Weltmeyer Wins Again
By: Tony Baranek
Schererville, IN (May 14, 2005) - Sometimes looks can be deceiving. It appeared that Dave Weltmeyer didn't have any problem wheeling his No. 16 around Illiana Speedway's half-mile oval in Saturday's 30-lap late-model feature. But truth be told, his car was tight in the corners. For some, that would be a serious problem. For Weltmeyer it meant one thing: Hit the gas. And away he went. "I'll tell you what. Joe Rhyne won this race today," said Weltmeyer, referring to his engine builder. "You could see I had some horsepower. That won us the race. I've got to thank him and all my sponsors for sticking with me and building me a good engine." Weltmeyer was able to withstand a game challenge from Pat Kelly to claim his third feature victory in four outings. "A good start," pronounced Weltmeyer with a grin. "But it's still early. Them cats (fellow competitors) are working hard. So we've got to keep working hard." Weltmeyer took the lead from Bobby Gash on lap 13, and stayed there the rest of the way. Gash, who has spent a lot of time leading races this season, held his own for much of the race and posted a competitive fourth. Back up front, Weltmeyer had company when he passed Gash. Kelly was glued to his bumper and never really fell back more than a couple of car-lengths. In fact, after a yellow flag on lap 21, Kelly seemed to be faster than Weltmeyer for a brief time. "I didn't want to see that yellow," Weltmeyer said. "The way we set our tire pressure, because of that yellow it took a couple of laps to get air in them. But once we got going, we were OK." Kelly didn't really put himself in a position to pass over the final couple of laps, but ran strong enough to hold off three-time track champion Mike White. "We were off a little bit," Kelly said. "We're just working away, trying to get better. We'll go work on it some more." Fourth-place Gash paced a tight contingent that saw Joe O'Connor, Mike Monroe and Shawn Wiltjer follow him across the finish line.
Josh Nelms took an early lead in the Mid-American feature and turned it into a power show. The win was his second of the season, to go along with two second-place finishes. "Nothing wrong with that, but I don't have it licked yet," Nelms said. "(Bill) Neering and (Jeff) Cannon are still tough, and I'm sure we'll be fighting it out every week." Neering was the one who would get closest to Nelms, but was never in a position to challenge. Cannon was third, followed by John Fiorita, John Senerchia and Len Koprowski. "I got to the front pretty quick tonight. The car was real good," Nelms said. "I was watching them (Neering and Cannon) in my mirror, trying to keep enough distance between us so I could win the race."
In the limited late-model division Richard Dawson continued his early-season charge by taking the lead from Tim Stewart on lap four and easing to his second victory of the season. Stewart beat out Anthony Danta by five car-lengths. Joe Fadke, Gary Holliner, Mike Marden and Keith McCann rounded out the top six.
The turbo stock class saw a new winner in Billy Jarrells, who outran longtime veteran Bill Serviss to the finish line by a short margin. Tom Prim, Eddie Wolf, Tom Gasik and Ryan Moore followed.
The pure stock feature went to Michael Lindemulder, ahead of Joel Kozlowski and Mike Jucius.
Summary of Results (May 14)
Late-Model
1st heat: 1. Pat Kelly, 2. Mike Monroe, 3. Dave Weltmeyer.
2nd heat: 1. Mike Heiss, 2. Bobby Gash, 3. Joe O'Connor.
30-lap feature: 1. Weltmeyer, 2. Kelly, 3. Mike White, 4. Bobby Gash,
5. Joe O'Connor, 6. Mike Monroe.
Limited Late-Model
1st heat: 1. Richard Dawson, 2. Jack Kalwasinski, 3. Anthony Danta.
2nd heat: 1. Tim Stewart, 2. Kevin Ramey, 3. Mike Richardson.
25-lap feature: 1. Dawson, 2. Danta, 3. Joe Fadke, 4. Gary Holliner,
5. Mike Marden, 6. Keith McCann.
Mid-American
1st heat: 1. Bill Neering, 2. John Senerchia, 3. Josh Nelms.
2nd heat: 1. John Fiorita, 2. Len Koprowski, 3. John Marshall.
25-lap feature: 1. Nelms, 2. Neering, 3. Jeff Cannon, 4. Fiorita,
5. Senerchia, 6. Koprowski.
Turbo Stox
1st heat: 1. Tom Gasik, 2. Eddie Wolf, 3. Brian Kucaba.
2nd heat: 1. Chris Woodall, 2. Billy Jarrells, 3. Tom Prim.
25-lap feature: 1. Jarrells, 2. Bill Serviss, 3. Prim, 4. Wolf,
5. Gasik, 6. Ryan Moore.
Pure Stocks
1st heat: Michael Moore.
2nd heat: Mark Ross Jr.
3rd heat: Matt Arvia.
12-lap feature: 1. Michael Lindemulder, 2. Joel Kozlowski, 3. Mike Jucius,
4. Helen Nester, 5. Jim Merriman.
