Nutley Nudges in for Victory at Illiana
By: Tony Baranek
Schererville, IN (July 24, 2004) - John Nutley was sorry about the bump, but he wasn't giving anything away after nudging past Mike White and capturing Saturday night's late-model feature at Illiana Speedway. Nutley, who set fast qualifying time and started in the 10th position, caught a break just three laps from the finish when, while running second behind White, a yellow flag allowed him to make up a pretty large deficit. They ran bumper-to-bumper for the better part of two laps, until Nutley stuck his nose underneath White as they entered Turn 4 to complete lap 29. Fairly heavy contact sent White's brand new No. 00 twisting back and forth.
White, a three-time track champion at Illiana, was able to gather it in and remain in second place, while Nutley went on to claim his second win of the season. "The car slipped up on me a little bit getting into the middle of the corner," Nutley said. "It was a heck of race. I didn't mean to get into him (White), but the car slipped a little bit. I definitely don't want to wreck anybody. "I let him (White) go to try and let him catch the car back up. I hope he's not too mad at me." Nutley got the win, but not White's blessing. Four weeks ago the two had an encounter in Turn 4 which resulted in a flat tire for White, an eventual hard crash into the Turn 1 wall and rib injuries that put him out of action for a month. "The last time we were in that position, he (Nutley) wrecked me, took me out," an irate White said. "Now I've got a new, fast race car. He got a run on me when I bobbled there, and when he stuck the nose under there I gave him a line. But he drove down in here (into the No. 00) and darned near took me out again. "He's got to learn how to drive that race car. It's that simple. He needs to talk to somebody like Dave Weltmeyer or somebody that knows how to drive a race car."
The first to lead Saturday's feature was Bobby Gash. In only his second night of racing this year, Gash turned in an impressive 10 laps, before giving way to Joe O'Connor. O'Connor reigned until lap 18, when White breezed by on the backstretch via the low side. Nutley grabbed second place away from O'Connor on lap 25, but it seemed very unlikely that he would be able to catch White, who had opened up a 10 car-length lead. But a spin by Mike Monroe in Turn 2 brought out the yellow flag that would set up the exciting finish. Third place went to O'Connor. Pat Kelly, Boris Jurkovic and Kevin Moenck completed the top six.
The Mid-American feature was a runaway for Jeff Cannon, who beat Josh Nelms to the finish line by 3.025 seconds. Dave Gentile held off Jack Kalwasinski for third, while Tommy Knippenberg was fifth and Bill Neering sixth. Eddie Wolf took the lead from Tom Prim with just four laps remaining to claim the turbostox main event. Bill Serviss finished second, ahead of Chris Woodall, Cher Bryant, Pat O'Rourke and Brian Kucaba.
Kurt McKinney was first across the finish line in the limited late-model feature, but a post-race disqualification resulted in the win going to Kalwasinski. Second went to Jeff Mackowiak, and third to Anthony Danta.
Ben Murphy captured the pure stocks main event, with David Jacobs and Mark Rohrbacher following.
Summary of Results (July 24)
Late Model
Fast time: John Nutley
1st heat: 1. Mike White, 2. Pat Kelly, 3. Boris Jurkovic.
2nd heat: 1. Bobby Gash, 2. Jim Rossiter, 3. Brian Muick.
30-lap feature: 1. Nutley, 2. White, 3. Joe O'Connor, 4. Kelly, 5. Jurkovic,
6. Kevin Moenck.
Mid-American
Fast time: Jack Kalwasinski
1st heat: 1. Jeff Cannon, 2. Bill Neering, 3.Kalwasinski.
2nd heat: 1. Shawn Wiltjer, 2. John Fiorita, 3. Michael Marden.
25-lap feature: 1. Cannon, 2. Josh Nelms, 3. Dave Gentile, 4. Kalwasinski,
5. Tommy Knippenberg, 6. Neering.,
Limited Late Model
Fast time: Joe Fadke
Heat: 1. Kurt McKinney, 2. Jeff Mackowiak, 3. Jack Kalwasinski.
15-lap feature: 1. Kalwasinski, 2. Mackowiak, 3. Anthony Danta,
4. Mike Szekely, 5. Fadke, 6. Steven Brooks.
Turbostox
Fast time: Bill Serviss
1st heat: 1. Tom Prim, 2. Eddie Wolf, 3. Serviss.
2nd heat: 1. Pat O'Rourke, 2. Scott Schick, 3. Tony Brutti.
3rd heat: 1. Chris Woodall, 2. Mark Ross, 3. Pete Kamp.
25-lap feature: 1. Wolf, 2. Serviss, 3. Woodall, 4. Cher Bryant, 5. O'Rourke,
6. Brian Kucaba.
Pure Stocks
1st heat: 1. Jason McCord, 2. Dave Ross, 3. Ryan Moore.
2nd heat: 1. David Cressler, 2. Frank Goncher, 3. Helen Nester.
15-lap feature: 1. Ben Murphy, 2. David Jacobs, 3. Mark Rohrbacher.
