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Illiana Speedway May 5, 2007
By Tony Baranek
There were all of 11 laps remaining in Saturday night's late-model feature at Illiana Speedway when Eddie Hoffman took second place away from Mike White.
Up in front, Jeff Cannon was free-wheeling in his No. 33. Traffic wasn't really a problem. He didn't need any advice. Had anyone from the crew on the headsets tried to give him some, he wouldn't have heard them anyway.
"I put them on ignore," he said. "I like silence. I don't really care to talk a lot on the radios. I just want to be left alone to do my job."
Even with Hoffman bearing down on him?
"I just concentrated on running good, solid consistent laps and prayed for no cautions," Cannon said, laughing.
Cannon got his prayers answered. He also got his first win of 2007 in convincing fashion.
The 25-lap main event saw several early twists and turns that included Mike Monroe jetting out to the lead, and Hoffman and Mike Heiss getting involved in a dicey side-by-side battle which allowed defending track champ Mike White to make a move underneath both of them.
Boris Jurkovic looked to be an early contender and was running in second place behind Monroe when a yellow fell on lap seven. During the caution period, Jurkovic's car began popping loudly, and he had to leave the race.
That pretty much left Hoffman and White as potential contenders. By the time Hoffman took second away from White, he was left basically with just one hope.
"As soon as I passed the second place car I started praying for a yellow," Hoffman said. "Jeff was out there pretty far. All I could do was run as hard as I could."
As for the early battle with Heiss and White...
"Heiss just laid me away there," Hoffman said. "He give me the outside, then he ran me up a couple of corners. Then Mike got by and I had to work back by Mike, and work back by Heiss. The 33 was out there in front..."
Cannon beat Hoffman to the finish line by 1.361 seconds. White held on for third, ahead of Heiss, Monroe and Shaun Wiltjer.
Hoffman warmed up for the late-model main by putting a crate motor in his 2006 late-model car and running in the limited late-model main. He won, but it wasn't easy.
Josh Nelms gave Hoffman everything he could handle from laps 6 through 18. Hoffman tried several times to go to the high side against Nelms, but was denied.
"He was using up a lot of track," Hoffman said, smiling. "When I went up to the outside, he used a little more of the outside up. When it's for the lead, I'll take that. The guys who do that for second, third and fourth, I don't really appreciate it. But for the lead, you use a little more race track.''
Hoffman finally got by Nelms when they tried to pass the lapped car of Matt O'Leary. O'Leary dropped down low enough that Hoffman was able to stick himself underneath Nelms as they both made the pass down the front straighaway.
"I was doing anything I could at that point," Hoffman said. "I hoped the guy would move down and give me the extra lane. It helped."
Joe Fadke was able to squeeze by Nelms as well to take second place. Phil Splant was fourth, followed by Jack Kalwasinski and Kevin McCann.
Johnny Senerchia and Kevin Moenck put on quite a show during the final four laps of the Mid-American feature.
Senerchia was in front on a lap 21 restart when Moenck got the jump on him and made the pass. Just one lap later, however, Senerchia returned the favor, and beat Moenck to the finish line by 0.474 seconds for his second win of the season.
"I knew on the restart Kevin was behind me," Senerchia said. "He got underneath me and I drove in too deep. He ran me clean, I let him go and basically just tried to get back underneath him. That was it.
"I had a lot of fun in this race. It was clean, fun racing."
Keith Sterkowitz, who led from laps 2 through 16, finished third. John Marshall, Dean Patterson and Mike Wienc completed the top six.
Chris Woodall took the lead early, and survived several challenges along the way to claim his first turbostox career victory.
"It was definitely not easy," Woodall said. "There were a lot of fast cars. I just tried to keep it on the bottom and make them go to the outside. I was able to hold them off. Last week I led the first 19 laps and got passed. To finally get my first win feels great."
Eddie Ligue had a strong run to capture second. Bill Serviss was third, followed by Tony Neering, Tom Prim and Scott Gardner.
Dave Jacobs got the job done in the pure stocks feature, beating out Bob Palermo, Steve Wells, Tim Cronin, Frank Goncher and Ryan Hoffman.
SUMMARY
Late-Model
Qualifying: 1. Eddie Hoffman (19.464), 2. Boris Jurkovic (19.545), 3. Mike White (19.704), 4. Jeff Cannon (19.727), 5. Mike Heiss (19.737), 6. Bobby Gash (19.877), 7. Andy Marchiniak (20.077), 8. Shaun Wiltjer (20.156), 9. Sean Matthuis (20.171), 10. Mike Monroe (20.195), 11. John Nutley (20.238), 12. Bobby Hutton (20.554), 13. Don Sabatino (20.717), 14. Tyler Middleton (21.868).
1st heat: 1. Marchiniak, 2. White, 3. Heiss, 4. Hoffman, 5. Jurkovic, 6. Gash, 7. Wiltjer, 8. Cannon.
