By Tony Baranek
SCHERERVILLE, Ind. - Mike Monroe had more competition in just getting to Illiana Speedway than he could have possibly expected in Saturday night's late-model feature.
For starters, he hit a traffic jam on I-294 coming down from his home in Pell Lake, Wisc. Then one of his crew members broke down on Highway 30, and he had to get on I-394 to go pick him up. Before he could get there, an accident had closed down a portion of that road as well.
The bottom line? Late-model qualifying was already under way when Monroe finally arrived at the speedway at 5:30 p.m. But he wasn't too worried.
"I always tell people I might be late, but when the car gets put in the trailer, it's ready to race," Monroe said.
The No. 3 lived up to its reputation in the 25-lap feature. Monroe led every one of them to capture his first victory of 2007, beating track champion Mike White by 0.193 seconds.
Despite having just one leader, the race was an interesting one. Former track titlist John Nutley spent several laps lurking behind Monroe, and after a yellow flag on lap eight was able to challenge him in a few turns before Josh Nelms took over second place.
Nelms' best shot at Monroe was on lap 16. It appeared that he was ready to make a move when another yellow flag came out. Monroe was able to get off to a good restart, before White made a move on Nelms to take over the runnerup spot.
White had one restart on lap 20 to try and do something with Monroe, but...
"Ahhh... he was bringing us down so slow, he must be able to start in second gear," White said. "I don't have one. I have to start in third gear, so I can't get it up off the corner like he could.
"It didn't matter. We were tight anyhow, and his car looked like it was really good for him. It got interesting the last couple of laps because I think he looked in the mirror a little bit. But he drove a great race. We definitely had a shot to get him, and we couldn't do it. Good race by Mike."
Monroe said he actually appreciated the yellow flags, especially the one on lap 20 when White was closing in.
"Usually I get a lead like that and a yellow flag comes out, when we go back to green it's not good," Monroe said. "The longer we ran there tonight, I started picking up a push in the middle, and when we went back to green she was good for five laps. So I was actually glad to see that last yellow come out."
Points leaders Jeff Cannon finished in third place, while Nelms, Nutley and Bobby Gash completed the top six.
The limited late-model feature saw Phil Splant outduel Mike Marden during the early going, and hold off Westin Griffith Jr. at the finish to claim the victory.
Splant took the lead on lap five, and opened up as much as a half-straightaway advantage. But with Griffith running a distant second on lap 15, the yellow flag came out. That took away the big advantage, and put Splant in the position to try and fend off the same driver who passed him for a win in the heat race.
"It wasn't so easy. We really had to work at it tonight," Splant said. "The car wasn't quite right, not as good as I'd like it to be. Fortunately we started in a good position, and on that restart we just had to dig a little harder."
As it turned out, Griffith was more occupied with third place Kevin McCann than trying to catch Splant. Griffith and McCann had contact in Turn 4 on the final lap, but both managed to reel it in to finish 2-3. Fourth went to Mark Hankosky, followed by Joe Fadke and Paul Zolodz.
In the Mid-American main, Keith Sterkowitz won out in a good battle with points leader John Senerchia. The difference at the finish was 0.946 seconds, but it was closer than that during many laps.
"He (Senerchia) got me a couple of times squirrely, but he just couldn't make the pass," Sterkowitz said. "I gave him the outside a couple of times going into the corner. I really wasn't as good through the center of the corners like I usually am lately, but we didn't put any tires on tonight. We didn't buy any tires on because we were trying to save money."
Tim Sehr had a good run to capture third place. John Marshall, Tom Prim and Dean Patterson followed.
Tom Prim nailed down his third feature of the season in the turbostox class despite not being in the best of shape after running 25 hard laps in the Mid-American feature.
"I got out of the Mid-Am car and I was tired," he said. "I didn't think I was going to do that good. We did a different setup on the car tonight which I wasn't impressed with. We changed it back to my old setup, and the car handled better than it did during practice and qualifying. It stuck on the track like I wanted it to."
Prim beat Chris Woodall to the finish line by 0.596 seconds. Third went to Tony Neering, ahead of Bill Serviss, Brian Kucaba and Mark Ross Jr.
(Note, Prim was later DQ'd for motor infraction)
Mike Lindenmulder put the capper on "Kids Night" at Illiana with a victory in the pure stocks "A" feature, beating out Dave Jacobs.
Illiana Speedway summary July 21
Late-model
Qualifying: 1. Mike White (19.843), 2. Jeff Cannon (19.844), 3. Shaun Wiltjer (19.906), 4. Josh Nelms (19.935), 5. John Nutley (20.116), 6. Bobby Gash (20.125), 7. Mike Monroe (20.153), 8. Len Nowosel (20.192), 9. Chris Cooling (20.343), 10. Brian Muick (20.458), 11. Richard Ruckh (20.504), 12. Tony Brutti (20.511), 13. Don Sabatino (20.591), 14. Phil Bretz (21.214), 15. Eric Hill (21.487).
