Posted by Illiana Speedway on 9/20/2004, 2:02 pm
Board Administrator

Illiana Speedway story and summary 9-18 By Tony Baranek SCHERERVILLE, Ind. - Saturday's late model season-ending Tony Bettenhausen Classic at Illiana Speedway saw two area racing grandmasters - Dave Weltmeyer and Eddie Hoffman - take their long-time rivalry to the wire. This one went to Weltmeyer. The "Dyer Flyer" scored the win in a battle that saw Hoffman tap Weltmeyer sideways two laps from the finish. How far sideways? "Man, I couldn't be more sideways," Weltmeyer said later. "I had the wheel locked. I'm glad he (Hoffman) raced me clean. He let me know he was there, but he didn't drive through me. I'll give him that. "Hey, it was a boring race before that. We needed a little excitement there at the end. It was a good race." The victory was Weltmeyer's sixth in his last seven nights of racing. It was also his fourth Bettenhausen victory, putting him one ahead of Hoffman and second behind all-time career leader Frank Gawlinski (who has 9). "I'm really happy to win this big race here," Weltmeyer said. "I've got to give it (credit) to my crew and to Lefthander chassis and (motor builder) Joe Rhyne. We were banged up a month ago. We came back and won some races. That shows what kind of caliber guys we've got working with us." Long-time veteran Larry Schuler came out of retirement to run in the race and led the first 11 laps, before surrendering to Pat Kelly. Kelly kept Weltmeyer behind him at a two car-length distance until lap 59, when Weltmeyer slid by on the backstretch. Hoffman, meanwhile, didn't catch the leaders until well into the event. He was still several car-lengths behind Weltmeyer on lap 95 when Schuler and Joe O'Connor touched, Schuler spun and was hit by Doug Kowal. The ensuing yellow put Hoffman on Weltmeyer's bumper, setting up a five-lap dash to the finish. On lap 98, Hoffman hustled Weltmeyer into Turn 2, with almost disastrous results. "He (Weltmeyer) was blocking the bottom and I helped him get sideways," Hoffman said. "You don't want to spin anybody out. You want to race for it. He got a little more crossed up than I actually expected. So I didn't have much choice but to let him straighten out and go back at it for a lap. "About 10-15 laps earlier (a yellow flag) would have been nice, but without the yellow we probably wouldn't have had a shot at all. So I can't complain about it." Kelly finished third, followed by Mike Monroe, track champion John Nutley and Kevin Moenck. Tom Gasik was declared the winner of the 50-lap turbo stox feature, when apparent victor Tom Prim was disqualified after a post-race inspection. Grundy County Speedway regular Randy Weese, meanwhile, made a visit to Illiana and was a solid second. He was followed by Brian Kucaba, Don Udoni and Dave Dotter. A 40-car, 20-lap feature race for pure stocks went to David Jacobs, over B.J. Grabow and Mike Jucius. SUMMARY Late model Fast time: Eddie Hoffman (19.483) Trophy dash: 1. John Nutley, 2. Dave Weltmeyer, 3. Boris Jurkovic. 1st heat: 1. Joe O'Connor, 2. Jim Rossiter, 3. Duke Nalon III. 2nd heat: 1. Bobby Gash, 2. Brian Muick, 3. Len Nowosel. Last chance: 1. Pat McCabe, 2. Scott Koerner, 3. Mike Monroe. 100-lap feature: 1. Weltmeyer, 2. Hoffman, 3. Pat Kelly, 4. Monroe, 5. Nutley, 6. Kevin Moenck, 7. Billy Knippenberg, 8. Ron Breese Jr., 9. Keith Parker, 10. Brian Schwartz. Turbo stox Fast time: Chad Proctor (17.952) Trophy dash: 1 . Eddie Wolf, 2. Proctor, 3. Randy Weese. 1st heat: 1. Randy Gifford, 2. Cher Bryant, 3. Don Udoni. 2nd heat: 1. Brian Kucaba, 2. Marty Sterkowitz, 3. John Ventrella. Semi-feature: 1. Chris Woodall, 2. Billy Jarrells, 3. Tom Crosslin. 50-lap feature: 1. Tom Gasik, 2. Weese, 3. Kucaba, 4. Udoni, 5. Dave Dotter, 6. Bill Serviss. Pure stocks 1st heat: 1. B.J. Grabow. 2nd heat: 1. Chuck Fox. 20-lap feature: 1. David Jacobs, 2. Grabow, 3. Mike Jucius, 4. Mike Nelms, 5. Tony Brutti.