By: Tony Baranek
SCHERERVILLE, IN (September 15, 2007) - Family pride was very evident Saturday night at Illiana Speedway, where Eddie Hoffman reigned supreme in the 100 lap "Tony Bettenhausen Classic."
Hoffman, was surrounded in victory circle by crew members, personnel from his sponsor, Lisa Thomas Salon, and his car owner, Tom Kmak.
And, oh yes, one other guy. His father, Ed Hoffman.
The elder Hoffman is a three-time winner of the "Bettenhausen Classic." Son passed father on the prestigious list when Eddie captured his fourth.
It was the perfect time to rub it in. But Eddie wouldn't have it.
"No," he said, smiling. "There's no rubbing it in. We support each other. I think I was probably a part of his three wins, and now he's here tonight as part of mine."
The senior Hoffman isn't sweating being No. 2 in the family in this category.
"This ain't the last one he's going to win," he said.
Hoffman took the lead from Mike White on lap 32. He would eventually prevail in a very good battle with the former track champion.
White, seeking his first Bettenhausen victory, spent much of the final 50 laps right behind Hoffman waiting for a break in traffic. He appeared to be getting it with 11 laps remaining when a crash into the infield light standard by Brett Sontag resulted in a red flag. Sontag was shaken, sore, but was able to walk off the track under his own power.
The long delay to remove the car and clean up Turn 3 was not what White needed.
"My tire pressure was low to begin with, and sitting on the track meant starting almost on flat tires," White said. "I didn't have the right gear in the transmission to handle the restart, either.
"This was the first time in this race that I've had a car that good on long runs. Had there been no yellow flag I think I would have had something for him and we would have had a more exciting finish for the fans. No big deal, though. I'm just glad (Brett) is all right."
Hoffman was able to keep his No. 8 a few car-lengths in front of White over the final 11 laps. The winning margin was 0.440 seconds.
"I like to be in a race car, especially one like this," Hoffman said. "What a great team effort this was. I'm a pretty lucky guy to be able to drive this thing."
Boris Jurkovic became trapped in early traffic, but made a nice run from several spots back to finish third. Fourth went to Josh Nelms, followed by Jeff Cannon, Anthony Danta, Mike Heiss, Kevin McCann, Mike Monroe and Dave Weltmeyer.
Scott Gardner won his first Illiana Speedway turbostox feature race since 2001 when he outlasted a persistent Mike Carpenter Jr., who bumped him fairly hard out of Turn 4 and pushed him across the finish line.
"That was a pretty good last lap," Gardner said, smiling. "I pretty much had (the car) under control. At the end Mike gave me enough leeway to get back in the throttle.
"I've been wanting to win another one here for the last four years. I've had a fourth, a third, a second and now a first."
Carpenter and Gardner have competed together for many years. But this was one of their first bumper-to-bumper battles in quite awhile.
"Man, that was like Raceway Park all over again," Carpenter said. "I really wanted to try to pass him on the outside, but I just couldn't get a bite up there. This was fun, a real blast."
Johnny Senerchia brought his Grundy County street stock car out to Illiana and ran a close third. Tony Meier, track champion Bill Serviss and Pat O'Rourke rounded out the top six.
The 20-lap pure stocks "A" main was a battle won by Tim Cronin over Steve Wells, Craig Miller and Dave Jacobs.
Summary
Late-model
Qualifying: 1. Eddie Hoffman (19.563), 2. Jeff Cannon (19.668), 3. Josh Nelms (19.718), 4. Boris Jurkovic (19.763), 5. Mike Monroe (19.841), 6. Brett Sontag (19,854), 7. Mike White (19.865), 8. Larry Schuler (19.953), 9. Mike Heiss (19.965), 10. Chris Cooling (19.967), 11. Stevie Campbell (19.983), 12. Jack Kalwasinski (20.002), 13. Anthony Danta (20.030), 14. Brandon Hill (20.106), 15. Bobby Gash (20.113), 16. Dave Weltmeyer (20.135), 17. Kevin McCann (20.138), 18. Joe Fadke (20.191), 19. Joe O'Connor (20.2252), 20. Mike Marden (20.234), 21. Tom Knippenberg (20.251), 22. Rich Segvich (20.318), 23. Keith Parker (20.411), 24. Len Nowosel (20.434), 25. Marc Hankosky (20.530), 26. Brian Muick (20.541), 27. Joel Pejkovich (20.652), 28. Joe Golobic (20.681), 29. Bob Johnson (20.739), 30. Don Sabatino (21.153), 31. Doug Hayes (21.214).
1st heat: 1. McCann, 2. O'Connor, 3. Knippenberg, 4. Parker, 5. Pejkovich, 6. Johnson, 7. Hayes, 8. Hankosky.
2nd heat: 1. Fadke, 2. Marden, 3. Segvich, 4. Muick, 5. Golobic, 6. Sabatino, 7. Nowosel.
100-lap Bettenhausen Classic 1. Hoffman, 2. White, 3. Jurkovic, 4. Nelms, 5. Cannon, 6. Danta, 7. Heiss, 8. McCann, 9. Monroe, 10. Weltmeyer, 11. Knippenberg, 12. Fadke, 13. O'Connor, 14. Cooling, 15. Campbell, 16. Muick, 17. Kalwasinski, 18. Hankosky, 19. Parker, 20. Sabatino, 21. Sontag, 22. Segvich, 23. Marden, 24. Hill, 25. Gash, 26. Schuler.
Turbostox
Qualifying: 1. Mike Carpenter Jr. (17.957), 2. Scott Gardner (18.075), 3. Jerry Barnett (18.134), 4. Tony Meier (18.153), 5. John Senerchia (18.163), 6. Eddie Ligue (18.220), 7. Brian Kucaba (18.292), 8. Pat O'Rourke (18.310), 9. Bill Serviss (18.338), 10. Bobbie Jean Wall (18.711), 11. Jacob McKown (18.849), 12. Trevor Tichy (18.893), 13. Bobby Blood (19.114), 14. Dave Cressler (19.142), 15. Bill Rud (19.174), 16. Lahcen Bouhaddi (19.888), 17. Armand Artuso (20.046).
25-lap feature: 1. Gardner, 2. Carpenter, 3. Senerchia, 4. Meier, 5. Serviss, 6. O'Rourke, 7. Kucaba, 8. Barnett, 9. Wall, 10. Cressler, 11. Tichy, 12. Rud, 13. Artuso, 14. McKown, 15. Blood, 16. Ligue, 17. Bouhaddi.
Pure stocks
1st last chance: 1. Steve Sabatino.
2nd last chance: 1. Don Lindemulder.
"B" feature: 1. Glenn Walker, 2. Bobby Brooks, 3. Greg Lapier.
"A" feature: 1. Tim Cronin, 2. Steve Wells, 3. Craig Miller, 4. Dave Jacobs, 5. John Beasley, 6. Helen Nester.
