White Claims Checkers at Illiana
By: Tony Baranek
Schererville, IN (August 6, 2005) - Among the many things that three-time Illiana Speedway late-model champion Mike White has learned during his long and successful career is that sometimes two heads are better than one. So when car owner Tom Rose came to him with some ideas this past week about how they might improve the performance of his No. 00 car, he listened. "Tom is real smart and a lot of times we talk about things and come to a certain conclusion," White said after winning Saturday night's 30-lap feature. "This week he had some ideas and it was absolutely a different setup than we've ever run. But it all made sense after he mapped it out for me. And boy, the car responded to it and I had something I could be competitive with it tonight."
White took the lead from Joe O'Connor with a move on the low side in Turn 4 on lap 15, and maintained it by a very narrow margin over former track titlist Pat Kelly during the final half of the race. The victory was White's second of the season, and his first since May 21. "I'm just happy," White said. "I was getting off the corners for the first time in awhile, and I felt good the whole way. Pat runs clean, so I wasn't worried. Even if he got there I knew it would be a good race."
White was especially powerful coming out of Turn 2, a place where he has historically had problems. "For once, yeah," White said, smiling. "My whole deal through my whole career has been in Turn 2 I've never had a car that I could could drive off of there. I could never find a decent deal there. "Today, from hot laps on I told Tom, 'I feel better down through 1 and 2 than I've ever felt.' It's a difficult part of this race track, and normally that's where they (opponents) really get me at. But we fixed the car, and it was awfully cool."
White and Kelly were never more than a couple of car-lengths apart over the final 12 laps. "We were just a little bit tight," said Kelly, the current points leader. "You never quit trying and you never know if a guy's car is going to fall off. But this week we were a second-place car. We'll have to work on it a little bit more for next week."
The battle for third place was a good one as well, with O'Connor holding off Dave Weltmeyer by about two car-lengths. Keith Sterkowitz had one of his best finishes of the season with a fifth, while Doug Kowal was sixth in his strongest run of 2005.
Tim Cox apologized to the crowd for the delays in a 30-lap HOSS Outlaw Winged Sprint Car feature race that took more than an hour to complete. He didn't apologize for blowing away the field. The Park City, Ill. native was an absolute force while the race was green, lapping all but four cars en route to a 0.652-second victory over Jason Fuller of Bourbon, Ind.
It was that close because of a yellow flag with five laps remaining that tightened the field. His lead when the caution fell was nearly a half-lap, or approximately eight seconds.
The HOSS Outlaws circle the half-mile speedway nearly four seconds faster than the super late-models. But two wrecks and a 15-minute delay for refueling meant just four laps were completed over a 55-minute span.
When they restarted, Fuller was in the lead, with Hank Lower second and Cox third. But Cox wasted no time in dispatching Lower, then took Fuller on lap seven. Dave Baumgartner finished third, followed by David Gough, Greg Wheeler and Jerry Caryer.
In the limited late-model class, Jack Kalwasinski took the lead from Gary Holiner on lap two, and held off a persistent Anthony Danta by a car-length to capture the feature victory. Joe Fadke was a close third, with division points leader Richard Dawson fourth. "He (Danta) was coming," Kalwasinski said. "I had a little bit more off of Turn 2 than he did, but he really gained on me through 3 and 4. The track, I think, was a little greasy because of the HOSS cars, but all in all we went flag to flag with no yellows, and we were able to keep a distance on him."
In the Mid-American class, points leader Josh Nelms turned in an impressive performance, taking the lead from Johnny Senerchia on lap four, and holding Jeff Cannon at bay the rest of the way. Bill Neering was third, followed by Senerchia, Pat Broenneke and Darrell Sills.
Tommy Prim had plenty to see in his rear-view mirror, but despite a constant challenge from Ryan Moore was able to hang on to capture the Turbo Stox feature event. Bill Serviss came from well back in the pack to finish third, with Brian Kucaba, Mike Carpenter Jr., and Roger Rubino following.
Mike Jucius was the top dog in the pure stocks division, capturing a heat and the main event over Bryan Kuc, Paul Barnes and Frank Goncher.
Summary of Results (August 6)
Late-Model
1st heat: 1. Keith Sterkowitz, 2. Dave Weltmeyer, 3. Joe O'Connor.
2nd heat: 1. Brian Muick, 2. Shawn Wiltjer, 3. Mike Monroe.
30-lap feature: 1. Mike White, 2. Pat Kelly, 3. O'Connor, 4. Weltmeyer, 5. Sterkowitz, 6. Doug Kowal.
Limited Late-Model
1st heat: 1. Joe Fadke, 2. Anthony Danta, 3. Jack Kalwasinski.
2nd heat: 1. Tim Stewart, 2. Gary Holiner, 3. Kevin Ramey.
25-lap feature: 1. Kalwasinski, 2. Danta, 3. Fadke, 4. Richard Dawson, 5. Phil Splant, 6. Mike Marden.
Mid-American
1st heat: 1. Jeff Cannon, 2. Josh Nelms, 3. Bill Neering.
2nd heat: 1. Dean Patterson, 2. John Marshall, 3. Scott Rueshenberg.
25-lap feature: 1. Nelms, 2. Cannon, 3. Neering, 4. Johnny Senerchia, 5. Pat Broenneke, 6. Darrell Sills.
Turbo Stox
1st heat: 1. Mike Carpenter Jr., 2. Tom Prim, 3. Bill Serviss.
2nd heat: 1. Pat O'Rourke, 2. Billy Jarrells, 3. Pete Kamp.
25-lap feature: 1. Tom Prim, 2. Ryan Moore, 3. Serviss, 4. Brian Kucaba, 5. Carpenter, 6. Roger Rubino.
HOSS Outlaw Winged Sprints
1st heat: 1. Greg Wheeler, 2. Dave Baumgartner, 3. Andrew Burnett.
2nd heat: 1. Tim Cox, 2. Ron Koehler, 3. Jason Fuller.
3rd heat: 1. Dale Wood, 2. Hank Lower, 3. Sam Davis.
30-lap feature: 1. Cox, 2. Fuller, 3. Baumgartner, 4. David Gough, 5. Wheeler, 6. Jerry Caryer.
Pure Stocks
1st heat: 1. Ray Vinicky.
2nd heat: 1. Mike Jucius.
3rd heat: 1. Jim Merriman.
Semi: 1. Michael Moore.
12-lap feature: 1. Jucius, 2. Bryan Kuc, 3. Paul Barnes, 4. Frank Goncher, 5. Chris Sandberg.
