For Sanders, driving Silva’s car “was like a light switch went off.”
Despite considerable success in his own car and others, driving for Silva was like a graduate course in how to win
“Paul has an analytical mind and he’s smarter than I am,” said Sanders, “and he sees what I feel.”
Because of that, as he did in the Swindell Speed Lab car, Sanders was able focus more on driving the car without the distraction of making chassis set-up or tire decisions.
“This thing is better than I am half the time,” Sanders confessed about his earliest outings in the Silva car. “And these guys were nice to me, even when I made mistakes.”
It didn’t take long, however, for Sanders to adapt to the car, claiming four wins and top-five finishes in 11 races.
As the season concluded, Sanders showed that his seat time with Swindell and Silva had elevated his game, making him an equal threat to win in a 410 as he had been in a 360.
Sanders put the sport on notice that he was a double threat to win during the season-ending night at Stockton Speedway. As the rest of the field struggled with a race track that had more holes than a minefield, Sanders drove an unconventional line around the holes to win both the 410 feature for the NARC series and the 360 feature for the Sprint Car Challenge Series.
He credits driving for Mittry and Silva for shifting his mental attitude to an even higher gear.
“When you drive for people who want to win, it makes me drive even harder,” said Sanders, “and my drive to win this year was more than ever.”
After back-to-back breakout seasons, Sanders is simply looking for more.
“I feel my desire to win is as strong as ever. I just want to win in new places and knock off more milestones,” he concluded.
This story appeared in the Jan. 4 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
