By Tony Baranek
Does Eddie Hoffman race harder on Saturday when he doesn't win on Friday?
"Not consciously," the long-time veteran said after holding off a determined Mike White in Saturday night's late-model feature race at Illiana Speedway.
"I don't know. I don't think so. I've got to bring it home in one piece for (the next) Friday. But I can get a little hungry."
Hoffman, who finished second in the late-model feature Friday night at Grundy County Speedway, definitely appeared to be a man on a mission Saturday at Illiana, especially in the early stages of the race. He started pretty far back in the field, and immediately went to work, picking off one competitor after another.
By lap 10 Hoffman, with White in tow, was in second place and setting his sights on leader John Nutley. The pass, on lap 11, was quick.
"You can't mess around," Hoffman said. "I did in the heat race and got about wrecked twice. You've got to take advantage, especially with the guys behind you. When you've gotta go, you've gotta go."
A yellow flag on lap 13 set up a 12-lap dash to the finish. White spent most of it glued to Hoffman's bumper, especially between Turns 1 and 2.
"Yeah, there was that one spot in the corner," Hoffman said. "I'd imagine I could have gotten a shot somewhere along the way, but I don't think I did. The cars were pretty even. He was a little faster in one spot and I was a little better coming off. I'm lucky I broke traffic."
Friday night, White was running among the leaders at Grundy when he and Hoffman (who was running behind him) had contact. White made the save, but dropped back to third. He and Hoffman had minimal, if any contact, on Saturday.
"I had a little bit faster car," White said. "I had a shot at him and showed him I could do it. We all know what happened Friday night, and it didn't work out for me. I just wanted to race him clean. I did a good job. I know we've got the car as good as it's ever been, and we'll get our wins."
The difference at the finish was 0.206 seconds. Jeff Cannon was several car-lengths behind in third, followed by Nutley, Joe O'Connor, and Josh Nelms.
Phil Splant scored his third victory of the season in the limited late-model main. After running for most of the race a few car-lengths behind Kevin McCann, Splant made the pass on the bottom in Turn 2 on lap 17.
"I didn't think I had enough to do much tonight," Splant said. "We couldn't figure it out last week and earlier today. He (McCann) got a little loose; I could tell he had his hands full. After about 10 laps I had my hands full, too. I was working hard, believe me.
"Kevin's good. I hate to look in my rear view mirror because I know them guys are coming."
McCann not only held on to finish second, but had one good shot at making a challenge to Splant just three laps from the finish.
"I tried to give it all I had. I was just fighting a loose car the whole race. I thought I could give it one last effort, but I just didn't have enough tire."
Joe Fadke had a strong run, finishing close behind McCann. Tony D'Ambrose finished fourth, followed by Anthony Danta and Paul Zolodz.
The Mid-American feature was a Johnny Senerchia power show. Senerchia came from the back of the field to take the lead from John Marshall on lap 18, and went on to win the race by nearly two seconds. It was his third win of the season.
"We had a lot of fun coming from the back there and getting around everybody," Senerchia said. "I got fortunate there that Keith (Sterkowitz) and Bill (Neering) weren't there (among the leaders). I would have loved to have raced with them, too.
"I was just trying to hit my laps. I started losing my brakes about halfway through the race. I had to pump them down the straightaway and do the best that I could."
Neering and Sterkowitz wound up third and fourth when all was said and done, with Mike Wienc fifth and Tommy Knippenberg sixth.
The turbostox feature saw a strong early run by leader Bobbie Jean Wall. But when it counted late in the race, it was Eddie Ligue picking up the victory by nearly a second over Tom Prim.
Ligue took the lead from Bill Serviss on lap 20. Prim captured second place just three laps from the finish. Serviss held on for third, ahead of Scott Gardner, Butch Wood and Mark Ross Jr.
In Pure Stocks action George Werner Jr. held on to pick up his first "A" feature win over Frank Goncher and Steve Wells. In the "B" Feature Mike Trnka won by a large margin over Tim Huminsky and Dee Warren.
ILLIANA SPEEDWAY
JUNE 2
SUMMARY
Late-Model
Qualifying: 1. Eddie Hoffman (19.675), 2. Jeff Cannon (19.705), 3. Mike White (19.751), 4. Josh Nelms (19.883), 5. Bobby Gash (20.002), 6. Mike Monroe (20.103), 7. Shaun Wiltjer (20.154), 8. Joe O'Connor (20.160), 9. John Nutley (20.170), 10. Chris Cooling (20.313), 11. Keith Sterkowitz (20.339), 12. Brian Muick (20.394), 13. Don Sabatino (20.534), 14. Bobby Hutton (20.684), 15. Tyler Middleton (21.783).
