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Illiana Motor Speedway 2008 Race Reports & Press Releases
Race Reports Dates In White - Press Release Dates In Red Click Link To Read
7211 U.S. 30
Schererville, IN.
Track Phone 219-322-5311
Located 2 1/2 Miles East of US 41 or 5 Miles West of I-65 on U.S. 30
Saturday Night Racing
Late Model
Limited Late Model
Turbo Stox
Pure Stox
Legends
Pits Open: 3:00 P.M.
Stands Open: 4:00 P.M.
Qualifying: 5:30 P.M.
First Race: 7:00 P.M.
Jack Kalwasinski made a little bit of history Saturday night at Illiana Speedway, winning the first late-model feature of his career.
Although his wife Jerilynn, his dad Stan, and his car owner Nick Trgovich were at the top of his thank-you list, there were several other names mentioned during his post-race thoughts.
"I've been going to the races since 1974," he said. "It's always been a dream. I've watched Ed Hoffman, Larry Schuler, Dave Weltmeyer, Frank Gawlinski, Bobby Dotter, all my heroes.
"They've all won races here. I've always wanted to be one of those guys."
Kalwasinski's eyes teared up. On this night, he was one of those guys. And it wasn't a cheapie by any means.
Kalwasinski won out in a gruelling bumper to bumper and side by side battle with veteran Mike Monroe.
Monroe took the lead from the pole at the drop of the green flag. Kalwasinski, starting in the second row, took second place away from Bobby Gash on lap two, and almost immediately challenged the leader.
For many laps, they ran in close tandem, while a third-place war raged a handful of car-lengths behind them among Chris Cooling, Jeff Cannon and Mike White.
The battle for the top spot became serious when Kalwasinski began to dip his No. 11 underneath Monroe. Finally, on lap 20, he pulled alongside.
"(Monroe) was getting loose and my car was pretty consistent," Kalwasinski said. "I figured, well, the only shot I had was to get underneath him. He was sliding up a little bit. I didn't want to nudge him, but I did. He gave me the lane, and we hustled."
The two stayed side-by-side until Kalwasinski completed the pass as the white flag waved. As they roared into Turn 2, Monroe dropped to the bottom and pulled back alongside Kalwasinski. Out of Turn 4, it was Monroe by a nose, but he was in no position to floor it to the finish.
"I don't know if he got into me on the last lap, but I held on on the outside," Kalwasinski said. "I pedaled my little crate motor to its heart's desire."
Monroe swerved wildly as they approached the checkered flag, but was able to regain control of his No. 3 and finish 0.132 seconds behind the winner.
"I tried to hold him back as long as I could," Monroe said. "I looked up after he got inside of me and saw that it was lap 22. I thought, 'Awwww, I should have held him off.'
"I got back underneath him, but when we got into Turn 4 I just couldn't get off the turn. Second place is good, though. It'll help with the gas money to go home (to Pell Lake, Wisconsin)."
A very frustrated White spent many laps hovering behind the side-by-side duo of Cannon and Cooling. By the time he was able to clear them, it was much too late to mount a challenge on Kalwasinski and Monroe. Cannon was fourth, followed by Cooling and Gash.
Gash was leading the limited late-model feature by a large margin when a yellow flag on lap 18 brought Phil Splant up to his bumper, with Anthony Danta in tow. The restart saw a three-car skirmish for the lead.
Danta was able to work past both on lap 20 and pulled away for his second feature win of the season. Johnny Senerchia came on late and took second place away from Gash as they crossed the finish line. Splant was fourth, followed by John Nutley and Doug Hayes.
"The leader got out there quite a bit," Danta said. "I was just trying to get to second in case there was a yellow. When the yellow came out, Splant tried to take the outside on Gash, and Gash kind of took him up the track a little bit. I was able to get my nose in there, and that was it."
In the turbo stox main, Eddie Ligue passed Bobbie Jean Wall on lap 18, and held off Tony Meier the rest of the way to claim the victory.
"I kept my line, stayed behind her, and it wound up being a good race," Ligue said. "I had (Meier) behind me, and I just made sure I kept running my line."
Wall finished in third place. She had led from laps 1 through 17, and even after being passed for the lead, stayed with the top two as they worked their way through lapped traffic.
"I've been trying so hard these last few weeks to get better and better," she said. "I've learned so much about apex, and oh, so much. I've just been trying to throw it all together these past few weeks, and it's in the results.
"They just had more car. Ligue is really good, and Meier is really good, too. If anybody could have won it, I'm glad Ligue did."
