Ron Silk Takes Dominant Icebreaker NWMT Win at Thompson

A much nicer day awaited fans on day two of the 50th Icebreaker at Thompson Speedway. Six star-studded features took to the 0.625-mile oval on Sunday, as did the peaks of sunshine to greet the fans in the stands. While the Street Stocks were able to start their 2024 track championship season on Saturday, the rest of the track championship line-up got their year started with plenty of action on Sunday along with the roar of the mighty NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour with their return to Icebreaker weekend.

Following strong qualifying efforts in time trials, Justin Bonsignore and Jake Johnson led the NASCAR Whelen Modifieds to a short start after Bobby Santos III lost a right rear tire in mid-pack, dragging Dave Sapienza, Andrew Krause and Eric Goodale into the turn one wall. Back under the green flag, Johnson slid back to third on the restart and gave second to a hard-charging Craig Lutz with Bonsignore still at the helm. Lutz grabbed his chance to take over the lead on a lap 25 restart following a grenaded motor in the Tim Connolly machine.

A second motor expired in the first 33 laps for Trevor Catalono but Lutz again retained control ahead of Bonsignore and Ron Silk. Silk methodically made his way to Lutz’s back bumper, pulling up alongside the #46 on lap 59 and using the slide job in turn one to come back and lead lap 60. The field would slow once more on lap 89 for the spinning Matt Swanson in turn four, leading to a frenzy of teams jumping down pit road for their respective tire changes. Patrick Emerling stunned the competition by winning the race off pit road followed by Silk, Johnson, Bonsignore and Austin Beers.

Silk moved up way high as they motored through turns one and two, forcing Emerling to pull back on the outside and giving him the lead. The final laps saw Emerling and Bonsignore battle for third as Silk continued to grow his lead more and more. Ron Silk took the dominant Icebreaker 150 win followed by a consistently fast Jake Johnson and a hard-charging Patrick Emerling, whose radiator sat steaming in victory lane.

The Sunoco 604 Modifieds made their debut on Icebreaker Sunday for a pair of features after rain pushed Saturday’s event to start the show on Sunday. Jon Puleo took off like a rocket and sat on rails for the 30-lap make-up feature with Troy Talman in his tire tracks and Tyler Barry rounding out the first podium. Danny Cates led the second feature to green with a mirror full of Troy Talman at the start. Talman took over quickly and grew a powerful five car length lead before his stout ride shut down on lap 12. Giving the lead to Jon Puleo, Puleo kept the hammer down in the green-to-checkers feature, doubling up on Sunoco 604 Modified wins followed by Danny Cates and Tyler Berry in feature number two.

After stealing the heat race qualifying wins, SK Light Modified hot-shoes John O’Sullivan and Tyler Chapman lead the AZ Roofing field to green. A clean and green feature led by Chapman suddenly went sour as William Both and Daltin McCarthy ended up in the turn two fence. A wild restart couldn’t keep it green either as Wayne Burroughs, Jr. sent Meghan Fuller into the spin cycle powering out of turn four, ending her day. The final restart saw Chapman wage a boxing match with Nick Hovey but Tyler Chapman claimed the opening day win followed by Hovey and O’Sullivan across the line.

It was a champions battle at the front of the Late Model feature with 2022 and 2023 champions Ryan Morgan and Nick Johnson pacing the field. A side-by-side battle over the first ten laps allowed Northeast stand-out Derek Gluchacki to reel in the leaders after getting around a fast Ryan Lineham to claim third. The first caution flag flew on lap 13 for a wrong-way-facing Cameron Houle on the apron of turn two. After claiming the restart lead, Johnson battled back to lead lap 20 with Gluchacki sitting just behind in the catbird seat, but the opportunity never came. Ryan Morgan struck down the Icebreaker victory followed by Nick Johnson and Derek Gluchacki in an exciting start to the 2024 season.

2022 Thompson Speedway track champion Kevin Moore brough the field to green in the rain-delayed Mini Stock event before a lap one caution for Rick LaFlesh brought out the first caution with a slam into the turn two wall. Another battle of Thompson champions saw Moore and defending Mini Stock champion Jared Roy leading the field. Roy would take over the lead by lap eight with Ryan Pomposelli overtaking Moore on lap 10 and a tough day got worse watching the fluorescent #82 fall through the pack. Jared Roy would dominantly take the Icebreaker win followed by Pomposelli and Kyle Wing to round out the top-three.

The Quiet Corner of Connecticut will shake, rattle and roll once again on a special Memorial Day Monday, May 27 with the first $5,000 to win Dash for Cash 50 lapper for the Thompson Outlaw Open Modifieds! The Sunoco 604 Modifieds, Late Models, AZ Roofing SK Light Modifieds, Street Stocks and Mini Stocks will also return to continue their 2024 track championship chase.

For more information about the American-Canadian Tour, contact the ACT offices at (802) 244-6963, media@acttour.com, or visit www.acttour.com. You can also get updates on Facebook and Twitter at @ACTTour.

For technical information concerning all PASS divisions, and for media or marketing questions, please contact passracing@roadrunner.com or visit www.proallstarsseries.com. Don’t forget to “Like” the Pro All Stars Series on Facebook or follow on Twitter @PASSSLM14 to keep up with breaking news as it happens.

For general Thompson Speedway inquiries, call (860) 923-2280, email oval@thompsonspeedway.com, or visit www.thompsonspeedway.com. You can follow Thompson Speedway on Facebook and Instagram at @ThompsonSpeedway or on Twitter at @ThompsonSpdwy.

-Thompson Speedway Release
-Photo credit: Connor Sullivan

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour – Icebreaker 150 (150 Laps)