By: Tony Baranek
A late yellow flag set up what appeared to be a six-lap dash to the finish between Josh Nelms and Mike Monroe in Saturday night's late-model feature at Illiana Speedway.
But third-running Jeff Cannon had other ideas.
The current points leader instead turned the last six laps into his own personal power show, taking his No. 33 to the high side and blowing past first, Monroe, and then Nelms.
Cannon wound up beating Nelms to the finish line by 0.593 seconds. It was his third win of the 2007 season.
Cannon was more or a less a spectator for the first half of the race, which saw a tremendous side-by-side battle up front between Nelms and Andy Marchiniak. Monroe and Cannon, running third and fourth, didn't really have any options until those two sorted themselves out. Cannon, actually, had some early problems of his own to deal with.
"I was just trying to go around the track," he said. "My car was so tight, I couldn't make it. I started putting rear brake into it so I could get it turned in, and finally I got there."
Before Cannon "got there," Nelms was finally able to clear Marchiniak on the bottom. Monroe soon after moved into second, and the yellow flag on lap 19 tightened things up for a restart. Neither could have known just what Cannon had in store for them.
"I didn't want to see that caution," Nelms said. "My crate motor was sluggish on the restarts. I had to hold the bottom, and when I'm holding I'm scrubbing off speed.
"I gave Cannon the outside lane. He ran me real good. But to finish second here with a crate motor is like a win for us."
Monroe held off a last-lap challenge from Nutley to claim third. Fifth went to Marchiniak, ahead of Joe O'Connor, Tom Knippenberg and Shawn Wiltjer.
Joe Fadke ended a season-long dry spell with an impressive run in the limited late-model main.
Fadke took the lead from Paul Zolodz in Turn 4 on lap 13, and kept Phil Splant at arm's-length the rest of the way.
"It was great. We actually finally got the car hooked up off the corners for the first time all summer," Fadke said. "We just didn't want to wait until the end of the year to get our first win. We've got a real close, tight points battle with Phil."
Fadke crossed the line 0.875 seconds ahead of Splant. Marc Hankosky was third, followed by Mike Marden, Kevin McCann and Zolodz.
Bill Neering had an early battle with Darrel Sills, but it was no contest in the second half of the Mid-American feature. It was Neering's second win of the season.
"I had a little bit of problems in the heat race," Neering said. "Dave Dotter did some magic on the car, and it was good. Darrel Sills didn't want to give up, but once we cleared him it was good.
"I know it was like a big lead (for the fans to watch), but I wasn't giving Kevin Moenck and Johnny (Senerchia) any chance to catch me."
Moenck was nearly three seconds behind the leader when the checkered flag fell. Senerchia, the division points leader, was third. John Marshall, Sills and Dean Patterson completed the top six.
Tom Prim to captured the Turbo Stock feature over Chris Woodall and Tony Neering. Prim originally finished fourth but was awarded the win after Butch Wood, Eddie Ligue and Tony Meier were all DQ'd for rules infractions
The pure stocks "A" feature race went to Frank Goncher, over Mike Lindemulder and Steve Wells. The "B" feature was won by Charlie Burgess over Steve Reich and Tom Rainford.
ILLIANA SPEEDWAY SUMMARY JUNE 30
Late-model
Qualifying: 1. Jeff Cannon (19.860), 2. Pat Kelly (19.870), 3. Bobby Gash (19.951), 4. Josh Nelms (19.970), 5. Shaun Wiltjer (20.126), 6. Andy Marchiniak (20.132), 7. John Nutley (20.178), 8. Mike Monroe (20.238), 9. Joe O'Connor (20.287), 10. Tommy Knippenberg (20.293), 11. Chris Cooling (20.497), 12. Don Sabatino (20.880), 13. Tyler Middleton (21.039), 14. Richard Ruckh (21.177), 15. Chris King (21.490), 16. Phil Bretz
1st heat: 1. Monroe, 2. Marchiniak, 3. Cannon, 4. Nelms, 5. Nutley, 6. Wiltjer, 7. Kelly, 8. Gash.
2nd heat: 1. Knippenberg, 2. Cooling, 3. O'Connor, 4. Ruckh, 5. Sabatino, 6. Middleton.
