STAFFORD – Ron Silk should be called the Brink’s Truck at Stafford Speedway.
If there’s big cash to be gathered at an event at Stafford in recent years, it’s typically been Silk rolling out of the track with the moneybags overflowing.
Silk cashed in once again Friday at Stafford, dominating the 100-lap GAF Roofing Modified Masters event at the historic half-mile oval.
Silk and his Haydt-Yannone Racing team earned a $12,000 payday for the victory.
“Elated to be back here at Stafford,” Silk said. “Good things happen for us here.”
All told, Silk has walked away with about $110,000 in prize money over six marquee events at Stafford since the 2022 NAPA Spring Sizzler. Silk was third in the 2022 Spring Sizzler and won the event in both 2023 and 2024. He also won the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series NAPA Fall Final in 2022 and was second in the event in 2023.
Silk, of Norwalk, earned about $35,000 for winning the 2024 Sizzler and the same for victory in the 2023 Sizzler. He also scored a $15,000 payday in winning the 2022 Fall Final.
After dominating the first 59 laps, then pitting on lap 60 and restarting seventh, Silk charged back to the front, passing Matt Swanson for the lead for good on lap 79.
“Just a phenomenal car,” Silk said. “[Crew chief] Phil Moran, [car chief] Bob Tulipani, they give me great cars. My car owners, Tyler Haydt and Joe Yannone, they give us everything we need to be successful at this. All the guys that come every week and work on this car and do the pit stop, they got us out first again tonight. Just a total team effort.”
Silk was awarded a trophy white jacket made by American Woolen Company in Stafford for the victory.
“I hope this becomes an annual event,” Silk said. “I’m glad to win the inaugural one.”
Swanson of Acton, Mass. was second.
“We fought gremlins in this thing after practice,” Swanson said. “We unloaded really good and I’m like ‘Man, we’ve got a car better than we did at the [NAPA Spring Sizzler]. And we went out in the heat race and I think every single guy on my team was dejected. But that just shows how hard this [Gary Casella owned] 25 team works and how dedicated they all are. [The Haydt-Yannone Racing team] is in a league of their own. To pit earlier like we did, pit earlier than everybody else and charge to the front and be able to maintain like we did, that’s something hard to with these cars. I’m just really thankful for every single one of these guys on this team.”
Max Zachem of Preston was third.
Silk held the top spot from the pole at the start with Jacob Perry moving past Chris Pasteryak for second on lap one.
Drivers settled into a long green flag stretch to the start the event. On lap 28 it was Silk in control out front with Perry in second and Woody Pitkat in third.
Caution flew on lap 45 after Ronnie Williams was smoking on track and headed to pit road. The caution flew with Silk leading, Perry in second, Pitkat in third and Pasteryak in fourth. Under caution Eric Goodale, Keith Rocco, Anthony Flannery, Mike Christopher Jr., Swanson and Marcello Rufrano were among the teams heading to pit road.
On the lap 45 restart it was Silk holding the lead with Perry left to battle Pitkat for second. On lap 46 Pitkat moved past Perry to take over second.
Caution flew on lap 60 for the spinning car of ninth place running Rufrano. The caution sent the top-nine cars to the pits. It put Swanson out front with Zachem in second and Rocco in third. Silk lined up seventh for the lap 60 restart.On the lap 60 restart it was Swanson easily taking control out front.
By lap 71, with Swanson still out front, Silk had worked his way up to third with Christopher running fourth and Perry fifth. Silk got to second by Zachem and was a half second behind Swanson on lap 75.
On lap 79 Silk made a diving move under Swanson into turn one and came off to turn two back out front.
‘There’s always a little bit of concern until it gets singled out,” Silk said of restarting seventh for the lap 60 restart. “I was confident that our car was good enough that if it got singled out that I’d be able to work my way up there. You never know though. The 25 is not an easy car to pass. Matt Swanson is a great driver and he had a pretty good sized lead. At first you’re wondering, ‘Am I going to be able to run him down?’ I’m glad that we did.”
Guess I completely missed the memo on the format change.
Tuned in looking forward to time trials and all I got was heat race parades. Disappointing.
no way……the car that has 50 horsepower over the field won the race again? HUH……thats weird. My car will sit on jackstands until the engine rules stop allowing 70k engines. Still cant believe that anyone would show up to run second. To each his own.
Wally,
What a courageous stance you’ve taken, posting here anonymously with a fake name and fake email address. Clearly your convictions run very deep.
Very disappointing race and #16 stunk up the show.Glad I did not make almost two hour trip and watched on Flo. SK race best race of the night as normal. SK RACES HAVE BEEN TERRIFIC FEATURES WEEKLY.
Went to the race last night. Great crowd and beautiful weather. The best race of the night was the street stock. The 21 car stiff arming his competitors as they tried to bring him down. Great race. The SK 40 lap was a snoozer. The 100 lap GAF was predictable however it wasn’t a terrible race. It’s awesome seeing Silk go through the field after the pit stop. Phil Moran is magic. Silk is the man! Nice run for Perry , Swanson and Christopher. Overall Stafford continues to operate wonderful events.
