By: Tony Baranek
Mike White was sailing. But Eddie Hoffman was really charging.
Drama was most definitely building by lap 10 of Saturday night's late-model feature race at Illiana Speedway, where two of the best to ever grace the half-mile readied to do bumper-to-bumper and/or side-by-side battle.
Then, in a blink of an eye, it was over.
White's No. 00 went silent, the cause a blown motor. His final move, a good one, was to pull up to the top between Turns 3 and 4, and avoid the onrush of traffic.
The race, effectively, was over.
The way Hoffman was running, White might not have been able to hold him off anyway. Nobody else in the field would have anything for him later. A late yellow made things potentially interesting, but Hoffman still beat Boris Jurkovic to the finish line by 0.544 seconds.
Hoffman's second feature win of the season capped off a brilliant night in which the long-time veteran set fast qualifying time and came from the back of the pack to win the fast heat.
"The car was real good. It was real good in practice," Hoffman said. "We changed a few things from the last time we were here with this car. We're getting ready for CRA in a couple of weeks. Hopefully we're going in the right direction."
Hoffman didn't need but a few laps to get himself in the mix among the leaders. White, who started a few spots up in front of him, got the early jump and took the top spot away from Bobby Gash on lap three.
Hoffman was without question gaining fast on White during laps 9 and 10, before their would-be battle never materialized.
"I'm glad I wasn't on the outside of him. I was looking outside, or starting to," Hoffman said. "Then he went straight, so I don't know what happened. At least we didn't get tangled up there. I was looking forward to doing a little bit of racing."
Gash inherited second place for the restart, but he was quickly dispatched by Jurkovic. Jurkovic hung within four car-lengths of Hoffman much the rest of the way and had one restart to work with two laps from the end, but never got into position to move.
Third place went to Jeff Cannon, ahead of Josh Nelms. Gash and Mike Monroe completed the top six.
Marc Hankosky was well back in third place on lap 11 of the limited late-model main, when Jeff McCann and leader Mike Marden had heavy contact in Turn 3.
Marden spun and had to restart in the back of the pack. McCann would have gone to the back, but instead pulled off the track. That left Hankosky in front, and he went on to post a comfortable victory over Joe Fadke.
Right place, right time? And maybe a little lucky?
"I would have passed them on the outside," Hankosky said of the two ill-fated leaders.
Seriously?
"My car was working good on the outside tonight," he said, smiling. "I passed two cars in the heat on the outside. I was planning in the feature on doing some passing on the outside.
"As much as I would have liked to have raced against those guys, I know how racing is."
Fadke, A.J. D'Ambrose and Phil Splant had a good battle behind the winner, and finished second through fourth in that order. Fifth went to Paul Zolodz, while Marden made a strong run from the back to claim sixth.
Johnny Senerchia prevailed again in the Mid-American feature, chasing down and passing Bill Neering on lap 18. The battle didn't end there, however, as Neering stayed with Senerchia on the outside for several laps before finally dropping back.
"I wanted to run (Neering) clean," Senerchia said. "He's been running me clean all year. We've had our problems in the past, but all this year we've had a lot of fun racing. One time we touched, and I gave him the position back. I just try to be patient and clean with these guys."
Neering lost second place to Keith Sterkowitz late in the running, but was able to get it back by making a slick move when the duo encountered a slower car on lap 24. Sterkowitz was third, followed by Dean Patterson.
The turbostox main was a competitive affair, with Tom Prim making a late move on Bill Serviss to claim the checkered flag. It was his second of the season.
"The last couple of laps, I thought me and Bill were tied together," Prim said, smiling. "We were having the same kind of lap times, and I wasn't catching him. Then I started catching him, and when I caught him in three and four, I watched him wash up coming off the turn. I passed him clean down the straightaway."
Chris Woodall was third, followed by Scott Gardner and Bobbie Jean Wall.
Tim Cronin mastered the pure stocks field in the "A" main, beating out Rich Dearborn and Bob Rohweder. The "B" main went to Jim Kunis, ahead of Charlie Burgess and Jason Kolbe.
ILLIANA SPEEDWAY SUMMARY JUNE 9
Late-Model
Qualifying: 1. Eddie Hoffman (19.495), 2. Boris Jurkovic (19.523), 3. Jeff Cannon (19.615), 4. Mike Monroe (19.918), 5. Mike White (20.075), 6. Josh Nelms (20.126), 7. John Nutley (20.171), 8. Shaun Wiltjer (20.191), 9. Bobby Gash (20.229), 10. Tom Knippenberg (20.328), 11. Don Sabatino (20.755), 12. Bobby Hutton (20.950), 13. Tyler Middleton (21.220), 14. Keith Sterkowitz (24.781).
1st heat: 1. Hoffman, 2. Wiltjer, 3. Monroe, 4. Nelms, 5. White, 6. Jurkovic, 7. Cannon, 8. Nutley.
