Schererville, IL (June 26, 2005) – Wheaton, Illinois driver Eddie Hoffman won his second consecutive Elmer Musgrave Memorial 100 Presented By Texas Corral Saturday night with the CRA Super Series at Illiana Motor Speedway. Last years Elmer Musgrave Memorial 100 win was the start of 3 consecutive CRA Super Series wins for Eddie Hoffman, this is Hoffman's first win in 9 races this season, his first as a full time CRA Super Series Presented By Spray Power competitor. Hoffman, the events Bicycle Clay Poker Chips/Menards Fast Qualifier, raced from his sixth place inverted starting position to get the win.

"It's great to win here at one of my home tracks, but we need CRA Super Series wins to stay on top of the points.  We have been struggling a little, and we need to get back on track and finish in the top 5 every week.  This race started a great run for us last year, hopefully it will again this year."  A happy Hoffman stated after the race.

This is the ninth winner in as many races for the CRA Super Series Presented By Spray Power this season.

"We really like it here, this is a very competitive series, without any one car being dominate every week, the fact that there have not been any repeat winners really says something about the strength of the cars here." Tom Kmak of TK Racing, owner of Hoffman’s car stated.

In addition to his victory in the race, Hoffman also claimed the top prize in the Stash Kullman Chicagoland Showdown Challenge, which combined the points from the Musgrave Memorial race with those from the "George Appleton Memorial Race" held earlier this month at Grundy County Speedway. Hoffman received the first place payoff of $2,500, Ryan Mathews received the $1,500 second place payoff while Nathan Haseleu received the $1000 third place payoff.

Illiana regular and former track champion Dave Weltmeyer finished second, Weltmeyer started 14^th and worked his way up quickly through the field to take second on lap 46, but he could not mount a real challenge to the dominate Hoffman. For his effort Weltmeyer received a Hoosier Racing Tire Performance Award and the Howe Racing Performance Award. Weltmeyer also received a $500 bonus from the local McDonalds for being the highest finisher from the regular Illiana Motor Speedway Late Models.

After 4 straight races finishing outside the Top 10 Jeff Lane took the monkey off his back for at least this week and rode with a stuffed monkey in his car and broke a streak of bad luck to finish third.  With the fastest car through most of the middle of the race when he came from 10^th up to third in just over 20 laps passing several cars on the outside on the wide Illiana track.

"When we unloaded we were not very good, but help from Bill Rievley, and hard work by Hayden (Butler car owner) and Brandon (Lines) we got it together and had a good run. It kind of went away there at the end but we are happy to finish third." Lane commented.

Mike White, early race leader, and Pat Kelly both Illiana regulars and former track champions finished fourth and fifth respectively. Eddie Van Meter started on the pole but could not stay there as he was shuffled back and then worked his way forward to finish sixth. Boris Jurkovic, Cometic Gasket Top Rookie of the Race Award winner, finished seventh, and Ryan Mathews eighth.

Local competitor Joe O’Connor, in his first CRA Super Series start, finished ninth after transferring to the event through the last chance race. O’Connor started 23^rd giving him a Hoosier Racing Tire Performance Award, the Racing Electronics Most Improved Award and the ISKY Racing Cams/Lane Automotive Hard Charger Award. Eddie Hoffman also collected the events Holley Performance Award, the Tesar Engineering Racing Engines Halfway Leader Award and The Wax Shop Lap Leader Award after leading 87 laps.

Rick Turner made a spectacular save when he got sideways in between the third and fourth turns and managed to keep the car on the track without hitting anything to earn the Sweet Manufacturing Sweet Move of the Race Award.

Terry Fisher Jr. won the 15-lap Last Chance race over 15-year-old Landon Cassill, both transferred to the feature event along with third place Joe O’Conner and fourth place Scott Baker. Former track champions Larry Schuler and Jack Kalwasinski were promoter’s options along with 15-year-old Hendrick Motorsports development driver Chase Austin who made the trip from Eudora, Kansas to race in Saturday’s event.

The next CRA Super Series Presented By Spray Power event will be the Hargus Mullins Firecracker 125 this Saturday, July 2nd at Angola Motor Speedway in Angola, IN. More information is available here.

Official Results

Photos for Illiana

Hoffman Sets Fast Time at Illiana Motor Speedway

With the temperature nearing triple digits Eddie Hoffman turned a very hot lap on a very hot track by missing the track record just over .100 of a second to be the Bicycle Clay Poker Chips/Menards Fast Qualifier for the 4th Annual Elmer Musgrave Memorial 100 with a time of 19.194 seconds, nearly a tenth of a second faster than second qualifier Nathan Haseleu.  Illiana regular Pat Kelly was third, Chris Gabehart fourth and Mike White fifth.

Qualifying Results

Van Meter on the Pole

Hoffman drew a 6 to start in the sixth position putting Eddie Van Meter on the pole.  Van Meter is currently tied with Scott Hantz for the CRA Super Series Drivers Points lead and only a few points behind Hoffman in the Owners points chase.

Terry Fisher, Jr Wins Qualifying Race

Terry Fisher, Jr. started on the pole of the qualifying race and led all 15 laps to race his way into the field on his return to the CRA Super Series after a few weeks off.  Landon Cassill finished second, Illiana regular Joe O'Connor third, and Scott Baker fourth to transfer to the feature.  Kenny Tweedy, and Billy Crane moved up as CRA provisionals, and Larry Schuler and Jack Kalwasinski are in as Promoters Options.

Lineup

Qualifying Order