By Tony Baranek
For much of Saturday night's late-model feature at Illiana Speedway, Jeff Cannon was an observer. An interested spectator.
Cannon was running third behind frontrunners John Nutley and Josh Nelms. The duo in front of him were running side by side.
"Neither one of them was giving up," Cannon said. "It was a good race to watch. But I had to put it in there eventually."
When Nutley cleared Nelms via the outside on lap 20, Cannon seized an opportunity and got underneath Nelms. One lap later Cannon was gliding past Nutley, just as he is toward the 2007 track title.
Cannon went on to beat Nutley to the finish line by 1.927 seconds. It was Cannon's fifth win of the season.
The side-by-side battle between Nutley and Nelms was a classic. Nelms only recently arrived on the late-model scene, but is a former Mid-American titlist at Illiana.
"Running side by side like that, I was just hoping me and him could run like that and hold everybody else off," Nutley said. "I wanted it, and I knew he wanted his first (late-model) win. I wasn't going to give it to him. When Cannon came up on me, I thought Josh was still there. I didn't know it was Cannon."
He found out in a hurry. After the pass, Nutley fell back into a gaggle of frontrunners that included Mike Monroe, Mike White and Dave Weltmeyer. He survived a near spin in lapped traffic and posted a strong second place finish. Nelms was third, followed by Monroe, Weltmeyer and Bobby Gash. White developed handling problems and had to pull his No. 00 out of the race. He finished 17th.
Phil Splant maintained his spot atop the limited late-model standings with a standout performance in the 25-lap main.
Splant, who came into the night 28 points ahead of Joe Fadke, took the lead from Marc Hankosky on lap 15, and survived two late restarts with Fadke on his bumper.
"Donnie kept telling me, 'Keep it down. Joe wants to get under you. Just don't overdrive it and stay smooth,' " Splant said of crew chief Don Kritenbrink. "It's so easy to get overexcited. But we kept her together, rolled through and the car was awesome tonight."
Fadke gained some points on Splant earlier in the night by setting fast qualifying time. But what he gained early, he lost late. Splant doesn't need to beat Fadke in next week's "Championship Night" feature to win the 2007 title, but he does need a good finish to assure it.
"Oh, man, this one felt good," Splant said. "We needed this. No racing for how long (due to rainouts), and we want to win this championship. Joe's been hot on us, so this feels great. We're leaving like we came in. So next week is another battle. The last battle."
Third place in Saturday's main went to A.J. D'Ambrose. Sean Murphy, Doug Hayes and Joe Golobic rounded out the top six.
Former Mid-American track champ Kevin Moenck has only been an occasional visitor this season, but Saturday he showed he hadn't lost his edge. Moenck took the top spot from John Senerchia early on, and then when Senerchia drew back up underneath him, he won a white-knuckle last lap battle from the outside.
The margin of victory was a scant 0.030 seconds.
"That was a good time," Moenck said. "I did everything I could to stay in front of John. I thought I still had a shot on the outside. I came into Turn 3 until I saw God, and it stuck. John run me hard, he run me clean. You can't ask for anything more than that."
Bill Neering checked in behind Moenck and Senerchia to capture third place. Dean Patterson, John Marshall and Tim Sehr followed.
A wild finish in the turbostox feature saw Mark Ross Jr. make heavy contact with leader Bobbie Jean Wall coming out of Turn 4. Wall kept from spinning around, but Ross was able to drop down underneath and take the win.
"That was so crazy at the end," Ross said. "Everybody was bumping into everybody. I was trying to get past (Wall). I didn't want to spin her out or anything. But I was getting bumped from behind, too."
Wall had led from laps two through 24, most of them with a bumper right behind her. She kept her No. 77 on a straight and steady course, however. But the last lap would prove to be different.
"Yeah, I got hit," she said. "I tried to stay in it. I tried my hardest. That's the hardest I've ever driven."
Wall's second place finish was her best ever. Tony Neering was third, followed by Bill Serviss, Eddie Ligue and Mike Carpenter Jr.
Mike Lindenmulder took over the points lead in the pure stocks division by capturing the 'A' feature over Steve Wells and Bob Rohweder.
Super late-model
Qualifying: 1. Jeff Cannon (19.765), 2. Andy Marchiniak (19.946), 3. Mike White (19.976), 4. Josh Nelms (20.102), 5. Dave Weltmeyer (20.133), 6. John Nutley (20.135), 7. Shaun Wiltjer (20.189), 8. Joe O'Connor (20.389), 9. Brian Schwartz (20.408), 10. Bobby Gash (20.431), 11. Sscott Koerner (20.588), 12. Brian Muick (20.716), 13. Keith Parker (20.865), 14. Don Sabatino (21.067), 15. Tyler Middleton (21.440), 16. Mike Monroe (DNQ), 17 Eric Hill (DNQ).