2nd heat: 1. Gash, 2. Knippenberg, 3. Andy Marchiniak, 4. Hutton, 5. Middleton.
25-lap feature: 1. Hoffman, 2. Jurkovic, 3. Cannon, 4. Nelms, 5. Gash, 6. Monroe, 7. Wiltjer, 8. Knippenberg, 9. Nutley, 10. Hutton, 11. Middleton, 12. Marchiniak, 13. White (engine failure while leading on lap 11).
Limited Late-Model
Qualifying: 1. Kevin McCann (20.358), 2. A.J. D'Ambrose (20.364), 3. Phil Splant (20.440), 4. Marc Hankosky (20.576), 5. Joe Fadke (20.653), 6. Mike Marden (20.719), 7. Paul Zolodz (20.987), 8. Joe Golobic (21.093), 9. John Finley (21.113), 10. Brian Zeigler (21.230), 11. Austin Woodham (21.247), 12. Dennis Lyp (21.353), 13. Don Pettit (21.493), 14. Kevin Offdenkamp (21.606), 15. Rita Fields (21.739), 16. Richard McGill (21.806).
1st heat: 1. Fadke, 2. Zolodz, 3. Splant, 4. D'Ambrose, 5. Hankosky, 6. McCann, 7. Marden, 8. Golobic.
2nd heat: 1. Pettit, 2. Finley, 3. Lyp, 4. McGill, 5. Woodham, 6. O'Leary, 7. Fields, 8. Offdenkamp, 9. Zeigler.
25-lap feature: 1. Hankosky, 2. Fadke, 3. D'Ambrose, 4. Splant, 5. Zolodz, 6. Marden, 7. Finley, 8. Pettit, 9. Lyp, 10. O'Leary, 11. McGill, 12. Fields, 13. Offdenkamp, 14. Golobic, 15. Zeigler, 16. McCann, 17. Woodham.
Mid-American
Qualifying: 1. John Senerchia (21.034), 2. Keith Sterkowitz (21.221), 3. John Marshall (21.341), 4. Frank Dignam (21.425), 5. Bill Neering (21.457), 6. Dean Patterson (21.507), 7. Tom Prim (21.561), 8. Mike Wienc (21.616), 9. Darrel Sills (21.954), 10. Tim Sehr (21.978), 11. Joe Alexander (DNQ), 12. Tony Alexander (DNQ).
1st heat: 1. Patterson, 2. Marshall, 3. Senerchia, 4. Sterkowitz, 5. Neering, 6. Dignam.
2nd heat: 1. Sills, 2. Sehr, 3. Wienc, 4. Prim, 5. J. Alexander, 6. T. Alexander.
25-lap feature: 1. Senerchia, 2. Neering, 3. Sterkowitz, 4. Patterson, 5. Marshall, 6. Dignam, 7. Sills, 8. Wienc, 9. Sehr, 10. J. Alexander, 11. T. Alexander.
Turbostox
Qualifying: 1. Tom Prim (18.102), 2. Eddie Ligue (18.173), 3. Scott Gardner (18.178), 4. Pat O'Rourke (18.357), 5. Scott Schick (18.406), 6. Josh Easto (18.443), 7. Bill Serviss (18.466), 8. Billy Jarrells (18.590), 9. Tony Neering (18.626), 10. D.J. Wilson (18.631), 11. Bobbie Jean Wall (18.642), 12. Matt Arvia (18.662), 13. Chris Woodall (18.665), 14. Pat Ligue (18.781), 15. Jerry Barnett (18.917), 16. Tim Argus (19.003), 17. Brian Kucaba (19.142), 18. Al Walowski (20.274), 19. Mark Ross, Jr. (21.331).
1st heat: 1. Woodall, 2. Arvia, 3. Ross, 4. Kucaba, 5. Barnett, 6. Wall, 7. Argus, 8. P. Ligue, 9. Walowski.
2nd heat: 1. Neering, 2. Jarrells, 3. Schick, 4. O'Rourke, 5. Prim, 6. E. Ligue, 7. Gardner, 8. Wilson, 9. Easto, 10. Serviss.
25-lap feature: 1. Prim, 2. Serviss, 3. Woodall, 4. Gardner, 5. Wall, 6. Ross, 7. Neering, 8. E. Ligue, 9. O'Rourke, 10. Wilson, 11. Schick, 12. Jarrells, 13. Arvia, 14. Easto, 15. P. Ligue, 16. Walowski, 17. Barnett, 18. Kucaba, 19. Argus.
Pure Stocks
1st heat: 1. Ben McKown
2nd heat: 1. Bob Rohweder
3rd heat: 1. Mike Lindemulder
B Feature: 1. Jim Kunis, 2. Charlie Burgess, 3. Jason Kolbe, 4. Ryan Gilliam, 5. John Seniw.
A Feature: 1. Tim Cronin, 2. Rich Dearborn, 3. Rohweder, 4. Chris Czaszwicz, 5. Helen Nester, 6. Rob Blood.
