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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.
SCHERERVILLE, Ind. Bringing home top money is the ultimate goal. But that’s not the only reason that Mike White goes racing.
To him, it’s as much about having fun as it is about taking it to the bank.
Saturday night at the ASA-sanctioned Illiana Speedway. White had his fun and cashed in, too.
The four-time track champion prevailed in one of the best Molenaar Classic races in the event’s history, winning out in a grueling side-by-side battle with Jack Kalwasinski.
The win was White’s second of the season.
"That was more fun than I've had in a long time,” White said. “That Jack, he's a champion out here (in the Mid-American class), and he proved it. He drove a heck of a race there. We had some good, clean side by side racing."
Kalwasinski had the upper hand early on, taking the lead from Mike Monroe on lap two. He remained comfortably in front, and was several car-lengths ahead when White took second place away from Jerry Sharp on lap 18.
An oil line break caused a small fire in Sharp’s No. 18 on lap 19. When he stopped on the backstretch, the yellow flag came out.
After the restart, White dropped down low and got underneath Kalwasinski. Behind them lurked Josh Nelms.
"I knew he was good all night, but I really kind of put him out of my mind,” White said of Nelms. “Not to disregard him, but I was so busy with what I was doing with Jack, I couldn't keep my eye on both of them.
“I knew if I made a mistake, he would be in there too. I think that made it a good race.”
One of the best of the 2008 season, to be sure. From laps 19 through 26, White on the bottom and Kalwasinski on the high side took turns zig-zagging ahead of each other.
Finally, on lap 27, White was able to pull his No. 00 far enough in front that he could establish himself as the leader.
Kalwasinski also lost the battle for second place to Nelms, but came away very satisfied that he had fought a good battle.
"Yeah, and with a guy that I look up to a lot,” Kalwasinski said. “Mike White taught me a lot. I worked on his car in 1996, and he taught me a lot in that first year. Ever since then I take any knowledge I can get from him.
"It was fun racing with him. I was tight, and he was loose. Finally, I burned the right front off the car. I had nothing left. I gave it all I had."
Fourth went to Monroe, ahead of Jeff Cannon and Brian Muick.
Anthony Danta, meanwhile, continued to hold the hot hand in the limited late-model class, capturing the special 30-lap main event.
Danta had just passed John Senerchia for the lead on lap 13 when a vicious crash coming out of Turn 4 resulted in heavy damage to the cars of, but fortunately no injuries to Tyler Middleton, Paul Zolodz, Dennis Lyp, Matt O’Leary and Rich Segvich.
After the restart, it took Danta five more laps to once again get by Senerchia, but this time he made it stick.
"I don't know what it is with this set of tires, but they don’t come in right away, even at the start of the race,” Danta said. “After the red flag (for the crash) to be honest I went as hard as I could go, and I really couldn't get him. After four laps the car began to come in a little bit better.
"We struggled in the heat race. We had real good practice times and then we changed tires and the car really didn't react that good. But we made some changes. The car was still a little off in the feature, but it turned out pretty neat.”
Danta beat Senerchia to the finish line by 0.890 seconds. John Nutley was third, followed by Bobby Gash, Phil Splant and Doug Hayes.
Tony Meier captured his first turbo stox feature win of the season, taking the lead from Bobby Blood on lap nine, and holding off Eddie Ligue by 0.333 seconds.
"It felt real good. It's been a long time coming,” Meier said. “We had problems after we hit the wall a few Saturdays ago, and the car was out to lunch. I ended up putting a whole new rear end housing in it. We set the whole car up, and it paid off tonight."
Third place in the main went to Bill Serviss. Chris Woodall, Mark Ross Jr., and Scott Gardner completed the top six.
The legends feature went to Blake Brown over Jeremie Johnson and Chris King. After post-race disqualifications eliminated several cars, Dave Jacobs was declared the winner of the pure stock main.
