THOMPSON – It was an Icebreaker “weekend” sweep 18 days in the making Wednesday at Thompson Speedway for Ron Silk
On March 29 Silk was victorious in the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series season opening Propane Plus Heating & Cooling 75 at Thompson Speedway on “day one” of Thompson Icebreaker weekend.
The NASCAR Modified Tour was originally scheduled to have its second event of the season on March 30 at Thompson. That event was postponed to April 5 due to weather issues and the April 5 date was then postponed due to weather to Wednesday.
And on a cold night at Thompson Speedway it was Ron Silk keeping the heat on at the historic .625-mile oval.
Silk, of Norwalk, held on through a rash of late restarts to win the NASCAR Modified Tour Icebreaker 150 at Thompson.
“It’s a good way to get the season rolling off here, following up a win [on March 29] with the [Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series],” Silk said. “I know the weather was terrible today and not a whole ton of fans, but thank the ones that came out. I’m happy to go home with a win.”
It was the 27th career NASCAR Modified Tour victory for Silk, the 2011 and 2023 series champion.
Patrick Emerling of Orchard Park, N.Y. recovered from an early spin and issues on pit road to finish second.
“That was just an absolutely insane run by the team,” Emerling said. “We spun, we had a loose wheel, we got stuck a lap down. We luckily got a quick caution there and we got our lap back. We were able to dice our way, we passed a ton of cars. Man to come off second. Everyone had fresh tires. Our car was feeling good on them old tires. But that was an absolutely insane run.”
After having major issues during practice, Trevor Catalano of Ontario, N.Y. was third.
“I can’t thank all these guys enough on [this] team,” Catalano said. “They worked their butts off. We destroyed a [transmission] and drive shaft and everything in practice, got a quarter of a lap in practice. They’re the most badass crew. So happy to have them. Just awesome to be here. We’ve struggled here in the past and I think we finally found something that hopefully we can make work.”
Pole winner Jon McKennedy took control out front at the start with Austin Beers making a quick move by Jake Johnson for second place. Luke Baldwin followed Beers to move to third place on lap two.
By lap 15 McKennedy had opened a five car length lead over Beers in second place, with Baldwin still in third.
On lap 25 Beers had closed the gap on McKennedy out front as the pair edged away from the battle for third between Baldwin and Johnson.
On lap 28 Johnson used the low lane off of turn two drive by Baldwin for third place. A lap later it was Craig Lutz moving past Baldwin for fourth.
By lap 36 McKennedy and Beers had opened up about a one second gap on third place Johnson, with Beers pestering all over McKennedy’s bumper.
The first caution of the event flew on lap 40 for the spinning car of Chase Dowling in turn two.
Under caution the cars of McKennedy, Baldwin, Silk, Emerling, Justin Bonsignore, Kyle Bonsignore and Tyler Rypkema were among the cars near the front pitting.
It put Beers to the lead, Johnson to second, Lutz to third, Matt Swanson to fourth, Matt Hirschman to fifth and Tyler Barry to sixth for the restart. Justin Bonsignore won the race off pit road for the pitting cars, putting him in seventh for the restart with Silk in eighth.
On the lap 47 restart it was Beers controlling at the front of the field with Johnson holding down second. Swanson moved past Lutz to third.
By lap 51 Justin Bonsignore had rocketed to third place with Silk getting to fifth. Silk got under Lutz into turn one on lap 54 to move to fourth.
On lap 56 Silk used a diving move into turn one to overtake Justin Bonsignore for third. A lap later Silk used the same move to get by Johnson for second.
On lap 59 Silk got under Beers into turn three and came off turn four with the lead. Behind them Johnson was holding off the charges of Justin Bonsignore for third place. On lap 62 Justin Bonsignore used a low move off of turn four to get past Johnson for third.
The second caution of the event flew on lap 66 for the spinning car of Emerling in turn four. Under caution on lap 70 Beers, Johnson, Swanson, Baldwin and Hirschman were among the front running cars heading to pit road.
The race restarted on lap 77 but caution was immediately back out for the spinning car of Mark Stewart in turn one.
On the lap 83 restart Silk was able to win the drag race to turn one over Justin Bonsignore. Down the backstretch Catalano was able to get a run and overtake Justin Bonsignore through turns three and four to move to second.
On lap 88 Justin Bonsignore found a lane low into turn one to get back by Catalano for second. Rypkema followed to move by Catalano for third.
By lap 106 Silk had opened up nearly a two second lead over second place Justin Bonsignore, with Rypkema in third. Rypkema was able to move past Justin Bonsignore for second place on lap 112. By then Silk had built nearly a three second lead out front.
Caution flew on lap 123 for the slowed car of Lutz.
Under caution the top three cars of Silk, Rypkema and Justin Bonsignore went to pit road. Coming off pit road Silk and Bonsignore made contact on the exit road with Silk spinning but away to pull away from the mess.
It set up a restart with Johnson in the lead, Emerling in second,, Silk in third, Justin Bonsignore in fourth, Beers in fifth and Rypkema in sixth.
On the lap 132 restart, Emerling got the jump on Johnson out front with Silk slowing at the green flag allowing, Justin Bonsignore to move to third. The caution was back out on lap 133 for a multi-car wreck in turn four at the back of the field.
On the lap 139 restart Emerling controlled at the front with Silk following him to second. On lap 140 Silk got under Emerling into turn three and was able to complete the pass for the lead off of turn four.
Caution flew again on lap 142 for a wreck in turn one involving Johnson and Teddy Hodgdon IV. The red flag was brought out for cleanup. It set up a lap 148 restart. On the restart Silk was able to quickly clear Emerling at the front. Emerling was able to fend off the challenges of Beers on lap 149. Catalano got by Beers for third coming off of turn four on lap 150.
“I was pretty confident that if I got a good restart and got to the lead that I would be able to hold them off,” Silk said. “My car drove great. The first 40 laps or so we were a little bit free, but we fixed that on the pit stop and the car was just spot on after that. Looking forward to the next one.”
NASCAR Modified Tour Icebreaker 150 Unofficial Results
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