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09/23/2011

RON SILK GOES TO THE TOP ON THE NEW ENGLAND 100 POLE DAY
Silk will Start 100 Lap feature Event from the Pole
by Denise DuPont


The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour (NWMT) returned to New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS) this week for the fifty-fifth time in their history. On Thursday, September 22nd twenty-nine drivers competed for the Coors Light Pole. In the past there have been 22 different pole winners at NHMS. History books has the leader in NHMS pole wins recorded as Jan Leaty with six , followed by Ted Christopher with five. Mike Ewanitsko has the qualifying record at 28.693 seconds (132.743 mph), which he set in 2001. Bobby Santos won the last pole winner at NHMS in August 2011.

When qualifying ended, Ron Silk won his first ever pole at NHMS and his second for 2011. Silk won his last race at NHMS in 2009 and he is ready for a repeat win. “A win here would mean a lot. I won here in 2009, I think, the first time that we ever drove for Eddie Partridge. That was the high of my racing career. I am chasing that again. It would be cool to win again that is for sure. Hopefully our car is good enough on Saturday and we make the right adjustments for the race and we win the race.”

Silk is second in points making a charge for the lead. With only twelve points separating Silk from the point leader, Todd Szegedy, he has a good chance to make his mark in this race. Szegedy is starting the 100 lap race back in eighth. So Silk has an opportunity to go home from NHMS the leader.

On Saturday Silk could make a charge forward and be the rabbit, win the race in the pits or just have the winning strategy and the luck needed to take him to victory lane. “We have a good car. The car was good right off the hauler. I just had to go out during qualifying and drive the car. I thought that we had a good car after practice but sometimes you think that you are good and you go out for time and you have not what you expect for a run. It was nice to get the pole it was a good start for the weekend. It helps get everyone’s morale up to start the weekend. Hopefully we get win on Saturday.”

So what is the race strategy of the #6 team going into to Saturday’s race?
“I am sure that we will end up pitting unless the race gets shortened for some reason. You cannot get away here without pitting. So we are going to go try and win the race. It is an honor to race and win here.”

Eric Beers had the fastest car in practice but for qualifying he ended up one spot short of a pole at NHMS. This race season Beers has just been waiting in the wings for his first 2011 win. We may see it happen at NHMS this week. “We put on some good laps during qualifying on older tires and we put on new tires during qualifying. We have a really good race car for the race. We will be racing Saturday for a win.

On Thursday as the #45 race team put their car in the hauler their minds were already focused on Saturday’s race and what they can do to be at the right place at the right time when the checkered flag flies. During the August NWMT race at NHMS Beers passed for the lead with only two laps to go. Then the caution came out stealing his lead from him. Beers found himself back in third for a race restart on the bottom of the track, exactly where you do not want to be in a modified for a green, white, checker shootout. “We have a long way to go before we can think about winning the race. We have a good enough car to win. But there are a lot of real good cars. Our pit stop has top be right. The adjustment has got to be right. You have to be in the right lane on some of those restarts at the end because of the draft here. Hopefully everything works out and we can sneak our way back to the front like we did last time. If we take the lead and the green stays out long enough to record a lap then we can hold them off from there.”

Justin Bonsignore was third in practice time which was a good gauge for where he would be after qualifying. A third place start was just shy of where the #51 team wanted to be, but it places them up front for the race start. “I wish that we were starting fourth because it is better here on the outside. We had a good run and we just barely missed the pole. I probably gave up a little bit on the second lap. We had the fastest first lap. Once I get up front hopefully we will be out of the mess and hopefully our strategy plays out. Then we can pit when we need to and be up front at the end.”

So what would a win here mean for young Justin Bonsignore in his sophomore year racing Mods?
“It would mean a lot. It would be my biggest win ever in anything. I won a few in all types of racing, but this would blow everything out of the water. So we will hope.”

NWMT teams have Friday off and they will be back at NHMS on Saturday, September 24th for 100 laps of racing at 12:45 PM. Hope to see you there!

  Source: Denise DuPont / TheChromeHorn.com
Posted: September 26, 2011

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