SUMMARY
Late-model
1st heat: 1. Mike Monroe 2. Jack Kalwasinski, 3. Jerry Sharp, 4. Mike White, 5. Josh Nelms, 6. Bobby Gash, 7. Jeff Cannon, 8. Brian Muick, 9. Shawn Wiltjer, 10. Mark Hankosky.
2nd heat: 1. Chuck MacTrinder, 2. Ricard Ruckh, 3. Tony Brutti, 4. Dean Patterson, 5. Vincent Merry, 6. Chris Cooling, 7. Don Sabatino, 8. Rich Segvich.
30-lap feature: 1. White, 2. Nelms, 3. Kalwasinski, 4. Monroe, 5. Cannon, 6. Muick, 7. Wiltjer, 8. MacTrinder, 9. Gash, 10. Hankosky, 11. Brutti, 12. Merry, 13. Cooling, 14. Ruckh, 15. Patterson, 16. Sabatino, 17. Sharp.
Limited late-model
1st heat: 1. Bobby Gash, 2. Doug Hayes, 3. John Nutley, 4. Phil Splant, 5. Anthony Danta, 6. John Senerchia, 7. Tyler Middleton.
2nd heat: 1. Darrell Sills, 2. Rich Segvich, 3. Matt O’Leary, 4. Paul Zolodz, 5. Joe Balser, 6. Dennis Lyp, 7. Brad Plunket, 8. Kevin Offdenkamp.
30-lap feature: 1. Danta, 2. Senerchia, 3. Nutley, 4. Gash, 5. Splant, 6. Hayes, 7. Plunket, 8. Sills, 9. Balser, 10. Offdenkamp, 11. O’Leary, 12. Segvich, 13. Middleton, 14. Zolodz, 15. Lyp, 16. Fields.
Turbo stox
1st heat: 1. Mark Ross Jr., 2. Scott Gardner, 3. Chris Woodall, 4. Tony Meier, 5. Bill Serviss, 6. Eddie Ligue, 7. Brian Kucaba, 8. Pat O’Rourke, 9. Jerry Barnett, 10. Billy Jarrells.
2nd heat: 1. Jacob McKown, 2. Bobby Blood, 3. Dan Witt, 4. Mike Thompson, 5. Armand Artuso, 6. Bobby Thompson, 7. Michael Moore.
3rd heat: 1. Tony Neering, 2. Bobbie Jean Wall, 3. Pat Ligue, 4. Ed Hast, 5. Crystal Sehr, 6. Josh Easto.
30-lap feature: 1. Meier, 2. E. Ligue, 3. Serviss, 4. Woodall, 5. Ross, 6. Gardner, 7. Jarrells, 8. Kucaba, 9. Wall, 10. Neering, 11. Barnett, 12. Blood, 13. McKown, 14. Witt, 15. Hast, 16. P. Ligue, 17. Artuso, 18. Sehr, 19. M. Thompson, 20. O’Rourke, 21. B. Thompson, 22. Moore, 23. Easto.
Legends
Heat: 1. Blake Brown, 2. Jeremie Johnson, 3. Chris King.
Feature: 1. Brown, 2. Johnson, 3. King, 4. Ben Fidone, 5. Scott Pool.
Pure stock
1st heat: 1. Casey Martin. 2nd heat: 1. Mike Jucius. 3rd heat: 1. Tim Cronin.
‘B’ feature: 1. Chris Albertson, 2. Levi Frey, 3. Robert Howe, 4. Matt Baike, 5. Mike Warren.
‘A’ feature: 1. Dave Jacobs, 2. Casey Martin, 3. Mike Martin, 4. Brian Midkiff, 5. Bob Rohweder.
Goodaker Photo's
Illiana Speedway Race Results 7-5-08 Now Updated Every Week
Anthony Danta (51)
Mike White (00)
Tony Meier (30)
Blake Brown (71)
Dave Jacobs (29)