1st heat: 1. Monroe, 2. Nelms, 3. Cannon, 4. White, 5. Nutley, 6. Gash, 7. Wiltjer, 8. Nowosel.
2nd heat: 1. Brutti, 2. Cooling, 3. Muick, 4. Ruckh, 5. Sabatino, 6. Bretz, 7. Hill.
25-lap feature: 1. Monroe, 2. White, 3. Cannon, 4. Nelms, 5. Nutley, 6. Gash, 7. Nowosel, 8. Cooling, 9. Brutti, 10. Muick, 11. Sabatino, 12. Wiltjer, 13. Ruckh, 14. Bretz, 15. Hill.
Limited late-model
Qualifying: 1. Kevin McCann (20.259), 2. Marc Hankosky (20.405), 3. Joe Fadke (20.426), 4. Westin Griffith Jr. (20.552), 5. Paul Zolodz (20.663), 6. Mike Marden (20.708), 7. Phil Splant (20.754), 8. Rita Fields (21.084), 9. Joe Golobic (21.135), 10. Don Pettit (21.286), 11. John Finley (21.415), 12. Dennis Lyp (21.526), 13. Matt O'Leary (21.551), 14. Chuck MacTrinder (21.564), 15. Richard McGill (21.615), 16. Kevin Offdenkamp (21.624).
1st heat: 1. Griffith, 2. Splant, 3. Hankosky, 4. Marden, 5. Fadke, 6. McCann, 7. Zolodz, 8. Fields.
2nd heat: 1. MacTrinder, 2. Pettit, 3. Lyp, 4. Golobic, 5. McGill, 6. Finley, 7. O'Leary, 8. Offdenkamp.
25-lap feature: 1. Splant, 2. Griffith, 3. McCann, 4. Hankosky, 5. Fadke, 6. Zoldoz, 7. Marden, 8. Golobic, 9. Pettit, 10. Lyp, 11. Fields, 12. O'Leary, 13. Finley, 14. MacTrinder, 15. McGill, 16. Offdenkamp.
Mid-American
Qualifying: 1. Bill Neering (21.259), 2. John Senerchia (21.279), 3. Keith Sterkowitz (21.378), 4. John Marshall (21.508), 5. Dean Patterson (21.586), 6. Tim Sehr (21.645), 7. Tom Prim (21.803), 8. Darrell Sills (21.955).
Heat: 1. Senerchia, 2. Sills, 3. Marshall, 4. Sterkowitz, 5. Sehr, 6. Neering, 7. Prim, 8. Mike Wienc, 9. Patterson.
25-lap feature: 1. Sterkowitz, 2. Senerchia, 3. Sehr, 4. Marshall, 5. Prim, 6. Patterson, 7. Sills, 8. Wienc, 9. Neering.
Turbostox
Qualifying: 1. Bill Serviss (17.813), 2. Eddie Ligue (18.017), 3. Tony Meier (18.079), 4. Tom Prim (18.094), 5. Mark Ross Jr. (18.106), 6. Brian Kucaba (18.110), 7. Al Walowski (18.225), 8. Chris Woodall (18.231), 9. Tony Neering (18.239), 10. Jerry Barnett (18.391), 11. Bobbie Jean Wall (18.436), 12. Pat O'Rourke (18.438), 14. Pat Ligue (18.771).
1st heat: 1. Neering, 2. O'Rourke, 3. Barnett, 4. P. Ligue, 5. Wall, 6. D.J. Wilson.
2nd heat: 1. Woodall, 2. Kucaba, 3. Gardner, 4. Serviss, 5. Ross, 6. E. Ligue, 7. Prim, 8. Meier.
25-lap feature: (1. Prim - DQ'd), 2. Woodall, 3. Neering, 4. Serviss, 5. Kucaba,
6. Ross, 7. E. Ligue, 8. O'Rourke, 9. Meier, 10. Barnett, 11. Wall, 12. P. Ligue, 13. Gardner, 14. Wilson.
Pure stocks
1st heat: 1. Keith Vander Woude.
2nd heat: 1. Glenn Walker.
3rd heat: 1. Chris Czasawicz.
"B" feature: 1. Joe Moeglin, 2. Vander Woude, 3. Steve Reich, 4. Chris Bogash, 5. Brandon Dunne.
"A" feature: 1. Mike Lindenmulder, 2. Dave Jacobs, 3. Czasawicz, 4. Tim Cronin, 5. Frank Goncher.