Cool Hand Silk… The boy sure is smooth…
It was a good night of racing. Perry was a surprise in the mods, The Pup passed more cars than anyone, just a bad pit strategy kept him out of the top 3. Unfortunately no cautions in the sk race to make it interesting. SKL was the best race for the lead at the end. Missed the heats standing in a long line for tickets…crazy crowded
Talk About Silk All You Want, At Least He Doen’t Cherry Pick His Races! He Usually Stays In The Whelen Tour , But $12,000 Will Get Your Attention! Funny Though, Supposedly “Money Man” Dodged It Not Once But Twice. Don’t Knock “Silkie” Because He Owns Stafford The Last Couple Years.
Jacob Perry ran right with Silk for a surprising amount of time. That was really cool to watch.
Not only was Silk masterful at picking people off after the pit stop, he’s just so smooth… Watching him precisely hit his marks lap after lap could have been a clinic video.
Hydar was a blast to watch in Street Stocks. It really sucked to see him cut the tire.
It was a great race and I also enjoyed the regular features. Stafford is to be commended for putting out a superior product.
Hey Wally. Spend 75k and you could win over 115k yourself.
Kevin Stuart-85
2018 9 races 3 top 5’s
2019-full 16 races, 3 wins, 10 top 5’s, third in points
2020-8 or 9 races, 2 wins, 5 top 5’s, fifth in points
2021-full 14 races, 2 wins, 5 top 5’s, third in points
HYR-non NWMT
2021-raced at New Smyrna
2021-all six MMTTS events coming in third
HYR 16-NWMT
2022-full 16 races, no wins, 8 top 5’s, second in points
2023-full 18 races, 5 wins, 15 top 5’s, first in points
Fast Lap Times
Modified Masters
First Practice-Silk 1st 18.73, Barrett Second 18.85
Second Practice-Silk 1st 18.63, Bessette 2nd 18.68
Heat-Silk 18.56 top speed of all three heats and the win. Pitkat second 18.79
Feature-Silk 18.94 and the win, Perry 2nd 18.98
Spring Sizzler-in the Duel the 16 turned in the third fastest lap behind Hodgdon and Goodale, In the the 16 Sizzler turned the fastest lap at 18.38, McKennedy second at 18.59
Was Silk “masterful” passing cars that had elected to stay out while the 16 pitted I’m not so sure. More like a top driver in a clearly dominant car getting the job done with no drama in my view.
Masterful may however be used to describe Silk and HYR’s rise to it’s current dominance
Kevin Stuart was not the best funded team racing in the NWMT but they sure maxed out what they had putting together 4 solid years with notable successes. In 2021 while racing for Stuart, Silk started racing in non Tour events for HYR. Good results for a new team, not great yet. But Silk it would appear saw something in HYR he liked announcing he was leaving the Stuart team, moving to HYR to race for the tour championship in 2022. We’ve seen what followed they progressively got better and better. In only their second year together, the first year on the Tour they come in second and follow that with a championship and are leading this year so far.
Any good driver will tell you it’s about the car. Silk a very good driver but there’s a lot of good drivers racing modifieds. The HYR team started slowly and deliberately, building their operation, Silk saw it from the start and made the driver timely Timex move in 2021 the most successful seat switch in recent memory. My view it can’t be over stated how impressive it has been how the HYR in only it’s third year together and second year racing full time on the NWMT beat a 51 team that has the best of everything and been doing it a long time.
That was a very entertaining race Friday from second on back with some big moves. It wasn’t a FloRacing race it was a you had to be there watching cars move through the field. As for the 16 that was about as close to playing with house money as it gets. The track too big to give lesser teams a shot, there was no car fighting in the same weight class.
My view if the goal is to put coats on modified masters you’re going to need more coats. Like a bunch for the rest of the HYR team.
Great stats and presentation Doug, and spot on with the race; losts of position battles throughout the field. Great racing for sure!
Great analysis Doug, Cool Hand Silk is at the top of HIS GAME, Along with the ” Best Crew Chief in Tour History ” in his Corner… Phil Moran >> how many TITLES does he have already in His Trophy Case … ??? With Owners and a great Car Chief Bob Tulipani, The Sky’s the Limit … That car is never sideways, always looks like it’s stuck in the turns much like the # 60 car… Silk knows he has a very FAST HORSE , so he can take his time making passes, Ronnie doesn’t force any passes , He just set’s them up going into the turn or coming off the turn… Ronnie could have pushed Trevor Catalano out of the lead as many have stated , but he showed a Champions mentality by putting the Heat on Him , but not knocking him out of the way like a couple of others surely would have done…. By racing like that the next time the 16 has the lead & if Catalano is on his bumper he will return the RESPECT … Silk showed us a lot by Racing like a Champion…