May 24th - By Tony Baranek
Three feature races, three second-place finishes.
Eddie Hoffman wasn't about to make it 4-for-4 during Saturday night's late-model feature at Illiana Speedway.
Hoffman, who finished second earlier in the night to Johnny Senerchia in the limited late-model feature, dusted the field in the late-model main, beating Mike White to the finish line by 0.863 seconds.
"I've been getting a lot of seconds lately, but you can't really complain about seconds," Hoffman said with a smile afterward. "A lot of guys would love to run second a lot of times as often as we do. "But there was no denying this car in this race. It was really a good car. We'll have to take it back and write everything down."
Hoffman took the lead from Jerry Sharp on lap nine, and held off a late charge from White. Sharp, who has raced for a few seasons but never as a regular, ran a very competitive third, beating out Dave Weltmeyer, Mike Monroe and Woody Pool.
In the limited late-model main, Senerchia ran up front after taking the lead from Len Koprowski on lap five. He looked ready to cruise to the finish, but a late yellow flag allowed Hoffman, with John Nutley right on his tail, to close up for a restart. Nutley kept Hoffman busy enough that Senerchia was able to keep himself in the top spot to the finish. Hoffman was second, followed by Nutley, Phil Splant, Bobby Gash and Koprowski.
Pat O'Rourke was sailing in the turbo stox main event when with one lap remaining a yellow flag caused a restart. The first restart saw Ryan Moore on his bumper, but a wreck in Turn 1 wiped out several cars, including Ross. The second restart saw Eddie Ligue in a position to challenge, but O'Rourke kept his No. 10 sure and steady, and claimed his second career feature win. Ligue checked in second behind O'Rourke, while Scott Gardner, Bill Serviss, Tony Neering and Jacob McKown completed the top six.
In the pure stocks feature, Mike Lindemulder outlasted Tim Cronin, Ryan Lagestee and Al Chuprinskas. The legends feature went to Alex Arelano, over Chris King and Rachael Pinkerton.
Late-model Qualifying: 1. Eddie Hoffman (19.599), 2. Jack Kalwasinski (19.834), 3. Jeff Cannon (19.843), 4. Mike White (19.955), 5. Chris Cooling (20.006), 6. Mike Monroe (20.036), 7. Jerry Sharp (20.190), 8. Dave Weltmeyer (20.192), 9. Joe O’Connor (20.273), 10. Richard Ruckh (20.505), 11. Earl Counter (20.594), 12. Vincent Merry (20.685), 13. Woody Pool (20.707), 14. Dave Dotter (21.129), 15. Dean Patterson (21.494).
1st heat: 1. Monroe, 2. Eddie Hoffman, 3. White, 4. Sharp, 5. Cannon, 6. Kalwasinski, 7. Weltmeyer, 8. Cooling.
2nd heat: 1. Pool, 2. Merry, 3. Counter, 4. Ruckh, 5. O’Connor, 6. Ed Hoffman Sr., 7. Patterson.
25-lap feature: 1. Eddie Hoffman, 2. White, 3. Sharp, 4. Weltmeyer, 5. Monroe, 6. Pool, 7. Cooling, 8. Counter, 9. Ruckh, 10. Merry, 11. Ed Hoffman Sr., 12. O’Connor, 13. Cannon, 14. Patterson, 15. Kalwasinski.
Limited late-model Qualifying: 1. Eddie Hoffman (20.097), 2. John Nutley (20.442), 3. Phil Splant (20.527), 4. John Senerchia (20.657), 5. Doug Hayes (20.678), 6. Dennis Lyp (20.724), 7. Rita Fields (20.752), 8. Bobby Gash (20.812), 9. Tyler Middleton (20.846), 10. Len Koprowski (20.903), 11. Brad Plunket (21.302), 12. Kevin Offdenkamp (21.421), 13. Matt O’Leary (21.519), 14. Mike Wienc (21.580), 15. Joe Balser (22.128).
1st heat: 1. Hoffman, 2. Splant, 3. Middleton, 4. Hayes, 5. Senerchia, 6. Nutley, 7. Lyp, 8. Fields.
2nd heat: 1. Gash, 2. Koprowski, 3. Wienc, 4. O’Leary, 5. Offdenkamp, 6. Balser, 7. Plunket.
25-lap feature: 1. Senerchia, 2. Hoffman, 3. Nutley, 4. Splant, 5. Gash, 6. Koprowski, 7. Middleton, 8. Hayes, 9. Fields, 10. Lyp, 11. Balser, 12. O’Leary, 13. Offdenkamp, 14. Wienc.
Turbo Stox Qualifying: 1. Ed Ligue (17.918), 2. Scott Gardner (17.926), 3. Bill Serviss (17.957), 4. Mark Ross Jr. (18.000), 5. Bobbie Jean Wall (18.016), 6. Ryan Moore (18.046), 7. Jerry Barnett (18.098), 8. Chris Woodall (18.177), 9. Tony Neering (18.234), 10. Billy Jarrells (18.235), 11. Pat O’Rourke (18.276), 12. Jacob McKown (18.297), 13. Kevin Czubak (18.360), 14. Pat Ligue (18.458), 15. Bobby Blood (18.589), 16. Josh Easto (18.672), 17. Ed Hast (18.767), 18. Chrystalyn Sehr (19.220), 19. Armand Artuso (19.317).
1st heat: 1. Woodall, 2. Moore, 3. Ross, 4. Gardner, 5. E. Ligue, 6. Jarrells, 7. Serviss, 8. Neering, 9. Barnett, 10. Wall.
2nd heat: 1. P. Ligue, 2. O’Rourke, 3. Easto, 4. McKown, 5. Hast, 6. Artuso, 7. Sehr, 8. Blood, 9. Czubak.
25-lap feature: 1. O’Rourke, 2. E. Ligue, 3. Gardner, 4. Serviss, 5. Neering, 6. McKown, 7. Barnett, 8. Easto, 9. Wall, 10. Jarrells, 11. Moore, 12. Ross, 13. Woodall, 14. Hast, 15. Artuso, 16. P. Ligue, 17. Czubak. LegendsHeat: 1. Scott Pool, 2. Alex Arelano, 3. Chris King, 4. Rachael Pinkerton, 5. Mark Vandrunen, 6. Ben Fidone, 7. Michael Inscore.
Legends Feature: 1. Arelano, 2. King, 3. Pinkerton, 4. Pool, 5. Herminator, 6. Vandrenen, 7. Inscore, 8. Fidone.
Pure stocks: 1st heat: 1. Brandon Foster. 2nd heat: 1. Mike Lindemulder. 3rd heat: 1. Tim Cronin.
B' feature: 1. Dave Jacobs, 2. Chris Czaszwicz, 3. John Henseley, 4. Doug Schapp, 5. Steve Sabatino. 'A' feature: 1. Lindemulder, 2. Cronin, 3. Ryan Lagestee, 4. Al Chuprinskas, 5. Chris Albertson.
