Going into Sunday’s NASCAR Modified Tour Cheshire County Clash, the statistical numbers for two-time series champion Ron Silk at Monadnock Speedway were pretty glittering.
In 14 series starts at the quarter-mile bullring dubbed “Mad Dog”, Silk had seven top-five finishes, including two second place finishes and three third place runs.
Missing was a victory through for the Norwalk driver. That’s missing no more.
Silk came out on top of rough battle for the lead with Patrick Emerling with 30 laps remaining and then drove away from Justin Bonsignore over the closing laps to win the 200-lap Cheshire County Clash Sunday at Monadnock Speedway.
It followed up a 15th place run for Silk on Saturday night at Monadnock in the USNEPower Duel at the Dog 200.
“We had a pretty good car yesterday too and things just kind of got out of sorts and out of our control,” Silk said. “Great team, all these guys on this that worked so hard.”
It was the 28th career NASCAR Modified Tour victory for Silk, who is running part-time with the series this season.
After seeing eight different winners in the first eight events, Silk became the first repeat winner of the 2025 season on the NASCAR Modified Tour. Silk also won the Icebreaker 150 at Thompson Speedway on April 16.
“I’m pretty worn out right now,” Silk said. “Back to back with last night, it was another hot one. But it feels good to leave with a win.”
Four-time series champion Justin Bonsignore of Holtsville, N.Y. was second and Matt Hirschman of Northampton, Pa. was third. The third place finish for Hirschman clinched the Whelen Cup Short Track Cup, which was based on results from the series event at Seekonk Speedway earlier this year and the two events at Monadnock.
Bonsignore came into the event second in the series standings, 10 points behind Austin Beers. He closed that gap to four points behind Beers with seven events remaining this season.
Silk started on the pole after a redraw of the top-10 qualifiers and controlled at the start. Behind him Emerling rocketed past Bonsignore at the start to move to second.
Silk set a torrid pace at the front. By lap 40 Silk held a three-quarters of a second lead over Emerling with Trevor Catalano in third, 3.9 seconds off the lead.
By lap 56 Emerling had closed back to the bumper of Silk. On lap 59 Emerling made the move by Silk. Behind them Beers, who was fastest in qualifying, was up to third from the 10th starting spot by lap 63.
With Emerling leading, Silk in second and Beers third, the first caution flew on lap 78 for the spinning car of Joey Cipriano.
Under caution most teams headed to pit road. Matt Hirschman, who started deep in the field, stayed and assumed the lead for the restart with Emerling in second, Silk in third and Beers in fourth.
On the restart Hirschman controlled, leaving Emerling and Silk to battle for second. On lap 88 Silk got past Emerling for second. It left Sterling to fight Beers for third.
Caution was back out on lap 92 for a multi-car incident.
On the lap 101 restart Silk easily used the outside lane to go by Hirschman for the lead.
After a multi-lap battle, Emerling finally got by Hirschman for second on lap 113. Beers followed to third a two laps later.
Caution was back out on lap 120 when Stephen Kopcik got into the wall hard off of turn two while battling with Sam Rameau for sixth place.
On the lap 134 restart it was Emerling controlling at the front with Craig Lutz in second. On lap 150 Justin Bonsignore moved to second past Lutz with Silk following to third. Nine laps later Silk went under Bonsignore to move into second.
On lap 170 Silk got under Emerling going into turn three. Contact between the two got both cars turning sideways. Silk was able to straighten his car as Emerling spun to bring out the caution.
On the restart with 22 laps remaining, Silk was able hold off Bonsignore’s challenges and cruise to the checkered.
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