Posted by Tony Baranek on 4/22/2005, 9:55 am
Board Administrator

Thanks to DailySouthtown.com Auto Racing: For openers, quite a show at Illiana Friday, April 22, 2005 First of all, happy new local auto racing season. Boy, what a start, eh? Dare I say we couldn't have asked for more out of opening night at Illiana Speedway. We had beautiful weather, the best I can remember on the first night in many years. We had a well-run and relatively fast-paced program with very clean racing and only one unfortunate accident in which Jack Kalwasinski saw his limited late-model car torn up. We had a classic late-model feature that saw Dave Weltmeyer beat Mike White by mere inches, and a nailbiter of a turbo stox finish that saw Eddie Wolf pull off a last-lap pass for the win. And it didn't rain until it was all over. It was the earliest start we've had in some time, which may account for a lower car count than one might expect in the late-model and Mid-American classes. Weltmeyer, for one, found himself shaken from his winter reverie just in the nick of time. "I said, 'I can't believe I'm still doing this stuff,' " he said, smiling. "I mean I look forward to it to a certain extent, but the season did sneak up on me this year. Two weeks (early) really does make a difference. We worked right up until (Saturday afternoon) to get the car done. "I've been in it so long I sometimes think it's time for me to quit sometimes. I should quit a winner, since we won the last race of the year last year. But I'm goofy enough to run around for a while and lose a few races before I quit.'' Weltmeyer, who recently turned 50, can see the finish line not that far up the road, at least as a driver. "I've got a 12-year-old and a 15-year-old," he said. "My daughter is learning how to drive. I've always tried to do a good job not missing any of that. My son has started helping me on the car, and in two years he'll be driving a limited late-model. So I'll always stay in racing. Maybe just not driving so much.'' Veteran competitor Bobby Gash went through some big changes over the winter, moving from Evanston to Oak Forest. "It was a lot of work to try to get here the first night," he said. "I don't even have my car painted. I started on it Friday at 5 p.m. and worked on through the night until 8 a.m. so I could get here. "When we moved, all the parts to the car were lost all winter. It was just very hectic. But I want to be in somewhat of a point battle this year, so I knew I had to be here if I wanted to be competitive in the points.'' Gash didn't have a particularly good finish, but showed some spark by leading the first nine laps of the late-model feature. Three-time Illiana Speedway champion Mike White said he was as ready as he's ever been to start a racing season last Saturday. It showed in a powerful performance in the feature and a near last-lap pass of Weltmeyer before their breathtaking side-by-side finish. That didn't mean White was all the way ready when the first green flag fell. "No," he said, laughing. "You always plan on being there and well prepared, but you never quite get there. It's not through lack of effort, but all of a sudden it's here and there's always a couple of things that you could do or double check or recheck. "I feel more prepared this year than in the past, but even this time we did some things with the shocks that didn't work on practice day, so we went part way back. Then when I was in line for qualifying I remembered what might have been causing the problems. But we'll keep working at it.'' Joe O'Connor got off to a good start with a fourth-place finish in the late-model main. He finished fifth in the late-model standings last year, and appears on the cusp of being a bona fide title contender. "We're ready," he said. "I was real busy with my business (he owns a transmission shop) over the winter, but even though I didn't have a lot of time I went through the car front to back and made sure everything was square.'' O'Connor and his wife, Maggie, gave birth to their first child (Leah) last year, and he said he had to do a little soul-searching before going to work on the car again. "When we put the car away in October I wondered if that was the last race, if that was the last time for personal or financial reasons," O'Connor said. "But this is the one thing that I do for me. I know that sounds selfish, but racing puts my problems behind me." Limited late-model competitor Kurt McKinney got off to a good start with a feature victory, but not until he survived a scary incident at the halfway point of the race. McKinney was running in third place on lap 12 when, while battling for the lead, John LaFraniere and Anthony Danta had contact. LaFraniere's car spun and McKinney had to throw his car 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 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 wreck, McKinney was not sent to the back for the restart. He went on to beat strong newcomer Richard Dawson by a few car-lengths. Josh Nelms was a dominant force in Mid-Ams in 2004, and it looks as if we're in for more of the same in '05. In the main he took the lead from Jeff Cannon on lap 11 and kept him at arm's length the rest of the way. "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 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." The forecast is more suited for late winter than nearly mid-spring, but if the weather holds Kankakee Speedway will conduct a regular show tonight and Illiana Speedway a full program Saturday. Practice days are scheduled at LaSalle Speedway on Saturday and Grundy County Speedway on Sunday. The Grundy opener is slated for April 29; the LaSalle lidlifter April 30.