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NWMT THE NEW
ENGLAND CYCLE CENTER 161
New
London- Waterford Speedbowl
A ‘Rock Solid Run’ for Winner Ron Silk
by Polly
Reid |
When
you get it right, you get it right. Ron Silk of
Norwalk, CT in the Danny Watts Jr. owned, Horton
Avenue Materials sponsored modified took the lead on
lap fifty, survived several restarts warding off
threats from the likes of Jimmy Blewett and Max
Zachem but nothing could deter the determined run as
Silk bested a field of 28 cars for a convincing win
in the NWMT The New England Cycle 161 at the New
London- Waterford Speedbowl.
“We had a great car. It wasn’t great when we got
here, we worked on it a lot- the guys did a great
job. They’re a really fun group of guys to race
with, I’m so happy to get these guys to victory
lane. The car was rock solid all night.”
“For
whatever reason, the Tour races, I haven’t run
really well here. I won a Tri-Track race last year
but for whatever reason, on the Tour, I haven’t done
well. Danny (Watts) has really good stuff. He’s not
lacking anything when it comes to the car. The guys
are working really hard on it. I think someone new
driving it has everyone pumped up- everyone’s
putting in a lot of effort. I thought we’d win a
race this year for sure. Did I think we’d win the
third one? Maybe not. I’m just really happy for
those guys.”
Solid restarts turned out to be vital in The New
England Cycle Center 161. “That was the only part of
the race where my car wasn’t great,” said Silk about
the restarts. “It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great.
If I was going to get beat, that is where I was
going to get beat.
Then after a few laps, the car
was so good, I could just kind of drive away and
start pedaling a little bit. Max ran me clean, Jimmy
ran me clean, it was good racing there with Eric
early on to get the lead. I think I surprised him
when I went out there that early- I was really
confident in the car. At that point, there was a
four or five car length gap behind me where it was
like if you were going to try it, this is the time
to try it. If it doesn’t work, you can get back in
line.”
Max Zachem of Preston, CT in the Lu-Mac’s Package
Store, VWS sponsored modified finished a career high
second with Jimmy Blewett in the Starrett sponsored
Mystic Missile crossing for third with Jeff Goodale
of Riverhead, NY fourth and Robbie Summers of
Manchester, CT fifth.
Qualifying fifth, Silk gained a spot by a restart on
lap fifteen. Another caution kept the field close
and Silk was in third by lap twenty-nine. In
probably the longest green flag run of the night,
Silk passed Brendon Bock for second and set his
sights on Coors Light pole winner and leader Eric
Goodale.
Side by side with Goodale, Silk powered on the
outside and as the green run continued, Silk
completed the pass on lap fifty to become the new
leader of the night.
At the half way mark of The New England Cycle 161,
Silk at the point with Eric Goodale second, Jimmy
Blewett third, Brendon Bock fourth and Craig Lutz
fifth, the top five would change when Lutz became
the next caution on lap eighty- six with a right
front flat.
While Blewett was there to challenge Silk on the
restart, the Watts machine was dialed in and Silk
once again pulled from the pack. Meanwhile, a heated
battle for second was brewing between Blewett and
Zachem who had passed Goodale for third. The field
settled into single file with Silk stretching his
lead from the pack only to be once again, lured back
in for a caution on lap 117. Three more cautions for
a total of ten for the evening kept Silk on his toes
with restarts. But the new driver, team combination
of Silk, car owner Danny Watts, Jr with crew chief
Buddy Loecher was not to be denied and in only their
third race of the season captured a determined
victory. The win marks Silk’s tenth career NWMT win.
“I was starting to wonder if I was ever going to get
back,” smiled Silk when asked about the emotion of
being back in victory lane. “I’ve been close a bunch
of times since then, for whatever reason, it didn’t
work out, it’s great to be back. This is a group
that can contend. Hopefully we can get a few more.”
Starting 13th on the grid, Max Zachem of Preston, CT
kept his focus forward, avoiding mayhem around him
while the likes of heavy hitters Doug Coby, Timmy
Solomito, pole winner Eric Goodale, Ted Christopher
all suffered challenges in the caution riddled
event. What better place to score your career high
best ever finish than at your hometrack and that’s
what Zachem did. A former Legends driver at the
Speedbowl, Zachem even led his first career NWMT
lap, the record showing that was on lap 145 where
Zachem edged out Silk at the line. Side by side
battles with the likes of the talented Jimmy Blewett
in the legendary Mystic Missile, Zachem more than
held his own to capture a well-earned runner up
finish.