1st heat: 1. Wiltjer, 2. White, 3. Gash, 4. Hoffman, 5. Nelms, 6. Cannon, 7. O'Connor, 8. Monroe.
2nd heat: 1. Muick, 2. Nutley, 3. Cooling, 4. Hutton, 5. Middleton, 6. Sabatino.
25-lap feature: 1. Hoffman, 2. White, 3. Cannon, 4. Nutley, 5. O'Connor, 6. Nelms, 7. Wiltjer, 8. Monroe, 9. Muick, 10. Hutton, 11. Middleton, 12. Gash, 13. Cooling, 14. Sabatino.
Limited Late-Model
Qualifying: 1. Anthony Danta (20.290), 2. Tony D'Ambrose (20.296), 3. Joe Fadke (20.435), 4. Phil Splant (20.493), 5. Marc Hankosky (20.550), 6. Mike Marden (20.613), 7. Kevin McCann (21.044), 8. Paul Zolodz (21.130), 9. Joe Golobic (21.135), 10. Don Pettit (21.290), 11. Matt O'Leary (21.386), 12. Dennis Lyp (21.484), 13. Kevin Offdenkamp (21.744), 14. Brian Zeigler (21.816), 15. Rita Fields (25.659).
1st heat: 1. McCann, 2. Fadke, 3. D'Ambrose, 4. Splant, 5. Hankosky, 6. Marden, 7. Danta, 8. Zolodz.
2nd heat: 1. Pettit, 2. Golobic, 3. Lyp, 4. Zeigler, 5. John Finley, 6. O'Leary, 7. Offdenkamp, 8. Fields.
25-lap feature: 1. Splant, 2. McCann, 3. Fadke, 4. D'Ambrose, 5. Danta, 6. Zolodz, 7. Hankosky, 8. Marden, 9. Golobic, 10. Finley, 11. Pettit, 12. O'Leary, 13. Fields, 14. Lyp, 15. Zeigler, 16. Offdenkamp.
Mid-American
Qualifying: 1. John Senerchia (20.958), 2. John Marshall (21.167), 3. Tom Knippenberg (21.313), 4. Keith Sterkowitz (21.399), 5. Darrel Sills (21.436), 6. Bill Neering (21.449), 7. Dean Patterson (21.508), 8. Mike Wienc (21.602), 9. Tim Sehr (21.938).
Heat: 1. Neering, 2. Senerchia, 3. Wienc, 4. Patterson, 5. Knippenberg, 6. Marshall, 7. Sehr, 8. Sterkowitz, 9. Sills.
25-lap feature: 1. Senerchia, 2. Marshall, 3. Neering, 4. Sterkowitz, 5. Wienc, 6. Knippenberg, 7. Sills, 8. Patterson, 9. Sehr.
Turbostox
Qualifying: 1. Butch Wood (18.089), 2. Tony Neering (18.120), 3. Chris Woodall (18.132), 4. Scott Gardner (18.157), 5. Bill Serviss (18.226), 6. Tom Prim (18.244), 7. Eddie Ligue (18.247), 8. Tony Meier (18.328), 9. Mark Ross Jr. (18.447), 10. Scott Schick (18.458), 11. Pat O'Rourke (18.470), 12. Bobbie Jean Wall (18.516), 13. Josh Easto (18.588), 14. D.J. Wilson (18.689), 15. Pat Ligue (18.772), 16. Billy Jarrells (18.778), 17. Jerry Barnett (18.981), 18. Jeremy Banning (19.014), 19. Jeff Ogden (20.276).
1st heat: 1. T. Prim, 2. Meier, 3. Gardner, 4. Serviss, 5. Ross, 6. Wood, 7. E. Ligue, 8. Schick, 9. Woodall, 10. Neering.
2nd heat: 1. Jarrells, 2. Wilson, 3. Easto, 4. Wall, 5. O'Rourke, 6. P. Ligue, 7. Barnett, 8. Banning, 9. Ogden, 10. Arvia.
25-lap feature: 1. E. Ligue, 2. Prim, 3. Serviss, 4. Gardner, 5. Wood, 6. Ross, 7. Woodall, 8. Wall, 9. Neering, 10. O'Rourke, 11. Easto, 12. Meier, 13. Wilson, 14. Arvia, 15. Schick, 16. Barnett, 17. Ogden, 18. P. Ligue, 19. Jarrells, 20. Banning.
Pure Stocks
Heat Winners
Heat 1 - Bob Wall
Heat 2 - Mike Lindemulder
Heat 3 - Chris Czaszwicz
B - Feature
Mike Trnka
Tim Huminsky
Dee Warren
Chris Bogash
Ben McKown
A - Feature
George Werner Jr.
Frank Goncher
Steve Wells
Ryan Lagastee
Helen Nester
