Posted by Brian "King Roundboy" Nolte on 4/18/2005, 1:25 am
Board Administrator

Sunday April 16th 2005 Its finally racing season!!!! Illiana Motor Speedway kicked off another season on Sat April 17th. Beautiful weather led to some great racing. In the Late Model division Dave Weltmeyer held off hard charging Mike White to pick up his first victory of the year. In the Mid-am division, 2004 champion Josh Nelms started off the year in fine fashion picking up the checkered flag in the feature. Josh also won the Dash. In the very competitive Turbo Stock class defending champion Eddie Wolf came from the back of the pack for the win. There was almost 50 Pure Stock cars which was by far some of the best racing of the night. I am looking forward to going back to Illiana a couple of times, some key dates to remember include, June 4th ASA Late Models 100 lap feature, June 25th CRA Series 100 lap feature, Aug 20th Hooters Cup 250 lap feature, and Sept 17th the Bettenhausen Memorial. Grundy County Speedway held its first of two practice dates on Sat April 17th. A small field of cars showed up that included 10 Late Models, 8 Mid-ams, 15 Street Stocks and 6 of the new Mini Stock class. Grundy should have a good field of Late Models this year with three rookies and one past champion adding their names to the list to try and win the 2005 title. Moving up from the Mid-am division after a second place finish is Tommy Knippenberg. Joining him will be Chris Cooling, and Chris Sontag. Sontag who was the 2004 Street Stock champion may miss the first couple of weeks. The 2004 ASA Rookie of the year Brett Sontag will be back at Grundy trying to get his third L.M. title. I had the chance on Sat April 9th to head to Kalamazoo for the Intimidator 100 for $5,000 to win. 41 Late Models were on hand to try to make the 26 car field. The great thing about Kalamazoo is no qualifying, they ran 5 heat races with top 4 from each heat transfering in. They ran two last chance races taking the top two and the final two positions were the top points placers from last year. To determine starting positons the drivers drew a number out of a hat. It made the night go by a lot faster as they also had 26 Limited Late models in the pits with a bunch of street stocks and sportsman car also. The races started at 7:00 and were done by 10:30 or 11. Kalamazoo is an awesome track and is only about 3 hours from Grundy. Mark your calanders for Sunday May 1st to make a trip to Madison for its opening day. The Wisconsin Challenge series takes to the track for a 3:00 show. Madison's promotor Steve Einhaus has been busy getting this show ready with Dick Trickle, Rich Bickle and Todd Kluever listed as expected entries. Other key dates include May 28th ASA Late Models, June 17th MARS, June 18th ASA National sreis, and September 5th the Wisconsin Challenge Series comes back. That time of the year for me to predict my Grundy Champions. In the Late Model division I am gonna pick Brett Sontag. The Mid-am champion should be Jerry Einhaus Jr and the Street Stock champion will be Randy Weese. I had the privelage to sit down and talk to Mid-am driver Josh Higgins. Josh will be in his third year of racing picking up the Rookie of the year title in 2003. The 2005 year will be hopefully a better year for Josh as he had a sophmore slump in 2004 with some mechanical failures. Josh came on strong towards the end of year and finished 10th in the final standings. Josh will be debuting a brand new 2004 Dodge Intrepid this year with help of his sponsors Wolf Tile, Bellacinos, Bryan's Auto World, Extreme Trucking and JJC. I came up with 10 quick questions for Josh. Slinger or Bristol? Slinger O.J. guilty or not guilty? guilty Bud or Miller? Coors Light Boxers or Briefs? Boxers Moose or Gel? Moose Robby Gordon or Jimmy Spencer? Robby Gordon Coke or Pepsi? Coke NHRA or IRL? NHRA Blonde or Brunette? Blonde LaSalle or Kankakee? LaSalle Thats all for now see ya at the track in line for some burgers. THE "KING" ROUNDBOY P.S. TELL THEM YOU HEARD IT FROM THE KING FIRST