Illiana Speedway 4-21-07
By Tony Baranek
SCHERERVILLE, Ind. - The short of it is that defending track champion Mike White took the lead from Shaun Wiltjer on lap 8 of Saturday's Opening Night late-model feature at Illiana Speedway and held it the rest of the way.
The long of it is that it was far from that simple.
First, White had to hold off brother-in-law Boris Jurkovic in a side-by-side battle that saw the latter almost crash into a lapped car, spin out and have to go to the back of the pack.
Then, White had to hold off Jeff Cannon in what might have been an interesting side-by-side battle had they gone 30 laps instead of 25.
The race had to be shortened because of time constraints due to several crashes in the limited late-model feature.
It might have been to White's advantage.
"Yeah, we didn't have the fastest car," White said. "Boris, he was hooked up. Cannon, he's a good racer. I was concerned, and hanging on just to see what happened."
Any last-lap drama was pretty much erased when a lap 24 crash by Woody Pool brought out a yellow flag and forced the field into single-file order. White wound up beating Cannon by a car-length, with Jurkovic third.
Jurkovic's effort was a sterling one. He had set fast qualifying time, and had gotten inside of White on lap 14 when they began to close on the slower car of Richard Ruckh. Ruckh, on the bottom, slowed dramatically down the front straightaway. Jurkovic had to spin himself out in Turn 1 to avoid hitting him.
"We were racing pretty hard there," Jurkovic said. "I got the advantage a little bit on Mike and I wasn't willing to give it up. I didn't think that Ruckh would let off the gas that early going down
the straightaway. I figured we'd have one more corner to get it done or give up.
"When he let off I came up on him probably 30 miles an hour. I hit the brakes and spun out."
The save was a very impressive one, as Jurkovic managed to avoid any damage.
"Ahhh, what are you gonna do," Jurkovic said with a smile. "I mean, you get enough laps you get pretty good at this stuff."
Cannon was a few ticks faster than White during qualifying, and looked to give him a run for it after Jurkovic's misfortune. White wasn't surrendering the bottom, so Cannon looked up high. He was tentative at first, but appeared geared up for a full effort at it on the final lap when the yellow came out.
"If we'd gone 30 I might have had a chance at it," Cannon said. "He was glued to the bottom, especially off two, but we were pretty good off the top. It was a good race."
Jurkovic roared from the back to as high as fourth, and caught a break during the final yellow when third-running Joe O'Connor pulled off with mechanical difficulties. Fourth went to Andy Marchiniak, with Mike Heiss and Bobby Gash completing the top six.
Saturday was the second annual March of Dimes Night at the speedway. The event organizers were Phil and Kim Splant, whose son Nathan was the March of Dimes Ambassador for a walk in Lake County, Ind., in 2006.
The event was a success, and so was Phil Splant, who captured the 25-lap limited late-model feature.
Splant took the lead from Austin Woodham on lap four, and basically ran away as a field of 14 cars was methodically whittled down due to various misfortunes.
Among the casualties were race contenders Josh Nelms, Kevin McCann and Mike Marden. Another potential contender, Joe Fadke, was sent to the back after colliding with McCann while they were battling for second on lap 9.
Fadke eventually worked his way back into second place, but was way too far behind Splant to get close enough to challenge.
"When I saw Josh wreck, and then Kevin... it didn't turn out to be as strong a finishing field as I was expecting. You look over your shoulder for those two guys in particular and see them wrecked. I felt bad for them. But our car was good, too.
"This coming on March of Dimes Night, that's what makes it better. I couldn't have picked a better night, absolutely. This was for the babies. We've got to save them babies. My son was one of them."
Third place in the limited main went to Paul Zolodz. Don Pettit was fourth, followed by Brian Zeigler and Dennis Lyp.
Johnny Senerchia got his 2007 season off to a good start with a victory in the Mid-American Sportsman main. Senerchia took the lead from Dean Patterson on lap 13, and went on to score the win by a very impressive margin.
"I felt good," Senerchia said. "The last couple of times here last year we found something and we've been sticking with it. We've been having a lot of fun here, and we've decided to run here this year and see what happens."
Patterson held off Bill Neering to maintain second place. Fourth went to Keith Sterkowitz, ahead of John Marshall and Tom Prim.
Prim, doing double duty this season, defended his turbo stox title with a strong run in that division's main, beating Chris Woodall by 0.556 seconds. Prim took the lead from Woodall on lap 19 of the 25-lap event, and was never headed.
Craig Coglianese, Kevin Griffin, Bill Serviss and Bobbie Jean Wall were third through sixth.
"Awesome. I couldn't believe I'd get off to this good of a start," Prim said. "I'm planning on defending my title, and doing two cars this year. Oh, I'm sore, I'm beat, but I'll be glad to do it
again."
Lee Mose was victorious in the pure stocks feature, holding off Helen Nester, Paul McKeague, Steve Wells and Bob Rohweder.
