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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
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.
Illiana Speedway Race Results 9-10-2011 now Updated Every Week
Chris Goodaker Goodaker Photography
By Tony Baranek
SCHERERVILLE, Ind. (Sept. 9) – Brett Sontag didn’t even think twice before revealing what it meant winning Saturday’s 50th annual Tony Bettenhausen Classic at the ASA-sanctioned Illiana Speedway.
“Well, I’m probably one of the brokest race car drivers out here,” he said, laughing. “It’ll help pay some bills, and I’ll take the kids out for some pizza.”
The Bettenhausen victory was the Joliet native’s third of his career and it was, in a word, impressive.
Sontag took the lead from front-row mate D.J. Weltmeyer at the drop of the green, and led 98 of 100 laps. The other two - laps 73 and 74 - were paced by Anthony Danta, who used the outside groove after a restart to nip Sontag at the start/finish line.
Otherwise, Sontag had no takers. The No. 3 wasn’t terribly fast during qualifying (11th fastest), but it was a different story at race speed.
“Well, we were good on the long runs,” said Sontag, who benefitted from a caution-free race all the way until lap 70, when Dave Gentile spun on the back straightaway. Another yellow came only two laps after the restart, when Danny Darnell spun to the frontstretch infield.
It was after the second yellow that Sontag faced his biggest challenge of the night. Danta got some good bite on the outside in his No. 51, and with fast qualifier Boris Jurkovic in his rear view mirror, Sontag had his hands full.
“I was like, ‘Son of a gun, don’t spin the tires,’ ” Sontag said. “And I saw Boris look a couple of times down low and I thought, ‘Come on, Boris. You can’t make this three-wide for the lead. Come on, buddy.’
“But yeah, I was just trying not to spin the tires. It was pretty tough getting off the corner with the bumps, but I kind of thought we had (Danta). It would just take a few laps.”
Indeed, that’s exactly what happened. Sontag was able to ease out to a nice lead. Jurkovic grabbed second place away from Danta on lap 77, but never did get within striking distance. There were no more yellow flags, denying Jurkovic an opportunity to creep outside of Sontag for a double-file restart.
“I think it would have been a good race,” Jurkovic said. “I don’t know that we could have gotten the advantage, but it definitely would have been interesting.
“Coming from 12th with minimal cautions, it was a pretty good job. But with bigger horsepower, we had more weight, and it killed us on the long run. But it was a lot of fun. Brett’s a heck of a race car driver. I’ve got to give it to him.”
Danta, in his most impressive run of the season, finished third. Jeff Cannon was fourth, followed by Scott Tomasik and Matt Kocourek.
Among the casualties were 2011 track champion Blake Brown (pan hard bar) and Mike White (flat tire). Larry Schuler had some motor issues during his heat, and ran conservatively in the main, finishing in 13th place. Weltmeyer ran well for much of the race, but had handling problems late and checkd in 11th. Former track titlist John Nutley was ninth.
One scary crash during a last-chance race saw Mark Sontag Jr., cut a tire and sail through the pit exit off the backstretch. Sontag slammed into the pit wall and did severe damage to his No. 1, but he was uninjured. Brian Muick also walked away from a vicious hit into the wall between Turns 1 and 2 during his last-chance qualifier.
Brian Kucaba was a wire-to-wire winner in the 35-lap turbo stox finale. The victory over Chris Woodall was his first of the season in a race that saw no caution flags.
“You know, we got the lead early and the longer the run went the bigger the lead got,” Kucaba said. “Ever now and then I’d keep checking to see if anybody was catching me.
“Cheryl (Hryn) was back there for a while. I just tiptoed, and hit my marks. Later, I started pushing the car a little harder, and then it got worse and worse in Turn 1. Toward the end I saw the No. 20 car (Chris Woodall) move into second. I was just hoping I had a big enough lead.”
He did. Woodall got no closer than 1.608 seconds at the finish. Johnny Senerchia was third, followed by Pat Ligue, Mike Carpenter Jr., and Jacob McKown.
Senerchia claimed top honors points-wise in the North Grand Auto Parts turbo stox challenge in a series of races held at Illiana Speedway and Grundy County Speedway.
SUMMARY
Late-model
Fast time: Boris Jurkovic (19.300).
1st heat: 1. Bobby Gash, 2. Austin Luedkte,
3. D.J. Weltmeyer.
2nd heat: 1. Blake Brown, 2. Brett Sontag, 3. Ricky Baker.
1st last-chance race: 1. John Nutley, 2. Scott Tomasik, 3. Dave Gentile.
2nd last-chance race: 1. Jack Kalwasinski, 3. Sean Matthuis, 3. Richard Dawson.
100-lap Tony Bettehausen Classic: 1. Sontag, 2. Jurkovic, 3. Anthony Danta, 4.
Jeff Cannon, 5. Scott Tomasik, 6. Matt Kocourek, 7. Tracy Schuler, 8. Brandon
Hill, 9. Nutley, 10. Gash, 11. Weltmeyer, 12. Danny Darnell, 13. Larry Schuler,
14. Kalwasinski, 15. Dave Gentile, 16. Michael Martin Jr., 17. Matthuis, 18.
Richard Dawson, 19. Dean Patterson, 20. Baker, 21. Matt Byrne, 22. Brown, 23.
Mike White, 24. Len Nowosel, 25. Luedkte, 26. Mark Ross Jr.
Turbo stox
Fast time: Johnny Senerchia (17.983).
1st heat: 1. Pat Ligue, 2. Brian Kucaba, 3. Jacob McKown. 2nd heat: 1. Helen Nester, 2. Ben McKown, 3. Tony Meier.
35-lap feature: 1. Kucaba, 2. Chris Woodall, 3. Senerchia, 4. Ligue, 5. Mike Carpenter Jr.,
6. Jacob McKown, 7. Nathan Kelly, 8. Craig Amptmeyer, 9. Jim Gilbert, 10. Cheryl Hryn, 11. Meier, 12. Ben McKown, 13. Darrell Gay, 14. Eddie Wolf, 15. Dick Bartel, 16. Dylan Harmon, 17. Tim Stewart, 18. Dubs Anderson, 19. Matt Arvia.
