Posted by Illiana Speedway on 4/18/2005, 1:31 am
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Weltmeyer Comes Out On Top with Season Opener Victory By: Tony Baranek SCHERERVILLE, Ind. (April 16) - Dave Weltmeyer says that during the off season he considered the possibility of retiring from short track racing. The reason? He thought going out on a 2004 season-ending "Bettenhausen Classic" victory at Illiana Speedway would be a nice touch. Obviously, he decided that it wasn't the right time. The "Dyer Flyer" was victorious Saturday night in one of the closest Opening Night finishes in Illiana Speedway history, holding off Mike White by less than a car-length. So now what? "Well, we wanted to go out a winner, so tonight's the night, right?" Weltmeyer said, laughing. "Nah, but you know, sooner or later. We'll see what happens. It's hard to quit when you're winning, when you're riding on top." On one of the warmest openers that Illiana has ever experienced, Weltmeyer and White put on a white-knuckle side-by-side battle over the final two laps. For several laps before that, White spent a lot of time right on Weltmeyer's bumper. "We missed on the setup a little bit, and it was getting tighter and tighter every lap," Weltmeyer said. "I couldn't keep it on the bottom, and boy, he (White) was just peeking, peeking, peeking. He raced me clean, and I appreciate that.'' The two were side-by-side with White on the bottom when they bumped slightly coming out of Turn 4 to complete lap 29. Weltmeyer bobbled on the high side, but was able to outpower White down the front straightaway. The final lap was classic Weltmeyer-White. They were side-by-side out of Turn 4 once again, but this time didn't bump. The drag race to the finish went to Weltmeyer, with White giving his competitor a thumbs up after the cooldown lap. "I'll tell you what. That was one of the best races I've been involved with," White said. "I knew I'd have one shot at him (Weltmeyer). You know, he's awful good, and our car was awful good. "I finally got under him and then it was a race to the finish. I wasn't just gonna drive by the guy. Hey, we gave it our best shot at the end. Congratulations to him. Great race." Weltmeyer had taken the lead on lap 13 from Joe O'Connor. The first nine laps were paced by longtime veteran Bobby Gash. Gash was running fourth when he spun on lap 11 and fell from contention. Third place in Saturday's race went to another former track champion, Pat Kelly. O'Connor was a solid fourth, followed by late model rookie Keith Sterkowitz and last year's season-long title contender Mike Monroe. In the limited late model feature, Kurt McKinney survived a scary incident at the halfway point, and went on to beat Richard Dawson by a few car-lengths. McKinney was running in third place on lap 12 when while battling for the lead John LaFraniere and Anthony Danta had contact. LaFraniere spun, and McKinney had to throw himself into a spin to avoid hitting him. "I didn't know what to do there, man," McKinney said, laughing. "I just grabbed hold of the wheel and said, 'One of you guys go one way and one of you guys go in the other, and I'll go in the middle.' My right rear was a little flat-spotted, but otherwise I didn't hit anything." Because he spun to avoid the accident, McKinney was reinstalled as the leader for the restart. He stayed there the rest of the way, although Dawson stayed close behind him. Third went to Joe Fadke, followed by Andy Marchiniak, Danta and LaFreniere. Defending Mid-American division champion Josh Nelms picked up where he left off in 2004 by taking the lead from Jeff Cannon on lap11, and going on to capture the 25-lap feature. "We didn't change much on the car," said Nelms, who also won his heat. "We just got the motor in Tuesday night and the first laps we ran were in today's practice. It was a heck of a good night. Our goal was to come out and repeat (as champ). And we're off to a good start." Cannon held on for second place, while Bill Neering, John Senerchia, Chris Cooling and Craig Amptmeyer completed the top six. In the turbo stox feature, Eddie Wolf took the lead from Ryan Moore just before the white flag dropped, and picked up the victory. Moore had led from pole position, but had Wolf right behind him when he got into Turn 4 a bit too hard as they raced toward the white flag. "I didn't know he was going to do that, but I was hoping he would," Wolf said. "Ryan doesn't have a lot of experience. I had been catching him little by little, but it was lapped traffic that helped us the most." Moore survived a last-lap challenge for second from Bill Serviss. Tommy Prim was fourth, followed by Al Powell and Brian Kucaba. The pure stock feature went to last year's top winner, Tim Cronin, with Shane Hildreth second and Dave Jacobs third. Summary of Results (April 16, 2005) Late model 1st heat: 1. Mike Monroe, 2. Dave Weltmeyer, 3. Mike White. 2nd heat: 1. Jamie Artelt, 2. Tom Smith, 3. Shawn Wiltjer. 30-lap feature: 1. Weltmeyer, 2. White, 3. Pat Kelly, 4. Joe O'Connor, 5. Keith Sterkowitz, 6. Monroe. Limited late model 1st heat: 1. Kurt McKinney, 2. Jack Kalwasinski, 3. Richard Dawson. 2nd heat: 1. Tim Moore, 2. Andy Marchiniak, 3. John Finley. 25-lap feature: 1. McKinney, 2. Dawson, 3. Joe Fadke, 4. Marchiniak, 5. Anthony Danta, 6. John LaFreniere. Mid-American 1st heat: 1. Josh Nelms, 2. Jeff Cannon, 3. John Senerchia. 2nd heat: 1. Craig Amptmeyer, 2. John Fiorita, 3. Mike Marden. 25-lap feature: 1. Nelms, 2. Cannon, 3. Bill Neering, 4. Senerchia, 5. Chris Cooling, 6. Amptmeyer. Turbo stox 1st heat: 1. Craig Coglianese, 2. Eddie Wolf, 3. Bill Serviss. 2nd heat: 1. Tom Gasik, 2. Pat O'Rourke, 3. Terry Wagner. 3rd heat: 1. Scott Schick, 2. Mike Wienc, 3. Drew Eenigenburg. 25-lap feature: 1. Wolf, 2. Ryan Moore, 3. Serviss, 4. Tommy Prim, 5. Al Powell, 6. Brian Kucaba. Pure stocks 1st heat: 1. Frank Goncher 2nd heat: 1. Shane Hildreth 3rd heat: 1. Chris Sandberg 15-lap feature: 1. Tim Cronin, 2. Hildreth, 3. Dave Jacobs