Kaiser Claims Hoss; Hoffman Victorious
in LLM Feature Event
By: Tony Baranek
.JPG) Schererville,
IN (August 2, 2008) - The big
question following Eddie Hoffman's victory in Saturday night's
limited late-model feature at the ASA-sanctioned Illiana Speedway
wasn't about how he did it.
It was why he was driving a No. 80 Impala
instead of his usual No. 8.
The short answer was that the car is
more or less an experimental model, and Hoffman was doing the
builder a favor by testing it out. Other than that...
"I had a night off, and I couldn't
find a date," Hoffman kidded during post-race inspection.
"This is a Tech-One home-built
car by Joe and Tony D'Ambrose," Hoffman explained later.
"We ran it at Grundy in an ASA race. Tony likes to tinker
and play around with cars. Tonight it was good enough that you
could turn the wheel and it would go."
Hoffman is now 3-for-3 in the D'Ambrose
machine, counting wins at Grundy and Berlin Raceway.
Saturday night Hoffman was fast out
of the box, breaking his own qualifying lap record of 19.932
seconds with a time of 19.893.
In the feature, he came from the eighth
starting spot to track down and pass leader Bobby Gash on lap
18. He went on to score the victory over Gash by 1.166 seconds.
The best battle of the race was for
third place between points leader John Nutley and second-ranking
Johnny Senerchia. Nutley appeared ready to seize the position
from Senerchia, only to have Senerchia stay steady on the high
side and eventually prevail.
Nutley wound up fighting off Tyler Middleton
for fourth place, nipping him at the finish line by a mere 0.029
seconds.
The toughest break of the race was suffered
by Joe Fadke and Anthony Danta, who both wound up crashing into
the spun car of Dennis Lyp on the back straightaway on lap 15.
Lyp was able to restart, but both Fadke and Danta had to leave
the race.
A wild finish in the turbo stox feature
wound up with four disqualifications among top-running cars.
Apparent winner Brian Kucaba was penalized
for violating the "breakout" rule, which goes into
effect when a driver far exceeds his or her lap speeds in the
feature race as opposed to the qualifying time.
Tony Meier, Scott Gardner and Mark Ross
Jr., all of whom were battling among the leaders and involved
in a pileup in Turn 2 on the final lap, were DQ'd for rough driving.
The official winner was Pat O'Rourke,
who claimed his second feature trophy of the season.
"I'm happy to get the win, but
Brian (Kucaba) is a good friend of mine and I feel bad for him,"
O'Rourke said. "He drove his tail off in that race, but
then again the rules are the rules, so here we are."
Points leader Eddie Ligue was credited
with second, followed by Bill Serviss, Craig Coglianese, Bobbie
Jean Wall and Bobby Blood.
.JPG) The
HOSS Outlaw Winged Sprints made their annual visit to the speedway.
Geoff Kaiser was a runaway winner, besting Gregg Wheeler by a
whopping 8.380 seconds. Third went to Kris Leming, ahead of Jerry
Caryer and Eddie Kelley.
.JPG) Mike
Lindemulder was king in the pure stocks feature, nosing out a
hard-charging Tim Cronin. Dave Jacobs checked in third, followed
by Chris Czaszwicz and George Werner.
Summary
Limited late-model
Qualifying: 1. Eddie Hoffman
(19.893), 2. John Senerchia (20.142), 3. John Nutley (20.197),
4. Tyler Middleton (20.258), 5. Anthony Danta (20.375), 6. Joe
Fadke (20.379), 7. Bobby Gash (20.604), 8. Dennis Lyp (20.608),
9. Paul Zolodz (20.853), 10. Doug Hayes (21.066), 11. Rita Fields
(21.066), 12. Darrel Sills (21.121), 13. Kevin Offdenkamp (21.192),
14. Brad Plunket (21.303), 15. Joe Balser (21.373), 16. Bobbie
Jean Wall (22.811).
1st heat:
1. Gash, 2. Hoffman, 3. Danta, 4. Nutley, 5. Senerchia, 6. Fadke,
7. Middleton, 8. Lyp.
2nd heat: 1.
Fields, 2. Hayes, 3. Balser, 4. Sills, 5. Paul Zolodz 6. Offdenkamp,
7. Plunket, 8. Wall.
25-lap feature: 1. Hoffman, 2. Gash, 3. Senerchia, 4. Nutley,
5. Middleton, 6. Hayes, 7. Fields, 8. Lyp, 9. Zolodz, 10. Balser,
11. Plunket, 12. Offdenkamp, 13. Fadke, 14. Danta, 15. Sills,
16. Wall.
Turbo stox
Qualifying: 1. Mark Ross Jr. (17.965), 2. Scott Gardner
(18.007), 3. Chris Woodall (18.072), 4. Ed Ligue (18.074), 5.
Bill Serviss (18.083), 6. Billy Jarrells (18.111), 7. Craig Coglianese
(18.139), 8. Jacob McKown (18.156), 9. Pat O'Rourke (18.187),
10. Tony Meier (18.210), 11. Jerry Barnett (18.310), 12. Bobbie
Jean Wall (18.337), 13. Pat Ligue (18.368), 14. Bobby Blood (18.404),
15. Brian Kucaba (18.405), 16. John Finley (18.617), 17. Josh
Easto (18.678), 18. Ed Hast (18.797), 19. Crystalyn Sehr (19.270),
20. Armand Artuso (19.423).
1st heat:
1. Meier, 2. O'Rourke, 3. E. Ligue, 4. Gardner, 5. Serviss, 6.
Jarrells, 7. Woodall, 8. Ross Jr., 9. Coglianese, 10. McKown.
2nd heat:
1. Kucaba, 2. P. Ligue, 3. Barnett, 4. Wall, 5. Blood, 6. Hast,
7. Finley, 8. Sehr, 9. Artuso, 10. Easto.
25-lap feature: 1. O'Rourke, 2. E. Ligue, 3. Serviss, 4. Coglianese,
5. Wall, 6. Blood, 7. P. Ligue, 8. Hast, 9. Barnett, 10. McKown,
11. Easto, 12. Jarrells, 13. Artuso, 14. Sehr, 15. Finley, 16.
Woodall, DQ: Kucaba, Gardner, Meier, Ross Jr.
HOSS Sprints
1st heat: 1.
Jerry Caryer, 2. Eddie Kelley, 3. Jim Dolph, 4. Sam Davis, 5.
Geoff Kaiser, 6. Kris Leming.
2nd heat:
1. Tim Cox, 2. Ron Koehler, 3. Greg Wheeler, 4. Jim Payne, 5.
Tom Green, 6. Frank Mosier, 7. Ed Lute.
30-lap feature:
1. Kaiser, 2. Wheeler, 3. Leming, 4. Caryer, 5. Kelley, 6. Payne,
7. Dolph, 8. Koehler, 9. Mosier, 10. Cox, 11. Green, 12. Lute,
13. Chris Jagger, 14. Davis.
Pure stocks
1st heat: 1.
Pat Keen. 2nd heat: 1. Cheryl Hryn. 3rd heat: 1. Dave Jacobs.
Semi:
1. Joe Moeglin.
Feature: 1.
Mike Lindemulder, 2. Tim Cronin, 3. Jacobs, 4. Chris Czaszwicz,
5. George Werner.
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