1st heat: 1. Nutley, 2. Wiltjer, 3. Weltmeyer, 4. Nelms, 5. White, 6. Cannon, 7. Marchiniak, 8. O'Connor.
2nd heat: 1. Gash, 2. Monroe, 3. Koerner, 4. Muick, 5. Marden, 6. Schwartz, 7. Parker, 8. Middleton, 9. Sabatino, 10. Hill.
30-lap feature: 1. Cannon, 2. Nutley, 3. Nelms, 4. Monroe, 5. Weltmeyer, 6. Gash, 7. Wiltjer, 8. O'Connor, 9. Marden, 10. Schwartz, 11. Koerner, 12. Marchiniak, 13. Middleton, 14. Parker, 15. Muick, 16. Sabatino, 17. White, 18. Hill.
Limited late-model
Qualifying: 1. Joe Fadke (20.450), 2. Kevin McCann (20.485), 3. A.J. D'Ambrose (20.507), 4. Phil Splant (20.635), 5. Doug Hayes (20.649), 6. Marc Hankosky (20.795), 7. Dennis Lyp (20.843), 8. Sean Murphy (20.867), 9. Paul Zolodz (21.126), 10. Joe Golobic (21.291), 11. Don Pettit (21.367), 12. John Finley (21.377), 13. Rita Fields (21.510), 14, Matt O'Leary (21.846), 15. Kevin Offdenkamp (21.964), 16. Austin Woodham (23.322).
1st heat: 1. Murphy, 2. Hankosky, 3. Splant, 4. Fadke, 5. D'Ambrose, 6. McCann, 7. Lyp, 8. Hayes.
2nd heat: 1. Zolodz, 2. Pettit, 3. Fields, 4. Finley, 5. Golobic, 6. O'Leary, 7. Offdenkamp, 8. Woodham.
25-lap feature: 1. Splant, 2. Fadke, 3. D'Ambrose, 4. Murphy, 5. Hayes, 6. Golobic, 7. McCann, 8. Pettit, 9. Fields, 10. O'Leary, 11. Hankosky, 12. Offdenkamp, 13. Lyp, 14. Zolodz, 15. Woodham, 16. Finley.
Mid-American
Qualifying: 1. John Senerchia (21.134), 2. Kevin Moenck (21.161), 3. Bill Neering (21.268), 4. Tom Prim (21.306), 5. John Marshall (21.455), 6. Dean Patterson (21.545), 7. Tim Sehr (21.632), 8. Darrel Sills (21.685), 9. Mike Wienc (22.171).
Heat: 1. Patterson, 2. Neering, 3. Sills, 4. Prim, 5. Moenck, 6. Senerchia, 7. Marshall, 8. Sehr, 9. Wienc.
Turbostox
Qualifying: 1. Eddie Ligue (18.068), 2. Bill Serviss (18.099), 3. Mark Ross Jr. (18.171), 4. Mike Carpenter Jr. (18.214), 5. Tony Neering (18.224), 6. Chris Woodall (18.230), 7. Pat O'Rourke (18.332), 8. Brian Kucaba (18.383), 9. Tony Meier (18.406), 10. Tom Prim (18.410), 11. Bobbie Jean Wall (18.605), 12. Billy Jarrells (18.642), 13. Josh Easto (18.647), 14. D.J. Wilson (18.680), 15. Jerry Barnett (18.688), 16. Pat Ligue (18.742), 17. Matt Arvia (18.867), 18. Jacob McKown (19.044), 19. Jeremy Banning (19.065), 20. Lahcen Bouhaddi (23.514).
1st heat: 1. P. Ligue, 2. Jarrells, 3. Wilson, 4. Barnett, 5. Easto, 6. Arvia, 7. Wall, 8. Banning, 9. McKown.
2nd heat: 1. Prim, 2. Kucaba, 3. Neering, 4. Carpenter, 5. Serviss, 6. E. Ligue, 7. Ross, 8. Meier, 9. O'Rourke, 10. Woodall.
25-lap feature: 1. Ross, 2. Wall, 3. Neering, 4. Serviss, 5. E. Ligue, 6. Carpenter, 7. Woodall, 8. Kucaba, 9. Barnett, 10. Wilson, 11. Arvia, 12. Jarrells, 13. Banning, 14. McKown, 15. Meier, 16. O'Rourke, 17. P. Ligue, 18. Prim, 19. Easto.
Pure stocks
1st heat: 1. Chris Albertson, 2. Dee Warren.
2nd heat: 1. Craig Miller, 2. George Werner.
3rd heat: 1. Mike Lindenmulder, 2. Tim Cronin.
'B' main: 1. Albertson, 2. John Seniw, 3. Mike Gerike, 4. Charlie Burgess, 5. Bryan Keen.
'A' main: 1. Lindenmulder, 2. Steve Wells, 3. Bob Rohweder, 4. Paul McKeague, 5. Chris Czasawicz.
