{"id":9513,"date":"2012-04-21T12:43:53","date_gmt":"2012-04-21T16:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=9513"},"modified":"2012-04-21T08:44:46","modified_gmt":"2012-04-21T12:44:46","slug":"defending-whelen-modified-tour-champion-ronnie-silk-looks-to-carry-season-opening-win-momentum-into-carquest-tech-net-spring-sizzler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/defending-whelen-modified-tour-champion-ronnie-silk-looks-to-carry-season-opening-win-momentum-into-carquest-tech-net-spring-sizzler\/","title":{"rendered":"DEFENDING WHELEN MODIFIED TOUR CHAMPION RONNIE SILK LOOKS TO CARRY SEASON OPENING WIN MOMENTUM INTO CARQUEST TECH-NET SPRING SIZZLER"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Stafford\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(Stafford Springs, CT)—After winning the 2011 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour
\nchampionship, Ronnie Silk and the #6 T.S. Haulers, Inc. began the defense of
\ntheir title in grand style by winning the season opening race at Thompson.
\nStafford was a good track for Silk and crew last season, as he scored a win,
\na third, and two seventh place finishes in the four events held at the
\nConnecticut half-mile. With the momentum of a season opening win on their
\nside, Silk hopes to carry that momentum with him to Stafford Speedway for
\nnext weekend\u2019s CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler.
\n
\n\u201cWinning the season opener was obviously great for us,\u201d said Silk.
\n\u201cMomentum means a lot in racing and it felt great to be able to win the
\nfirst race of the season. I think we can win quite a few more races this
\nyear and we hope the next win will be the Sizzler. We feel really good
\nabout coming back to Stafford, we ran well and we were able to win once at
\nStafford last year. Everyone wants to win the Sizzler, it\u2019s a very
\nprestigious race, and I would love to be able to win the Sizzler. I feel
\npretty good about our chances and we\u2019re definitely going to give it our best
\nshot.\u201d<\/p>\n

In six career Sizzler starts, Silk\u2019s third place finish in last year\u2019s
\nSizzler race represented a career best finish. Had Silk not encountered an
\nengine issue, he might have finished a step or two higher on the podium.
\n\u201cWe were running second last year, but we had a motor problem and we
\nfinished third,\u201d said Silk. \u201cWe\u2019ve run well in the Sizzler before, we just
\nseem to have some things happen to us that have kept us from winning the
\nrace. If we\u2019re having a good day next Sunday, hopefully we can capitalize
\non it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler being 200 laps in distance, the
\nrace is 50 laps longer than most Whelen Modified Tour events. The longer
\ndistance can sometimes lead to unusual strategies playing out to put drivers
\nin position to win the race. While Silk says that they don\u2019t have a
\npre-race plan, the distance of the Sizzler opens up a wide variety of
\noptions for himself and the rest of the Whelen Modified Tour field.
\n\u201cWe don\u2019t really come up with a strategy before the race,\u201d said Silk. \u201cIt
\nseems like every time we do, something happens during the race that throws
\nthat strategy out the window. If the car is good, I think we\u2019ll try to stay
\nout as long as we can before coming in to change the tires. If the car isn\u2019
\nt good, the race is long enough where you can come to pit road and make a
\nfew adjustments without taking new tires. We\u2019ll probably see how the car is
\ngoing and what the race dictates as to what kind of strategy we\u2019ll have for
\nthe Sizzler.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to having a good handling car, another key aspect will be to
\nhave a good qualifying effort on Saturday to get a starting position towards
\nthe front of the field on Sunday. A good starting position for the Sizzler
\ncan allow a driver to drive a little easier and save the car for the end of
\nthe race as well as being in front of a potential mid pack melee. But
\naccording to Silk, a driver can\u2019t afford to be too easy on the car in the
\nbeginning of the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn qualifying, you can\u2019t afford to have too bad of a lap,\u201d said Silk. \u201cI\u2019
\nve never won a race starting from outside the top-10, so it\u2019s important to
\nhave a good lap and start towards the front. The bottom line is better than
\nthe top at Stafford and once we get going, it\u2019s hard to make up spots on
\ntrack. If you\u2019re able to start up front, you can go a bit easier on the car
\nin the beginning of the race. The problem there is when you go easy on the
\ncar, it feels really good and when you come in and take tires, you go back
\nout and when you really start to get on it, the car can be either tight or
\nloose because you didn\u2019t make any adjustments since the car felt good. So
\nyou have to go hard from the start to be able to get a feel for the car so
\nyou can make the right changes on your pit stop. I think we\u2019ll have a car
\nthat can win the race, we just have to be there at the end to have a chance
\nto win the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2012 CARQUEST TECH-NET Spring Sizzler gets underway Friday, April 27
\nwith a practice session for Stafford\u2019s weekly divisions. The practice
\nsession will be open to the public at no charge. Action continues on
\nSaturday, April 28 with Coors Light Pole Qualifying for the Whelen Modified
\nTour cars, along with heat and consolation races for Stafford\u2019s weekly
\ndivisions. Saturday will wrap up with feature events for the SK Light,
\nLimited Late Model, and DARE Stock divisions. The Sizzler continues on
\nSunday, April 29 with the CARQUEST Belts & Hose Pit Party followed by
\nStafford\u2019s SK Modifieds\u00ae and Late Models joining the Whelen Modified Tour in
\nfeature action.<\/p>\n

Tickets for the \u201cGreatest Race in the History of Spring\u201d are on sale now at
\nthe Speedway Box Office. Tickets are priced at $38.50 for adult general
\nadmission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 and
\nunder are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved
\nseating will be priced at $42.00 for all ages. All ticket prices include
\n10% CT Admission Tax. As always, Stafford Motor Speedway offers free
\nparking with overnight parking available.<\/p>\n

Visit NERacingForum.Com<\/a> for latest New England Racing community News and updates.<\/p>\n

[adrotate block=”3″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Stafford Springs, CT)—After winning the 2011 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship, Ronnie Silk and the #6 T.S. Haulers, Inc. began the defense of their title in grand style by winning the season opening race at Thompson. Stafford was a good track for Silk and crew last season, as he scored a win, a third, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[196,126,197],"tags":[7966],"class_list":["post-9513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-new-england","category-stafford-connecticut","tag-stafford-speedway"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9513\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}