The pure stocks "A" main went to Jim Beasley, ahead of Kelton Kaechle and Mike Lindemulder. Alex Arelano claimed the Legends main, beating out Mickey Kudlicki and Chris King.
Illiana Speedway Summary May 31
Late-model
Qualifying: 1. Mike White (19.899), 2. Chris Cooling (20.079), 3. Jeff Cannon (20.171), 4. Jack Kalwasinski (20.215), 5. Jerry Sharp (20.258), 6. Mike Monroe (20.260), 7. Bobby Gash (20.302), 8. Earl Counter (20.477), 9. Marc Hankosky (20.534), 10. Vincent Merry (20.611), 11. Perry Parker (20.702), 12. Ricky Baker (20.705), 13. Dean Patterson (22.446).
1st heat: 1. Monroe, 2. Kalwasinski, 3. Cooling, 4. White, 5. Cannon, 6. Sharp, 7. Gash, 8. Counter.
2nd heat: 1. Baker, 2. Parker, 3. Merry, 4. Hankosky, 5. Patterson.
25-lap feature: 1. Kalwasinski, 2. Monroe, 3. White, 4. Cannon, 5. Cooling, 6. Gash, 7. Sharp, 8. Baker, 9. Hankosky, 10. Parker, 11. Counter, 12. Merry, 13. Patterson.
Limited late-model
Qualifying: 1. John Nutley (20.557), 2. Anthony Danta (20.559), 3. Phil Splant (20.574), 4. John Senerchia (20.580), 5. Rita Fields (20.778), 6. Tyler Middleton (20.825), 7. Doug Hayes (20.933), 8. Bobby Gash (21.000), 9. Len Koprowski (21.032), 10. Dennis Lyp (21.032), 11. Paul Zolodz (21.150), 12. Brad Plunket (21.285), 13. Darrel Sills (21.544), 14. Matt O’Leary (21.557), 15. Joe Balser (21.641), 16. Kevin Offdenkamp (21.795).
1st heat: 1. Gash, 2. Senerchia, 3. Danta 4. Hayes, 5. Nutley, 6. Middleton, 7. Splant, 8. Fields.
2nd heat: 1. Koprowski, 2. Lyp, 3. Zolodz, 4. O’Leary, 5. Balser, 6. Plunket, 7. Sills, 8. Offdenkamp.
25-lap feature: 1. Danta, 2. Senerchia, 3. Gash, 4. Splant, 5. Nutley, 6. Hayes, 7. Middleton, 8. Zolodz, 9. Koprowski, 10. Lyp, 11. Fields, 12. Plunket, 13. O’Leary, 14. Sills, 15. Balser, 16. Offdenkamp.
Turbo stox
1st heat: 1. Tony Meier, 2. Chris Woodall, 3. Billy Jarrells, 4. Scott Gardner, 5. Butch Wood, 6. Mark Ross Jr., 7. Brian Kucaba, 8. Eddie Ligue, 9. Ryan Moore, 10. Bill Serviss.
2nd heat: 1. Tony Neering, 2. Josh Easto, 3. Jacob McKown, 4. Pat O’Rourke, 5. Bobbie Jean Wall, 6. Eddie Hast, 7. Bobby Blood, 8. Pat Ligue.
25-lap feature: 1. E. Ligue, 2. Meier, 3. Wall, 4. Gardner, 5. Wood, 6. Ross, 7. Serviss, 8. Jarrells, 9. Neering, 10. Moore, 11. Kucaba, 12. McKown, 13. O'Rourke, 14. Easto, 15. P. Ligue, 16. Hast, 17. Blood, 18. Woodall.
Pure stocks
1st heat: 1. Matt Arvia. 2nd heat: 1. Greg De St. Jean. 3rd heat: 1. Mike Lindemulder.
"B" feature: 1. Steve Hill, 2. Rich Dearborn, 3. Shawn Coulter, 4. Dee Warren, 5. Casey Martin.
"A" feature: 1. Jim Beasley, 2. Kelton Kaechle, 3. Lindemulder, 4. Tim Cronin, 5. Chris Czaszwicz.
Legends
Feature: 1. Alex Arelano, 2. Mickey Kudlicki, 3. Chris King, 4. Nick Chiapetta, 5. Mark VanDrunen.
Goodaker Photo's
Illiana Speedway Race Results 5-31-08 Now Updated Every Week
Jack Kalwasinski (11)
Jim Beasley (17)
Anthony Danta (51)
Eddie Ligue (72)
Alex Arelano(#82)
