By Tony Baranek
Eddie Hoffman always thinks he can win when he goes to the race track. But thinking it's a sure thing? Not as often.
Saturday, for example, he probably wouldn't have bet the mortgage on winning the 40-lap late-model season championship race at Illiana Speedway.
Not with Jeff Cannon around.
"Deep down, I didn't think so, especially the way he took off and the way he's been running," Hoffman said.
Hoffman then drove his No. 8 onto the scales for the post-race victory inspection.
The Wheaton native didn't win by a lot, but he won comfortably. It was a good tuneup for next week's "Bettenhausen Memorial," which will close the books on the late-model season at Illiana.
"That had to be some of the most intense racing I've done in some time," Hoffman said of a side-by-side battle he had with Cannon before taking control via the low groove on lap 31.
Cannon went on to finish third. He left the track, however, as the track champion for the first time.
"I'm really happy to have won the championship," Cannon said. "I've got a great bunch of guys backing me. I wish I could have done a little better for them tonight. We had a good car."
The drive of the night was turned in by Mike White. On lap 20, White was attempting to take second place away from his brother-in-law Boris Jurkovic when they had contact out of Turn 2. Jurkovic wound up spinning around, and both were sent to the tail end of the 23-car pack for the restart.
White went on to make a gallant charge through the field, eventually finishing second.
"It's too bad that we had to come from the back," White said. "I don't believe there was anything I could have done different about it. I did all I could (to avoid the contact with Jurkovic), but that happened. It's too bad because the car was perfect. We might have been able to win this thing."
Veteran Larry Schuler finished fourth, followed by early race leader Bobby Gash. John Nutley was sixth.
Joe Fadke captured the 30-lap limited late-model feature, but Phil Splant won out in their season long battle for the division title.
The two ran bumper-to-bumper in front for the better part of the race. Splant appeared to be a tick faster than Fadke, but didn't make any desperation moves.
"Any other night I would have given him a little bit more," Splant said. "I think I had a little bit more for him. But Joe was fast. He did a good job blocking me like he should have and kept me where he needed to.
"Winning the championship is pretty cool, isn't it? My first time ever."
Fadke came into the night knowing that he would not only need to beat Splant, but have several spots between them in order to overtake him.
"Phil did a good job all summer. Congratulations to him and his crew," Fadke said. "He was looking at the big picture tonight. But we've raced clean all summer long."
Behind the top two, Hoffman drove his limited No. 8 to a third-place finish. Marc Hankosky, Sean Murphy and Westin Griffith followed.
Kevin Moenck made it two in a row in the Mid-American division, while Johnny Senerchia used a second place finish to wrap up a track championship.
Moenck took the lead from Keith Sterkowitz on lap 17 and went from there.
"I don't know if it was easy," Moenck said. "The car was a little loose. They were racing hard (ahead of him). I just went to the outside hoping I could do something there, and I could.
"I've got to thank Johnny (Senerchia). I've got his distributor in the car tonight, and he actually helped me last week, too. That's pretty cool."
Senerchia didn't challenge for the win, but was able to take second away from Sterkowitz on lap 21.
"I wanted to get through (the pack) and get to Kevin and have a finish like we did last week," Senerchia said. "I've been having a lot of fun racing with him."
Senerchia won the Mid-American title at Grundy County Speedway in 2006. He didn't defend at Grundy, instead choosing to race full-time at Illiana in 2007.
"The last five nights last year we got this car going here," Senerchia said. "I never really changed it. I've left it the same."
Eddie Ligue was the victor in the turbostox main. Bill Serviss, meanwhile, locked down his second track title with a fourth place finish.
Ligue took the lead from Tom Prim on lap 16 and held on tight for the rest of the 25-lap event. It was Ligue's third win of the season, his first behind the wheel of Scott Gardner's No. 113.
"Scott's car is fast," Ligue said. "I mean, it's one good car. If we'd had this car all year we'd have had a chance at the title. The 113 is a really consistent car."
Serviss, meanwhile, had a 15-point lead over Chris Woodall coming into the nighyt. Woodall finished right behind Serviss in fifth place in the main, but it became a moot point when his car was disqualified in a post-race inspection.
"It feels good," Serviss said. "I thought I never had a chance this year. But we started slowly creeping up. Johnny Senerchia, man, he did awesome helping with me with this car. Rizzuti built me a great motor. I've been really blessed."
The pure stocks "A" main went to Craig Miller, over Jim Beasley, Bobby Blood and Helen Nester.
Summary
Late-model
Qualifying: 1. Jeff Cannon (19.612), 2. Eddie Hoffman (19.652), 3. Boris Jurkovic (19.690), 4. Mike White (19.725), 5. Josh Nelms (19.936), 6. Chris Cooling (20.017), 7. Brett Sontag (20.052), 8. Larry Schuler (20.067), 9. Bobby Gash (20.096), 10. Shaun Wiltjer (20.103), 11. John Nutley (20.110), 12. Len Nowosel (20.246), 13. Stevie Campbell (20.262), 14. Brian Schwartz (20.273), 15. Mike Marden (20.318), 16. Scott Koerner (20.324), 17. Rich Segvich (20.456), 18. Tony Brutti (20.535), 19. Chuck MacTrinder (20.546), 20. Joel Pejkovich (20.584), 21. Tyler Middleton (20.594), 22. Keith Parker (20.608), 23. Brian Muick (20.667), 24. Bob Johnson (20.672), 25. Don Sabatino (20.691), 26. Mike Monroe (20.692), 27. Phil Bretz (20.898), 28. Richard Ruckh (20.912), 29. Eric Hill (21.338).
1st heat: 1. Gash, 2. Nelms, 3. Cooling, 4. Hoffman, 5. Cannon, 6. Schuler, 7. White, 8. Wiltjer, 9. Jurkovic, 10. Sontag.
