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Auto Racing: At Illiana
'Dyer Flyer' earns fifth win of season
As reported Sunday, July 23rd, 2006 In the Daily Southtown
http://www.dailysouthtown.com/southtown/dssports/pro/232sd5.htm
By Tony Baranek
Staff
writer
SCHERERVILLE, Ind. — It's highly doubtful that Dave Weltmeyer could have run around Illiana Speedway's half-mile oval Saturday night, given that he was still feeling some of the effects of a recent surgical procedure on his left knee.
But he sure did wheel his way around pretty well.
The "Dyer Flyer" earned his fifth late-model feature win of the season, holding off points leader Mike White by less than a car-length.
The race was run in a continuous drizzle, which made things kind of tricky for the 12-car field. It was especially tough for quick runners such as Weltmeyer, who had to work his way up carefully from the third row.
"It (the rain) intimidated me," Weltmeyer admitted. "At the beginning, my windshield was pretty full and I felt some slippage in the car. I had to wait until I got some grip before I made some moves and got more confidence."
The early leader was Len Nowosel, who did a good job of holding off Joe O'Connor for quite awhile before O'Connor, with Weltmeyer behind him, made the pass on the backstretch on lap 11.
White, meanwhile, came from the rear of the field to work himself into contention with nine laps remaining. He closed on Weltmeyer and got within a car-length just before the white flag lap when a spin by Jeff Cannon brought out a yellow.
That set up a one-lap drag race to the finish line between Weltmeyer and White. White got inside as they came out of Turn 3, but couldn't get far enough underneath to attempt a pass.
"You're not going to beat him in one lap. You know what I'm saying?" White said of Weltmeyer. "We made it look interesting, but Dave drove a great race. My hat's off to him. We'll try again next week.
"I got stuck there a little bit early behind some guys, but once I got into second I had a real fast car and I could run by myself. I just wish it was 30 laps instead of 25.''
Weltmeyer indicated he felt no serious ill effects from having his left knee scoped.
"I'm a lot better than I was 10 days ago," he said. "But Mike White has sure set a new high standard. His car is really working well. I saw him coming and he didn't lose anything the whole race.
"I got tighter and tighter and I knew I was in trouble there at the end. I appreciate him racing me clean. But he set a new standard and now we've got to take this car home and work on it."
Third place in Saturday's feature went to O'Connor. Fourth went to John Nutley, followed by Nowosel and Bobby Gash.