As reported Sunday, May 18, 2003 In the Daily
Southtown
http://www.dailysouthtown.com/southtown/dssports/pro/183sd4.htm
By Tony Baranek But then Dave Weltmeyer played an ace.
The result was two of a kind for the "Dyer Flyer," who captured his second
consecutive victory of the 2003 season at the half-mile track.
"Two in a row — that's twice as many as we won here last year," said
Weltmeyer, who won one event at Illiana in 2002. "We're off to a good start.
We're still working on the car. Everybody's getting faster."
White had just taken the lead from Steve Moenck as they roared into Turn 4
when Weltmeyer not only followed him through but made a bottom-groove move of
his own.
"He knows what he's doing," White, chuckling, said of Weltmeyer. "I went in
there so low (to pass Moenck) I couldn't keep the car down. I was kind of
defenseless there. It was a great move on his part."
White drifted up high in the front straightaway, allowing Weltmeyer enough
room to scoot past him.
By the time White got back up to full speed, Weltmeyer had a two car-length
lead.
"Well, I saw Mike stick his car in there and I knew how hard he went into the
corner," Weltmeyer said. "It's pretty tough to hold the car on the bottom as
hard as he went in there. So I took advantage."
The two ran in close formation over the final 20 laps, with Joe O'Connor
lurking about five car-lengths behind. Weltmeyer wound up beating White by a
car-length, while O'Connor held off Larry Middleton Jr. Moenck and Tony
D'Ambrose completed the top six.
The third-place showing was the best finish of the season for O'Connor.
"I'm glad to finally get the car handling and running with the big dogs," an
elated O'Connor said. "It's something else just to finish behind and right with
Mike White and Dave Weltmeyer. Them guys are awesome."
The early part of the race saw a series of yellow flags, starting with a
tangle up front on lap five between leader Brian Schwartz and runner-up
Middleton.
Moenck, whose No. 38 was slightly damaged during the scramble to avoid the
main combatants inherited the lead. He held it until a four-car, two-wide
formation of himself, White, O'Connor and Weltmeyer brought about the decisive
passes.
Weltmeyer set fast qualifying time. Heats were taken by Mike Pockrus and Jim
Rossiter.
The Millennium division went to Joe Fadke, over Jeff Mackowiak and Mike
Carpenter Jr.
Terry Wagner actually crossed the finish line first, but Woody Colclasure
claimed the spoils in a "second-place wins" feature for the new "pure stock"
division.
Staff
writer