Silas Porter

Porter's 2021 National Dirt Truck scheme

Silas Porter (born September 3rd, 1993) is an American race car driver and former powerboat racer from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Porter currently competes in the FARC Lowe Dollar Series, with 2 starts in 2021 before going full-time for 2022. He won the 2021 AST Delaparts National Dirt Trucks season championship and is a two-time Georgetown Speedway Late Model Series champion, winning back-to-back in 2018 and 2019.

His father, Ken Porter, is one of the most successful professional powerboat racers of all time and the Porter family has a multi-generational history of marine mechanics and seafaring. Silas and his brother Ernie grew up working on and eventually racing boats both inland and offshore while simultaneously developing a love for land-based auto racing. Their home track is Delaware's Georgetown Speedway.

They would break through into stardom among the Delaware short track scene conquering Legends and Late Models on both dirt and pavement before commitment to furthering this path by relocating to Jennerstown, Pennsylvania.

Career

After winning Georgetown Speedway's late model championship in 2018, Porter picked up backing from Calvert Ignitions, who has since been a loyal supporter. Porter defended his championship in 2019, before the 2020 pandemic brought racing to a halt.

Porter ran full-time in the 2021 AST Delaparts National Dirt Trucks season and had a memorable debut campaign for his first regional touring series effort. He'd fail to qualify for the season-opening round at I-70 after a lap 24 incident with Jeff Zagaria in the first duel qualifying sprint. The two eventually had a heated verbal exchange in the garage area shortly after both were relegated to the LCQ. Porter was later quoted as saying: "I don't understand it. He and I raced each other hard, but clean. I did get into the wall first out of turn 4, but he hooked me off the wall and into the inside hard enough that I shot all the way back across the racetrack. There was no good reason for that and now we're both almost out of this thing." Despite starting it well and narrowly avoiding another on-track incident, Porter would unfortunately suffer an engine failure in the LCQ and ultimately not qualify for the main event at I-70. "I'm amazed we got the truck running again before the LCQ, so I'm not shocked that this happened. I am disappointed with failing to qualify, but it's not because we didn't have the speed."

Porter was unphased by the Round 1 troubles and responded emphatically with 7 straight top-10 finishes. He'd win 3 races during this stretch (at Mansfield, DuQuoin, and New Egypt). In total, he'd rack up 4 top-5s, and 7 top-10s in 11 races with 168 laps led and only 2 DNFs. Porter took the series points lead after his second win at DuQuoin and opened up a gap as high as 47 points; but with his performance seeming to fade down the stretch - Porter held an advantage of just 1 point over Aiden Dragon and 24 points over Jeff Zagaria who were both still very much within contention. In the finale, Zagaria would fall out early with a gearbox failure after completing just 37 of 150 laps. Porter would also retire from the event with suspension damage after 127 laps. The other contender, Aiden Dragon ended up with a strong 5th-place showing - and seemingly took the title, but was disqualified from the event after failing post-race inspection. Dragon would lose 20 points as a result of the infraction, leaving him just 3 points behind Porter - who would be crowned series champion. After winning the championship: "I'm really proud of our effort this season and to be a part of such a fun series. It's a shame that it came down to a technicality because I felt I really had to earn this one. There's a lot of talent in this field."

He would also make his FARC Lowe Dollar Series debut during 2021 - scoring an upset win at 70/77 Speedway with a charge to the front in the latter half of the race, fending off series regulars like Taylor Matthews and Rip Tyler. He made a second FARC LDS start at the Illinois State Fairgrounds later in the year, finishing 9th.

In 2022, he plans to compete full-time in the FARC Lowe Dollar Series season and enter 3 National Dirt Trucks races (Orange County, Williams Grove, and Knoxville).

Statistics

FARC Lowe Dollar Series career
Year	Rank	#	Team	Make		Wins	2nd	3rd	T10	S	dnf		R01	R02	R03	R04	R05	R06	R07	R08	R09	R10	R11	R12	R13	R14	R15	R16	R17	R18	R19	R20	R21
2021	?	44	Porter	Lenard		1			2	2							1											9
2022

AST Delaparts National Dirt Trucks career
Year	Rank	#	Team	Make		Wins	2nd	3rd	T10	S	dnf		R01	R02	R03	R04	R05	R06	R07	R08	R09	R10	R11	R12	R13	R14	R15
2021	1st	4	Porter	Lenard		3			7	11	2		dnq	7	6	1	8	1	4	1	18	24	29	18
2022