Marquee Man: Ron Silk Wins Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series GAF Roofing Modified Masters At Stafford

STAFFORD – On August 9, 2002 Ron Silk scored his first career victory at Stafford Speedway. It came in the Coors Light 150 for the SK Modified division. 

And that first win seemingly set the tone for the theme Silk would create for his win list over two decades at the historic half-mile. 

Coming into Wednesday’s Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series GAF Roofing Modified Masters at Stafford Silk had 12 career victories at the track, showcasing a list of marquee events at the facility. Silk has won the NAPA Spring Sizzler, twice. The NAPA Fall Final, three times. 

And Wednesday he made it twice for another major event at the track. Silk controlled at the front of the field for the final 20 laps and went on to win the 80-lap Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series GAF Roofing Modified Masters at Stafford. 

It was the second win in the event for Silk, who also won it in the inaugural year of the race in 2024. 

“You never want to take it for granted and expect things are gonna go well but I’ve had a good run here over the last few years had a great day today,” Silk said. “Fast in practice and won the pole and I was confident if we got everything right that we could could win, but you still got to do it all so everyone did a great job and happy to win.

“It’s good to win the big ones. I’d like to win a lot more, but it’s good I think that’s you know two Sizzlers two of these Modified Masters and three Fall Finals, so that’s pretty good out of the big ones that they have. But we’ll be back in the fall again and try and get another one.” 

It was the second consecutive Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series victory for his Silk, of Norwalk, who won the division’s event at Thompson on June 13. It was his ninth series victory overall, which is second on the division’s all-time win list behind Matt Hirschman (25 wins). Silk’s Haydt-Yannone Racing team earned a winner’s purse of $10,000 for the victory. 

Ronnie Williams of Lebanon was second and Justin Bonsignore of Holtsville, N.Y. was third. 

“[Silk] had the best car by far,” Williams said. “Congrats to those guys. I’ll kind of use his quote, yeah second does suck. Second time that we finished second in this [Modified] Masters race. “Last year it was [Jake] Johnson, this year Silk. So hopefully next year we can get one spot better, but overall just solid run.” 

Said Bonsignore: [Haydt-Yannone Racing has] done a great job with this open racing, and you’ve got to commend them for it. So they do a really good job, so does Ronnie Williams. So compared to how we ran at Thompson [on June 13], this is great. That was probably one of the most challenging Stafford races I’ve ever run.”

After four of nine events this year, Silk sits third in the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series standings, six points off the lead. Williams leads the standings. Jon McKennedy, who was 19th Wednesday, is five points behind Williams in second. 

Silk controlled from the pole at the start with McKennedy slotting into second place. Bonsignore was up from his sixth starting spot to third by lap three. 

With Silk leading, McKennedy second and Ronnie Williams third, the first caution flew on lap 23 for the stopped car of George Bessette Jr. in turn four. 

On the ensuing restart Silk controlled at the front with McKennedy nagging at his bumper. Behind them Bonsignore moved past Williams to regain third place. 

With Silk leading, McKennedy in second and Williams third, the second caution of the event flew on lap 43 for the car of Bessette in the turn three wall. 

The leaders headed to pit road under caution. Williams won the race off pit road, followed by McKennedy, Bonsignore and Silk. Ryan Preece, who had pitted on an earlier stop, assumed the lead with Cory DiMatteo slotting into second and Woody Pitkat in third. 

Preece controlled on the lap 43 restart with DiMatteo staying with him in second. Behind them Williams made quick work to get by Pitkat for third, with Bonsignore following to fourth. 

On lap 46 DiMatteo got by Preece for the lead with Williams following to second. 

Caution was back out on lap 47 for the spinning car of Austin Beers in turn two. 

On the ensuing restart a spinning Joey Cipriano brought the caution right back out. DiMatteo held off the charge of Williams on the second attempt at the lap 47 restart. Behind the leaders McKennedy, Silk and Bonsignore settled in at third, fourth and fifth. 

On lap 50 Williams found the way by DiMatteo for the lead with McKennedy following to second and Silk to third. 

Silk got under McKennedy on lap 54 to move to second. On lap 57 Silk got under Williams into turn three and came out of turn four with the lead. 

With Silk ahead of Williams by half a second and McKennedy in third, caution flew for a multi-car frontstretch incident on lap 64. 

Silk got away from Williams quickly on the lap 64 restart. Behind them McKennedy fell to fifth, with Bonsignore moving to third. Caution was back out on lap 65 for a multi-car accident deep in the field. 

On the lap 65 restart Silk quickly got away at the front, leaving Williams to fight with Bonsignore for second. Bonsignore moved past Williams for second on lap 66. Behind that battle, Ryan Newman moved to fourth on lap 67. 

On lap 72 Williams was able to retake second place from Bonsignore. By then Silk had checked out by two seconds on second place. Caution flew on lap 74 for the stopped car of Tom Sekulski.

On the restart Silk was able to get away again. Bonsignore got by Williams for second, but Williams fought back to retake the runner-up spot before caution flew on lap 77 for the spinning car of Cipriano on the backstretch. 

Silk was able to easily control the final restart, leaving Williams and Bonsignore to fight over second. 

Teddy Hodgdon IV ended up fourth and Newman was fifth. 

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