2nd heat: 1. Monroe, 2. Nutley, 3. Matthuis, 4. Hutton, 5. Sabatino, 6. Middleton.
25-lap feature: 1. Cannon, 2. Hoffman, 3. White, 4. Heiss, 5. Monroe, 6. Wiltjer, 7. Gash, 8. Nutley, 9. Marchiniak, 10. Matthuis, 11. Hutton, 12. Sabatino, 13. Middleton, 14. Jurkovic.
Limited Late-Model
Qualifying: 1. Kevin McCann (20.147), 2. Phil Splant (20.227), 3. Joe Fadke (20.265), 4. Jack Kalwasinski (20.397), 5. Josh Nelms (20.398), 6. Marc Hankosky (20.412), 7. Mike Marden (20.489), 8. Eddie Hoffman (20.593), 9. Gary Schalmo (21.122), 10. John Finley (21.158), 11. Joe Golobic (21.196), 12. Dennis Lyp (21.368), 13. Don Pettit (21.465), 14. Kevin Offdenkamp (21.795), 15. Brian Zeigler (21.817), 16. Matt O'Leary (22.467), 17. Austin Woodham (22.553).
1st heat: 1. Hoffman, 2. Marden, 3. Nelms, 4. Fadke, 5. Splant, 6. McCann, 7. Kalwasinski, 8. Hankosky.
2nd heat: 1. Golobic, 2. Paul Zolodz, 3. Woodham, 4. Matt O'Leary, 5. Offdenkamp, 6. Schalmo, 7. Zeigler, 8. Pettit, 9. Lyp, 10. Finley.
25-lap feature: 1. Hoffman, 2. Fadke, 3. Nelms, 4. Splant, 5. Kalwasinski, 6. McCann, 7. Marden, 8. Zolodz, 9. Golobic, 10. Schalmo, 11. Woodham, 12. Pettit, 13. Lyp, 14. Zeigler, 15. Finley, 16. Offdenkamp, 17. O'Leary.
Mid-American
Qualifying: 1. John Marshall (20.907), 2. Kevin Moenck (20.921), 3. John Senerchia (20.922), 4. Dean Patterson (21.204), 5. Mike Wienc (21.371), 6. Keith Sterkowitz (21.423), 7. Bill Neering (21.477), 8. Tom Prim (21.543), 9. Darrell Sills (22.071), 10. Tim Sehr (22.085).
Heat: 1. Prim, 2. Neering, 3. Sterkowitz, 4. Patterson, 5. Senerchia, 6. Marshall, 7. Moenk, 8. Wienc, 9. Sills, 10. Sehr.
25-lap feature: 1. Senerchia, 2. Moenk, 3. Sterkowitz, 4. Marshall, 5. Patterson, 6. Wienc, 7. Neering, 8. Sills, 9. Sehr, 10. Prim.
Turbostox
Qualifying: 1. Scott Gardner (17.831), 2. Butch Wood (17.903), 3. Craig Coglianese (17.956), 4. Eddie Ligue (18.008), 5. Pat O'Rourke (18.136), 6. Bill Serviss (18.138), 7. Tony Neering (18.157), 8. Brian Kucaba (18.182), 9. Chris Woodall (18.184), 10. Tom Prim (18.244), 11. Bobbie Jean Wall (18.270), 12. Tony Meier (18.313), 13. D.J. Wilson (18.443), 14. Kevin Griffin (18.625), 15. Matt Arvia (18.744), 16. Pat Ligue (19.050), 17. Scott Schick (19.055), 18. Billy Jarrells (19.234), 19. Josh Easto (19.401).
1st heat: 1. Prim, 2. Woodall, 3. Neering, 4. Gardner, 5. Wood, 6. O'Rourke, 7. Serviss, 8. E. Ligue, 9. Kucaba, 10. Coglianese.
2nd heat: 1. Arvis, 2. Meier, 3. Wall, 4. Griffin, 5. Jarrels, 6. Wilson, 7. P. Ligue, 8. Schick, 9. Easto, 10. Mark Ross Jr.
25-lap feature: 1. Woodall, 2. E. Ligue, 3. Serviss, 4. Neering, 5. Prim, 6. Gardner, 7. Kucaba, 8. Meier, 9. O'Rourke, 10. Wilson, 11. Griffin, 12. Wall, 13. Easto, 14. Ross, 15. Schick, 16. Wood, 17. Arvia, 18. P. Ligue, 19. Jarrells
Pure Stocks
1st heat: Dave Martus
2nd heat: Dave Jacobs
3rd heat: Tim Cronin
4th heat: Joe Moeglin
Semi: Ryan Lagastee
Feature: 1. Jacobs, 2. Bob Palermo, 3. Steve Wells, 4. Cronin, 5. Frank Goncher, 6. Ryan Hoffman.