25-lap feature: 1. Cannon, 2. Nelms, 3. Monroe, 4. Nutley, 5. Marchiniak, 6. O'Connor, 7. Knippenberg, 8. Wiltjer, 9. Cooling, 10. Ruckh, 11. Sabatino, 12. Middleton, 13. Kelly.
Limited late-model
Qualifying: 1. Joe Fadke (20.480), 2. Phil Splant (20.480), 3. Kevin McCann (20.568), 4. Marc Hankosky (20.624), 5. Mike Marden (20.706), 6. Paul Zolodz (21.117), 7. Joe Golobic (21.196), 8. Kevin Offdenkamp (21.292), 9. Don Pettit (21.349), 10. Brian Zeigler (21.463), 11. Rita Fields (21.639), 12. Dennis Lyp (21.688), 13. John Finley (21.854), 14. Richard McGill (21.878), 15. Matt O'Leary (22.084).
1st heat: 1. Hankosky, 2. Splant, 3. Fadke, 4. McCann, 5. Marden, 6. Zolodz, 7. Golobic, 8. Offdenkamp.
2nd heat: 1. Finley, 2. Pettit, 3. Lyp, 4. Fields, 5. McGill, 6. Zeigler, 7. O'Leary.
25-lap feature: 1. Fadke, 2. Splant, 3. Hankosky, 4. Marden, 5. McCann, 6. Zolodz, 7. Golobic, 8. Offdenkamp, 9. Zeigler, 10. Finley, 11. Pettit, 12. O'Leary, 13. Lyp, 14. McGill, 15. Fields.
Mid-American
Qualifying: 1. Kevin Moenck (20.948), 2. John Senerchia (21.070), 3. John Marshall (21.089), 4. DeanPatterson (21.232), 5. Bill Neering (21.251), 6. Darrell Sills (21.521), 7. Tim Sehr (21.644), 8. Mike Wienc (21.694), 9. Tom Prim (21.695), 10. Brad Schug (21.829), 11. Tony Alexander (22.554).
1st heat: 1. Neering, 2. Senerchia, 3. Patterson, 4. Marshall, 5. Moenki, 6. Sills.
2nd heat: 1. Prim, 2. Wienc, 3. Sehr, 4. Schug, 5. Alexander.
25-lap feature: 1. Neering, 2. Moenck, 3. Senerchia, 4. Marshall, 5. Sills, 6. Patterson, 7. Wienc, 8. Prim, 9. Sehr.
Turbostox
Qualifying: 1. Bill Serviss (17.866), 2. Ed Ligue (17.874), 3. Tony Neering (17.973), 4. Tom Prim (18.007), 5. Mark Ross Jr. (18.104), 6. Chris Woodall (18.113), 7. Butch Wood (18.129), 8. Tony Meier (18.179), 9. D.J. Wilson (18.517), 10. Josh Easto (18.553), 11. Billy Jarrells (18.570), 12. Pat Ligue (18.571), 13. Pat O'Rourke (18.602), 14. Bobbie Jean Wall (18.716), 15. Tim Argus (18.790), 16. Jerry Barnett (18.928).
1st heat: 1. Barnett, 2. Wall, 3. O'Rourke, 4. Jarrells, 5. Easto, 6. Wilson, 7. Argus, 8. Dean Patterson.
2nd heat: 1. Wood, 2. Prim, 3. Meier, 4. Neering, 5. Ed Ligue, 6. Serviss, 7. Ross, 8. Woodall.
25-lap feature: 4. Prim, 5. Woodall, 6. Neering, 7. Serviss, 8. Ross, 9. O'Rourke, 10. Barnett, 11. Wilson, 12. Jarrells, 13. Easto, 14. Wall, 15. Argus,16. Pat Ligue, 17. Patterson.
Pure stocks
1st heat: 1. James Sal.
2nd heat: 1. Rich Dearborn.
3rd heat: 1. Mike Lindemulder.
"B" feature: 1. Charlie Burgess, 2. Steve Reich, 3. Tom Rainford, 4. Jacob McKown, 5. Chris Bogash.
"A" feature: 1. Frank Goncher, 2. Lindemulder, 3. Steve Wells, 4. Tim Cronin, 5. Dave Jacobs.
