By Tony Baranek
SCHERERVILLE, Ind. - Jeff Cannon had an opportunity to do something Saturday night that most drivers don't have the luxury of doing during the late-model feature.
He was able to "play around," and try some new lines while leading the race by a very, very large margin.
The verdict?
"It kept working," Cannon said. "We made a couple of little changes when we came to the track this afternoon, and got it freed up finally.
"The last couple of weeks it was kind of tight, but tonight it was nice and clean. A good race."
For him, maybe. For the rest of the field, it was a battle for second place.
Cannon's win was his second of the season, and it came by a whopping 4.176 seconds over runnerup Mike Monroe.
While Cannon was pretty much unstoppable once he eased by Andy Marchiniak on lap nine, the race for second place turned out to be a good one.
For several laps, Marchiniak and Shaun Wiltjer battled side by side. The main event was Monroe and Marchiniak, with Monroe finally completing a pass on the bottom just six laps from the finish.
It was Monroe's best performance of the season.
"When I saw the lineup I knew (because of the cars in his line) I was going to drop to the back early," Monroe said. "I sort of set the car up to go to through traffic.
"By the time I got through traffic Jeff was out there. My only chance was a yellow flag. It never happened."
Marchiniak held off veteran Bobby Gash to claim third. Fifth went to Wiltjer, ahead of Josh Nelms and John Nutley.
Marc Hankosky certainly had his hands full during the limited late-model main, what with Joe Fadke close behind him most of the way, and even closer after three yellow flags slowed the action.
Hankosky, however, was able to withstand all of the challenges, and captured the win.
"It was nervewracking," Hankosky said. "I'm new to restarts, especially starting up front. But the car was hooked up. As soon as I put the pedal to the floor it was going.
"Joey raced me clean. There were a couple of times he could have probably gotten into the rear of the car, but he didn't."
Fadke finished right behind Hankosky in second place, while a side-by-side battle for third between Phil Splant and Kevin McCann went to McCann.
Bill Neering was a runaway winner in the Mid-American feature. Neering took the lead from John Marshall on lap 13, and by the time John Senerchia was able to wrest second place away from Marshall on lap 15, it was too late to mount a challenge.
"We were not going go race this year, and three hours before opening day (the team) came up with the money and we dusted her off," Neering said. "We ran decent for two weeks, but we took a week off to get it all together.
"Mark Batton (from Batton Performance Engines) did a wonderful job freshening up my motor for me. No charge. What a guy."
Neering beat Senerchia to the finish line by 1.261 seconds. Third went to Keith Sterkowitz, ahead of Dean Patterson and Marshall.
Chris Woodall captured his second turbostox feature in three weeks with a solid run. Woodall took the top spot from Bill Serviss on lap 12, and was a half-second ahead of Tom Prim at the finish.
"It was a weird start," Woodall said. "They started like a standing start. I've never seen that before. I worked my way back through traffic, the leaders took each other out, and I ended up with another one.
"It's definitely a lot of fun. Winning's a lot better than second or third. It took me four years to get one. Now I've got two in three weeks. It feels good."
Third in the main event went to Mark Ross Jr., ahead of Tony Neering and Bobbie Jean Wall.
Helen Nester wowed the crowd in the pure stocks main, beating out Chris Czaszwicz and Ryan Lagastee.
ILLIANA SPEEDWAY SUMMARY MAY 19
Late-Model
Qualifying: 1. Jeff Cannon (19.859), 2. Bobby Gash (20.099), 3. John Nutley (20.069), 4. Mike Monroe (20.111), 5. Shaun Wiltjer (20.152), 6. Josh Nelms (20.229), 7. Andy Marchiniak (20.340), 8. Chris Cooling (20.476), 9. Bobby Hutton (20.643), 10. Don Sabatino (20.798), 11. Tyler Middleton (21.612).
1st heat: 1. Wiltjer, 2. Cannon, 3. Nutley, 4. Gash, 5. Monroe, 6. Nelms.
2nd heat: 1. Marchiniak, 2. Hutton, 3. Cooling, 4. Sabatino, 5. Middleton.