SUMMARY
Late-Model
Qualifying: 1. Boris Jurkovic 19.467, 2. Jeff Cannon 19.663, 3. Mike White 19.667, 4. Mike Heiss 19.916, 5. Joe O'Connor 19.955, 6. Andy Marchiniak 20.095, 7. Shaun Wiltjer 20.194, 8. Anthony Danta 20.344, 9. Nick O'Dell 20.413, 10. Bobby Hutton 20.757, 11. Steven Brooks 20.767, 12. Woody Pool 20.793, 13. Richard Ruckh 20.978, 14. Don Sabatino 21.176, 15. Phil Bretz 21.293, 16. Tyler Middleton 21.300, 17. Mike Monroe DNQ., 18. Bobby Gash DNQ.
1st heat: 1. White, 2. Jurkovic, 3. O'Connor, 4. Wiltjer, 5. Marchiniak, 6. Cannon, 7. Heiss, 8. Hutton, 9. O'Dell, 10. Danta.
2nd heat: 1. Gash, 2. Monroe, 3. Pool, 4. Bretz, 5. Ruckh, 6. Sabatino, 7. Middleton, 8. Brooks.
25-lap feature: 1. White, 2. Cannon, 3. Jurkovic, 4. Marchiniak, 5. Heiss, 6. Gash, 7. Wiltjer, 8. Hutton, 9. Monroe, 10. Danta, 11. Ruckh, 12. O'Connor, 13. Pool, 14. Middleton, 15. Brooks, 16. O'Dell, 17. Bretz, 18. Sabatino.
Limited Late-Model
Qualifying: 1. Kevin McCann, 20.270, 2. Josh Nelms 20.310, 3. Phil Splant 20.409, 4. Mike Marden 20.568, 5. Paul Zolodz 21.524, 6. Don Pettit 21.613, 7. Austin Woodham 21.637, 8. Dennis Lyp 21.674, 9. Brian Zeigler 21.676, 10. Richard McGill 21.731, 11. John Finley 21.749, 12. Kevin Offdenkamp 22.155, 13. Joe Golobic DNQ, 14. Joe Fadke DNQ.
1st heat: 1. Splant, 2. Nelms, 3. Marden, 4. McCann, 5. Zolodz, 6. Pettit.
2nd heat: 1. Fadke, 2. Finley, 3. Woodham, 4. Lyp, 5. McGill, 6. Zeigler, 7. Offdenkamp, 8. Golobic.
25-lap feature: 1. Splant, 2. Fadke, 3. Zolodz, 4. Pettit, 5. Zeigler, 6. Lyp, 7. Finley, 8. McGill, 9. Marden, 10. Woodham, 11. McCann, 12. Nelms, 13. Golobic, 14. Offdenkamp.
Mid-American Sportsman
Qualifying: 1. John Marshall 20.940, 2. John Senerchia 21.245, 3. Keith Sterkowitz 21.283, 4. Bill Neering 21.290, 5. Dean Patterson 21.345, 6. Darrell Sills 21.536, 7. Tom Prim 21.693, 8. Mike Wienc 21.918, 9. Jimmy Raptis 21.945, 10. Tim Sehr 22.374.
Heat: 1. Senerchia, 2. Patterson, 3. Sterkowitz, 4. Marshall, 5. Prim, 6. Wienc, 7. Neering, 8. Sills, 9. Sehr, 10. Raptis.
25-lap feature: 1. Senerchia, 2. Patterson, 3. Neering, 4. Sterkowitz, 5. Marshall, 6. Prim, 7. Sills, 8. Wienc, 9. Sehr.
Turbostox
Qualifying: 1. Tom Prim 17.808, 2. Eddie Ligue 17.844, 3. Bill Serviss 17.978, 4. Tony Meier 18.017, 5. Craig Coglianese 18.087, 6. Tony Neering 18.246, 7. Bobbie Jean Wall 18.258, 8. Brian Kucaba 18.267, 9. Chris Woodall 18.283, 10. D.J. Wilson 18.356, 11. Pat O'Rourke 18.367, 12. Kevin Griffin 18.495, 13. Mark Ross Jr. 18.513, 14. Matt Arvia 18.703, 15. Butch Wood 18.875, 16. Pat Ligue 19.350, 17. Josh Easto 19.802.
1st heat: 1. Woodall, 2. E. Ligue, 3. Kucaba, 4. Neering, 5. Coglianese, 6. Prim, 7. Serviss, 8. Wall, 9. Wilson, 10. Meier.
2nd heat: 1. Wood, 2. O'Rourke, 3. Griffin, 4. Ross, 5. Arvia, 6. P. Ligue, 7. Easto.
25-lap feature: 1. Prim, 2. Woodall, 3. Coglianese, 4. Griffin, 5. Serviss, 6. Wall, 7. Neering, 8. Ross, 9. Kucaba, 10. Arvia, 11. Meier, 12. O'Rourke, 13. Easto, 14. Wood, 15. E. Ligue, 16. P. Ligue, 17. Wilson.
Pure Stocks
1st heat: 1. Bobby Blood, 2. Brandon Dunne.
2nd heat: 1. Helen Nester, 2. Michael Lindemulder.
3rd heat: 1. Steve Wells, 2. Chris Czaszwicz.
4th heat: 1. Frank Goncher, 2. Ryan Hoffman.
Semi: 1. Tim Cronin, 2. Kevin Michaels.
Feature: 1. Lee Mose, 2. Nester, 3. Paul McKeague, 4. Wells, 5. Bob Rohweder.
