr Stewart all but said last week, that if Haas doesn’t drastically improve this year, there will be big changes. Preece is probably racing for his cup career this year. I strongly suspect that Berry, with an experienced Childers calling Berry’s shots, will get a win this year. Ton of pressure for Preece if that happens….
As for modified side, I do believe tonight is his last night in NS as qualifying Wednesday, Duels Thursday.
We’ll see how the “usual” attrition affects the rest of the week in the opens.
Bobf… I believe he’s only missing the Thursday night race… because he will be at Daytona Duals at 7pm .. He should be strong in the 100 Richie Evans race ….
Suitcase;
I believe single car qualifying for the 500 is Wednesday night at 8:00 pm. At Daytona.
So I figured qualifying Wednesday night, and duals Thursday night tied Preece up both nights.
But if he’s back to NS Friday night, that would be great!
he , Ryan, goes out 4th in qualifying tonight, then fast over to NSS to get into the feature….Hoping so ,,, anyway we will see.. Daytona looks very wet weather for Sat & Sunday….???? Ryan got his mojo back ..!!!