25-lap feature: 1. Cannon, 2. Monroe, 3. Marchiniak, 4. Gash, 5. Wiltjer, 6. Nelms, 7. Nutley, 8. Hutton, 9. Middleton, 10. Cooling, 11. Sabatino.
Limited late-model
Qualifying: 1. Kevin McCann (20.233), 2. Phil Splant (20.409), 3. Joe Fadke (20.528), 4. Mike Marden (20.642), 5. Marc Hankosky (20.731), 6. Paul Zolodz (21.117), 7. Joe Golobic (21.190), 8. Don Pettit (21.381), 9. Brian Zeigler (21.419), 10. Dennis Lyp (21.469), 11. John Finley (21.522), 12. Austin Woodham (21.601), 13. Richard McGill (21.799), 14. Rita Fields (21.925), 15. Kevin Offdenkamp (22.866).
1st heat: 1. Fadke, 2. Hankosky, 3. Splant, 4. Marden, 5. McCann, 6. Golobic, 7. Zolodz, 8. Pettit.
2nd heat: 1. Finley, 2. McGill, 3. Woodham, 4. Zeigler, 5. Lyp, 6. Offdenkamp, 7. Fields.
25-lap feature: 1. Hankosky, 2. Fadke, 3. McCann, 4. Splant, 5. Marden, 6. Zolodz, 7. Finley, 8. Pettit, 9. Zeigler, 10. Fields, 11. Offdenkamp, 12. Woodham, 13. McGill, 14. Lyp, 15. Golobic.
Mid-American
Qualifying: 1. John Senerchia (20.995), 2. Bill Neering (21.203), 3. Keith Sterkowitz (21.278), 4. Dean Patterson (21.403), 5. John Marshall (21.437), 6. Darrell Sills (21.788), 7. Mike Wienc (21.881), 8. Tom Prim (21.918), 9. Tim Sehr (21.989).
Heat: 1. Sterkowitz, 2. Patterson, 3. Neering, 4. Senerchia, 5. Wienc, 6. Marshall, 7. Sills, 8. Sehr, 9. Prim.
25-lap feature: 1. Neering, 2. Senerchia, 3. Sterkowitz, 4. Patterson, 5. Marshall, 6. Wienc, 7. Sills, 8. Prim.
Turbostox
Qualifying: 1. Eddie Ligue (17.888), 2. Butch Wood (17.985), 3. Bill Serviss (18.063), 4. Mark Ross Jr. (18.097), 5. Tom Prim (18.173), 6. Brian Kucaba (18.259), 7. Chris Woodall (18.265), 8. Tony Neering (18.293), 9. Bobbie Jean Wall (18.433), 10. D.J. Wilson (18.666), 11. Scott Schick (18.669), 12. Jeremy Banning (18.874), 13. Josh Easto (18.875), 14. Pat Ligue (18.928), 15. Billy Jarrells (19.491), 16. Pat O'Rourke (DNQ).
1st heat: 1. Wall, 2. Wilson, 3. P. Ligue, 4. Banning, 5. Schick, 6. Jarrells, 7. O'Rourke, 8. Easto.
2nd heat: 1. Kucaba, 2. Serviss, 3. Woodall, 4. E. Ligue, 5. Wood, 6. T. Prim, 7. Ross, 8. Neering.
25-lap feature: 1. Woodall, 2. Prim, 3. Ross, 4. Neering, 5. Wall, 6. Wilson, 7. Jarrells, 8. Schick, 9. Banning, 10. E. Ligue, 11. Serviss, 12. O'Rourke, 13. P. Ligue, 14. Wood, 15. Kucaba.
Pure stocks
1st heat: 1. Dee Warren.
2nd heat: 1. George Werner Jr.
3rd heat: 1. Frank Goncher.
Semi: 1. Jennifer Taylor.
Feature: 1. Helen Nester, 2. Chris Czaszwicz, 3. Ryan Lagastee, 4. Jacob McKown, 5. Mike Lindemulder, 6. Dave Jacobs.
