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THOMPSON – Just how badly did Ron Silk stomp on the competition Saturday at Thompson Speedway?
Well, you know when a driver has to apologize for destroying the competition, it must have been a pretty significant beat down.
Ron Silk left the field in another time zone on the way to victory in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Sunoco World Series 150 Saturday at Thompson Speedway.
“Probably a weird race for the fans,” Silk said. “I’m sure they would have liked to have seen some excitement there towards the end, but it was pretty good from my seat.”
Silk had opened up a 10 second lead on the field in the late stages. There were only seven cars of the 25-car field on the lead lap at the conclusion.
The race went green from lap 34 to the conclusion with no opportunity for a pit stop.
“It was a weird race without everyone getting to pit,” Silk said. “Our car was obviously fantastic. I’m sure some other people could have made some improvements on their cars had we got a pit stop or something. It was fun for me, but I doubt it was a great race to watch.”
It was the series leading fourth victory of 2025 for Silk, who has only run 11 of the 15 events on the schedule this season. It was the 30th career Whelen Modified Tour victory for the two-time series champion from Norwalk.
Matt Swanson of Acton, Mass. was second and series points leader Austin Beers of Northampton, Pa. was third.
With his second place finish, Swanson clinched the $7,500 plus FloRacing CT Challenge. The bonus program was open to new teams on the series who had the best finish over the three events this season at Thompson. Swanson finished 10th in the Icebreaker 150 on April 16 at Thompson and sixth in the Thompson 150 on Aug. 6 at Thompson.
“I just never really have luck on my side and tonight we just had a really solid race car,” Swanson said. “Obviously better than we have been. We unloaded really good and just had a car that went the distance. Just really happy with that result.
“Just really thankful for all these guys that support me and allow me to run these Whelen Modified Tour shows. The Tour is a place where I’ve missed being a full-time contender. … It’s kind of been a minor dream of mine to get back on the Tour because it’s the only series left that I really haven’t won in. I’m really hungry for that first Whelen Modified Tour win.”
Beers came into the event holding a 13-point lead over Justin Bonsignore in the series standings. Bonsignore was sixth. Beers will take a 14-point lead over Bonsignore into the series finale on Oct. 28 at Martinsville Speedway.
“I just knew our team would come with a prepared race car, a fast race car like we have all year,” Beers said. “It showed again tonight. … It felt really good. It gives us a lot of momentum going into Martinsville. We’re excited we padded the point lead by one. Just keep doing what we’re doing. Obviously it gets stressful here and there, but I’m excited to get to Martinsville and get this done.”
Bonsignore, who won the pole, got the advantage on Beers into turn one at the green with Kyle Bonsignore getting by Beers for second.
By lap 10 the field had strung out single-file with Justin Bonsignore leading Kyle Bonsignore and Craig Lutz in third. Beers had fallen to fifth.
On lap 13 Trevor Catalano got under Lutz for second into turn three. Beers clawed by Lutz for fourth on lap 17.
Catalano found the lane under Kyle Bonsignore to take over second on lap 23. Catalano got under Justin Bonsignore to take over the lead off off of turn two on lap 27.
Caution flew on lap 28 for a three car incident in turn one involving Eric Goodale, Eric Berndt and Brian Sones.
After an extended red flag for cleanup, Catalano controlled at the front on the lap 34 restart. Behind the leaders Kyle Bonsignore moved past Beers for third place.
On lap 46 Silk used the low groove to move past Kyle Bonsignore for third. Three laps later Silk used the high lane out of turn four to overtake Justin Bonsignore for second. Silk completed his march to the front by getting by Catalano for the lead on lap 50.
After making his way to the front, Silk made quick work of checking, opening nearly a one second lead over Catalano by lap 58
Justin Bonsignore used a diving move into turn three to take over second from Catalano on lap 70. By then Silk had opened up a 2.6 second lead over the field.
Kyle Bonsignore got by Catalano for third off of turn four on lap 79 with Beers following to fourth. By lap 82 Silk had opened a five second lead over second place Justin Bonsignore.
Beers went by Kyle Bonsignore for third on lap 87 with Matt Swanson following to fifth a lap later. At lap 100 Silk held a 7.5 second lead over Justin Bonsignore with Beers in third, Swanson in fourth and Lutz in fifth.
By lap 106 there were 12 cars remaining on the lead lap with Silk holding an 8.4 second lead over Justin Bonsignore. Silk’s lead over Justin Bonsignore was opened to 9.2 seconds by lap 113 with 10 cars left on the lead lap. Silk put 10th place Tyler Rypkema down a lap on lap 116.
On lap 121 Swanson got by Beers for third place. A lap Swanson overtook Justin Bonsignore for second place. By then Silk’s lead over Swanson was 10.2 seconds.
“I never like to really slow down much because I feel like when I do I start making mistakes,” Silk said. “I wasn’t driving 100 percent but I wasn’t taking it easy either. I was going at a pace that I felt was reasonable for my car.”
Beers got under Justin Bonsignore for third off of turn four on lap 125. Lutz followed by Justin Bonsignore to take fourth.
Seven cars were left on the lead lap by lap 130.
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