“It was fun racing with Jimmy Blewett tonight. We
could run side by side, yeah, we rubbed- that’s
racing. It was fun. We battled back and forth like
that, it makes for a fun night.”
“We fought hard, everyone knew we were there, for
what we have, for what we’re running against, I’m
very, very happy. What we’re doing with our little
team is awesome,” continued Zachem.
“We earned it, it wasn’t given to us. We fought past
a lot of great race cars tonight. The weather was an
interesting card not knowing if it was going to
rain, if we had to run to half way. I went a little
harder than I normally did which is unusual for me,
I’m more of a patient type race car driver like last
year when we ran this event, but it worked out
really well – coming home makes a big difference as
well.”
“It’s awesome. You know, it’s coming home. Bruce
Bemer, Shawn Monahan, can’t thank them enough for
what they’ve done to this facility. It’s a beautiful
racetrack- I’ve been coming here for a long, long
time. It was awesome to have a great Tour race here.
We had a great car and I can’t thank my volunteer
crew, they do an awesome job running against all
these big teams. I’m very happy with what we did.”
The stats will show Jimmy Blewett of Howell, NJ took
the green third and finished third. What the
paperwork won’t show is the Starrett Dodge was a
threat all night to the front runners- first with
pole sitter Eric Goodale, then eventual winner Silk
and finally a heated side by side run with Zachem.
Blewett may have had to settle for third this night
but there is no question the Bob Garbarino Mystic
Missile is back to run in the lead pack.
“First, I want to tell Ronnie Silk congratulations.
He’s a heck of a driver,” said Blewett in victory
lane. “Max Zachem, congratulations to him on his
second place finish, we’re proud of him too. It’s
good to see a young guy coming up, not really funded
like all of us and get a good, solid second place
finish.”
“Probably eight weeks ago, I never even thought I’d
be sitting here. I figured I’d be home on a Saturday
night- just can’t say enough about these guys,”
continued Blewett who thanked his crew and crew
chief P.J. Fearns. “To put the team together so
fast, come out to Thompson and qualify in the top
ten, run in the top ten all day and get a solid
finish. Come to Stafford and time on the outside
pole, I’d say we were a fifth place car but we ended
up breaking a tie rod that ended our day- those guys
worked their tails off to get here today. This is
the first race we got to finish and show that we’re
really capable of running up front. We have a little
bit of work to do to win some races but we’re here,
we’re in the top three, third race out, it feels
good.”
Following Silk, Zachem, Blewett, Jeff Goodale and
Summers the top five was Brendon Bock sixth, rookie
of the year contender Matt Swanson seventh, Doug
Coby recovering from a lap down to finish eighth,
Donny Lia ninth and to mark his 600th career NWMT
start, Jamie Tomaino brought the Dunleavy’s Repair,
Atlantic Sprinkler Chevrolet across the line for
tenth.
Next up for the NWMT is the TSI Harley-Davidson 125
on June 3rd at Stafford Motor Speedway.
Noteworthy:
The night was historic for the NWMT with Jamie
Tomaino making his 600th NWMT career start. A banner
displayed in the infield alerted the fans, a fun
celebration with 600 cupcakes the 99 team brought to
give away at the autograph session with the help of
Cheryl Tomaino while Jimmy Dolan and Doug Dunleavy
worked the stands handing out dozens of the
confections each marked 1 through 600. Then came the
driver introductions.
The Speedbowl had the drivers enter from the
grandstand side and as each was announced the driver
walked from either turn one or turn four to the
center of the track and took the steps down to the
track surface where their cars were staged on the
frontstrech. An observation, you could see at first,
the crowd didn’t quite grasp it. However it didn’t
take long before the fans were interacting with the
drivers with handshakes, spur of the moment selfies,
fist pumps and even hugs. The few kids lingering at
the start finish line for a close up of the drivers
grew into a mini mob by the end. The tipping point
was when announcers Ben Dodge and Matt Buckler
introduced Jamie Tomaino and his 600th career start.
Tomaino was ushered onto the speedway for the
historic milestone with a heartfelt standing
ovation. Congratulations again to Tomaino, the team
and his family on their special day. And kudos to
The New London-Waterford Speedbowl who turned up the
wick on fan friendly. Mission accomplished.
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Source:
Polly Reid / TheChromeHorn.com
Posted:
May 15, 2016 |
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