Posted by The Pit Reporter on 4/18/2005, 2:28 am
Board Administrator

After seeing the “King” grab the spotlight for so long I decided I wanted to try my hand at writing something that resembled a local racing column. We’ll see how it goes and this may be a every few weeks deal with me. Today’s topic is opening night at Illiana Speedway in Schererville, IN. Who would have thought we would have such great weather for an opening night? The great weather sure brought out the fans and drivers. One of the biggest opening night crowds I have seen were on hand Saturday and the pits had 111 cars packed in. The late model car count was down a bit (13) but that can be expected for an opening night. Last year regulars Eddie Hoffman, Boris Jurkovic and 2004 champion John Nutley were at Anderson Speedway for a CRA race. Regulars from last season Kevin Moenck and Doug Kowal should have their cars done in the next 2 weeks. Same thing with drivers Mike Garney and Phil Bretz. I heard Rob Czerwinski will be making his return to Illiana after taking a year off. Once a few more cars are completed I think we will see 20 car fields. With the car count suffering a little, the same couldn’t be said for the racing. Dave Weltmeyer and Mike White put on a show for the fans. White followed the “Dyer Flyer” for most of the race and waited to make his move with about 2 laps to go. White got on the inside but didn’t have enough to get by and lost by a half car length. Rookie drivers Keith Sterkowitz and Shaun Wiltjer but had top 10 finishes, with Sterkowitz just missing out on 4th place on the last lap. Limited late models looks to be a strong class this year. Only 12 cars on hand but trust me, there are more coming. Jack Kalwasinski was flying in qualifying and set fast time. In the feature he suffered heavy damage after a nasty wreck only 5 laps in to the race. Looks to me like he just barely touched the wall and that set everything in motion. Kurt McKinney survived a few scares and won the feature. Rich Dawson, a virtual newcomer to Illiana was a surprising 2nd and last years champ Joe Fadke recovered from a bad evening to place 3rd. Anthony Danta and John LaFreniere had a few run in’s during the feature. They got into each other twice. The first time they both went to the back. The second time only one did. Everyone I talked to said they both should have been sent to the back. I mean if two cars touch they are both involved even if only one spins. I hate those “judgement calls” by officials. Be fair and put them both back there. Danta hitting Lafreniere under yellow didn’t help the situation. Emotions ran high after this race. Kalwasinski wasn’t happy with McKinney and Danta and LaFreniere as can be expected weren’t happy. Hopefully cooler heads prevail next week. We even had some females joining in for some local sparring after this one. Mid am is the class that worries me at Illiana. Only 13 cars on hand and 2 of them probably won’t be back once Grundy opens in a few weeks. I expect 5-6 more cars to show up soon but it looks like the car count is dropping in this division. When you start a middle ground class like limited late model and it’s more affordable then mid am it’s easy to see why this class may suffer in 2005. Half of the top 10 in points from a year ago won’t be back this season. The 3 main guys that are back, Josh Nelms, Jeff Cannon and Bill Neering were 1-2-3 in the feature and will probably run that way most of the season. Chris Cooling picked up fast time for the first time at Illiana and Craig Amptmeyer won his first race in a mid am during the 2nd heat race. Turbo Stox saw a large field for opening night. Once more cars are completed we could see over 30 cars a night in this class and the return of a semi feature. The heartbreak of the night had to go to Ryan Moore. He led 24 of the 25 laps in the feature only to get passed by last years champ Eddie Wolf on the last lap. Moore had the field covered with about 5 laps to go but lapped traffic played a huge part in the outcome of this race. The fact that Moore is a rookie driver showed as he tried to navigate through and Wolf closed right on his bumper as they got the white flag. Bill Serviss was 3rd and I was told his company (BSA Limited) will bring back the hard charger award for the turbo stox and a extra $50 a night to the winner. Wolf won that award. Scott Schick won a heat race but never answered the bell for the feature while the other heat race winner Tom Gasik (who had earlier motor problems) dropped out of the feature while running second. The pure stocks were out in full force. They were 48 strong from what I heard. Talk about mayhem. I heard from a few drivers the purse was increased for this class. Nice gesture by the track. They bring a lot of fans and as the numbers tell you they help keep the track thriving. Haven’t heard what the new purse was (seemed nobody knew) but any increase is better then nothing. I also heard they are running for points. Good luck with that. I’d hate to be the one trying to figure points out for 50 drivers a night. With over 90 cars registered can you imagine what would happen if they all showed up on the same night. I’m not up to date with a lot of the names of these guys but Tim Cronin won the feature. Shane Hildreth was a heat winner and finished 2nd in the feature. Overall a great show. Weather stayed good until the last few laps of the pure stock feature when it started to rain. Great weather, great racing, great crowd and over 100 cars in the pits is the way it should be every week. Once a few more cars are completed the action will heat up even more. I was surprised to see the old stands still in place at the track after hearing so many rumors over the winter about new stands. I have to remember though that a rumor is a rumor until it’s proven. It was nice to see no increase in price to get in. The show ran a little long but every race track in America runs late on opening night. Can’t wait until next week. Until then keep your foot on the gas and keep the car off the wall. The Pit Reporter