2nd heat: 1. Segvich, 2. Nutley, 3. MacTrinder, 4. Campbell, 5. Nowosel, 6. Schwartz, 7. Koerner, 8. Pejkovich, 9. Brutti, 10. Marden.
3rd heat: 1. Monroe, 2. Parker, 3. Sabatino, 4. Muick, 5. Ruckh, 6. Johnson, 7. Middleton, 8. Hill, 9. Bretz.
Semi: 1. Muick, 2. Monroe, 3. Johnson, 4. Sabatino, 5. Hill, 6. Ruckh, 7. Bretz.
40-lap feature: 1. Hoffman, 2. White, 3. Cannon, 4. Schuler, 5. Gash, 6. Nutley, 7. Cooling, 8. Jurkovic, 9. Nowosel, 10. Marden, 11, Campbell, 12. Schwartz, 13. Koerner, 14. Nelms, 15. MacTrinder, 16. Pejkovich, 17. Muick, 18. Middleton, 19. Sabatino, 20. Monroe, 21. Parker, 22. Segvich, 23. Brutti.
Limited late-model
Qualifying: 1. Eddie Hoffman (20.231), 2. Phil Splant (20.269), 3. Marc Hankosky (20.277), 4. Joe Fadke (20.383), 5. Sean Murphy (20.384), 6. Paul Zolodz (20.787), 7. Doug Hayes (20.955), 8. John Finley (20.964), 9. Dennis Lyp (20.966), 10. Joe Golobic (21.047), 11. Gary Schalmo (21.097), 12. Rita Fields (21.268), 13. Don Pettit (21.280), 14. Austin Woodham (21.584), 15. Kevin Offdenkamp (21.775), 16. Matt O'Leary (21.905).
1st heat: 1. Splant, 2. Finley, 3. Hankosky, 4. Fadke, 5. Murphy, 6. Zolodz, 7. Hayes, 8. Hoffman.
2nd heat: 1. Lyp, 2. Golobic, 3. Pettit, 4. Schalmo, 5. O'Leary, 6. Fields, 7. Woodham, 8. Offdenkamp.
30-lap feature: 1. Fadke, 2. Splant, 3. Hoffman, 4. Hankosky, 5. Murphy, 6. Westin Griffith, 7. Finley, 8. Zolodz, 9. Hayes, 10 Pettit, 11. Schalmo, 12. Lyp, 13. Golobic, 14. Fields, 15. O'Leary, 16. Woodham, 17. Offdenkamp.
Mid-American
Qualifying: 1. John Senerchia (21.030), 2. Bill Neering (21.197), 3. John Marshall (21.232), 4. Dean Patterson (21.325), 5. Tom Prim (21.458), 6. Keith Sterkowitz (21.484), 7. Tim Sehr (21.790), 8. Mike Wienc (21.734), 9. Stacy Kelley (21.790), 10. Brad Schug (21.820), 11. Kevin Moenck (DNQ).
Heat: 1. Sterkowitz, 2. Patterson, 3. Neering, 4. Marshall, 5. Senerchia, 6. Sehr, 7. Kelley, 8. Moenk, 9. Schug, 10. Prim, 11. Wienc.
30-lap feature: 1. Moenk, 2. Senerchia, 3. Sterkowitz, 4. Wienc, 5. Patterson, 6. Prim, 7. Sehr, 8. Neering, 9. Marshall, 10. Kelley, 11. Schug.
Turbostox
Qualifying: 1. Bill Serviss (18.101), 2. Craig Coglianese (18.118), 3. Mike Carpenter Jr. (18.118), 4. Eddie Ligue (18.125), 5. Mark Ross Jr. (18.141), 6. Pat O'Rourke (18.263), 7. Tony Meier (18.266), 8. Tony Neering (18.280), 9. Chris Woodall (18.332), 10. D.J. Wilson (18.366), 11. Tom Prim (18.372), 12. Brian Kucaba (18.387), 13. Billy Jarrells (18.444), 14. Bobbie Jean Wall (18.460), 15. Scott Gardner (18.492), 16. Jerry Barnett (18.751), 17. Matt Arvia (18.765), 18. Laucen Bouhaddi (22.064), 19. Josh Easto (DNQ), 20. Armand Artuso (DNQ).
1st heat: 1. Woodall, 2. Ligue, 3. Neering, 4. Coglianese, 5. O'Rourke, 6. Carpenter, 7. Ross, 8. Serviss, 9. Wilson, 10. Meier.
2nd heat: 1. Gardner, 2. Barnett, 3. Prim, 4. Jarrells, 5. Easto, 6. Arvia, 7. Wall, 8. Artuso, Bouhaddi, 9. Kucaba.
25-lap feature: 1. Ligue, 2. Prim*, 3. Kucaba, 4. Serviss, 5. Woodall*, 6. Coglianese, 7. Ross, 8. Wall, 9. Wilson, 10. Neering, 11. O'Rourke, 12. Barnett, 13. Carpenter, 14. Easto, 15. Meier, 16. Arvia, 17. Gardner, 18. Artuso, 19. Jarrells.
(*Note: Woodall was disqualified when his car failed a post-race inspection. Prim was disqualified for refusing to let one be taken).
Pure stocks
1st heat: 1. Craig Miller.
2nd heat: 1. George Werner Jr.
3rd heat: 1. Bob Blood.
"B" Feature: 1. Mike Jucius, 2. John Hensley, 3. Lee Mose, 4. Bobby Brooks, 5. Ken Michaels.
"A" Feature: 1. Miller, 2. Jim Beasley, 3. Blood, 4. Helen Nester, 5. Steve Wells.
