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By: RacerRich Schererville, IN (October 11, 2008) - We spent our Saturday afternoon and evening doing some racing events on what has turned out to be a very beautiful weekend. Our evening adventure was carried out at the Illiana Motor Speedway in Schererville, Indiana where a near capacity crowd greeted 38 Late Models. Following a long hot lap session all cars were given two laps on the clock for the round of qualifying. When this was completed, Brett Sontag had the fastest lap of the night by clocking in at 19.60 seconds which was barely faster than Eddie Hoffman at 19.61 seconds. These times were set on the fast and flat half mile speedway. The top 16 qualifiers were locked into the 100 lap race for the evening which was paying $3000 to win. There would be two Last Chance races where the top three finishers in each would line up behind the locked in entries. Then four more cars were added as promoter options that filled the field of 26 cars. In the first of these two ten lap races Ricky Baker took the checkered flag first just ahead of Johnny Senerchia and Andy Marchiniak. The second race was won by Chris Cooling who out dueled Jack Kalwasinski and Dave Weltmeyer. Following these races the support group of Pure Stock racers ran their 8 lap heat races on the ¼ mile track. The first heat race was won by Don Lindenmulder and the second one by Paul McKeague. Now the main event of the evening was lining up on the front straightaway and the 26 drivers were introduced to the race fans. From the last starter to the pole sitter each driver was cheered as they made their way to their cars to buckle in. They would be racing 100 green flag laps in what has to be NW Indiana’s biggest race of the year. With Tony Bettenhausen being one of the most popular drivers to ever race from this area it has to be a great thrill for these drivers to participate in the event named in his honor. Tony was from nearby Tinley Park, Illinois and quite a few of tonight’s drivers were also from the Chicagoland area. There would be six states represented from the total entry list. This would be the 47th Annual Tony Bettenhausen Memorial race held at this historic speedway. The first three of these races were USAC Stock Car races which featured a number of Indy 500 drivers. In 1962 Troy Ruttman was the winner, Paul Goldsmith raced to the win in 1963 and in 1964 Norm Nelson crossed the finish line first. There have been 22 different drivers win the race over the years. Topping this list you’ll find Illiana racing legend Frank Gawlinski with nine wins. The next best on the list would be in tonight’s show with each having 4 wins to their credit. Dave Weltmeyer would take the checkered flag in the third position followed by Eddie Hoffman in fourth in this edition of this famous race. While there are six other multiple time winners on the list you will also see the names of NASCAR competitors Joe Ruttman and Ted Musgrave who captured this race one time each. The field of 26 cars had an invert number of 13 pulled which gave Tom Smith the pole start for the race while Brett had his work cut out with his 13th place start. Tom led just over 40 laps before Brett found his way to the front of the pack, taking the lead on lap 42 and he never relinquished the lead after that. The next finisher was the 2008 Illiana Track Champion Mike White. Eddie Hoffman made a last lap pass to gain the 4th finishing position from his 12th starting spot. Rounding out the top five was Mike Monroe in his Dale Earnhardt #3 looking car. The rest of the top ten had Anthony Danta, Ricky Baker, John Nutley, Andy Marchiniak and Matt Kocourek taking the checkered flag in that order. Brett was the Track Champion this year at the Grundy County Fairgrounds track in Morris, Illinois and had not competed at Illiana at all this year until this very convincing win. My personal night was enjoying a friend of mine from midget racing here in our area. Getting to visit with Sean Murphy was a real treat for me since I hadn’t seen him for a few years. He has left his midget racing and has been doing very well in his Late Model racing. In fact he won a feature at Illiana about three weeks ago. In this race Sean got into a car that spun right in front of him which bent some steering parts on his #19 car and he was done early in the race for a disappointing 24th place finish. My other highlight of the night was getting to spend time with old friend Stan Kalwasinski as he was busy preparing his son Jack’s car. Getting to meet Jack for the first time was a true pleasure for me. Jack had a tough race but brought his #99 mount home with a 12th place finish. Getting a run down after the finish, Jack told that he has finished 12th in this race three times among his four Bettenhausen 100’s. Jack also recorded his first feature win at Illiana earlier this year. My congratulations go to both of these favorite drivers for making the show with a tough bunch of competitors. While the top five cars were being teched, the large crowd of race fans were treated to a very neat fireworks display. Mike Mikuly and his staff put on a very good night of racing in a very timely fashion and the fireworks were an added treat for his patrons. With one race left on the night’s card, Don Lindenmulder backed up his convincing heat race win as he raced through the pack to win the 25 lap feature race for the Pure Stocks. This ended the race night where most fans were still in their short sleeve outfits. A beautiful night of summerlike temperatures in the Hoosier state and we just couldn’t ask for much better. Earlier in the day this race fan had gone to the Lake Village Motor Speedway in Lake Village, Indiana for the first time and watched some go-kart racing. Talking with Dave Alger, the track announcer that had arranged this visit for me was very interesting. Dave is also one of the track announcers at Illiana so he was having a long work day. Thanks for your courtesies Dave. This visit was special for me as I had my two Grandsons, Zack & Kyle with me. They have a yard kart so they were interested in seeing what the go-kart racing was all about. We ran into a team that I was familiar with. Getting to meet Jim and Jim, Jr. Dolezal and their Grandson/Son driver Cliffton proved to be a learning situation for me. Not knowing much about go-kart racing they gave me some very interesting facts about their sport. They are sponsored by some friends of mine, Paul and John Croyle. Getting in a good visit with Paul was great but again John was AWOL so I’ve missed meeting him again. Some day Badart. So we had a great day of racing adventures. This could be the last of my year so I’m pleased with my racing action for 2008. Thanks to everyone that has helped me throughout the year! |