By: Betty Glynn
La Salle, IL – Justin Rattliff sports the name “Rattler” on the side of his
#16 CJ Rayburn Late Model and could easily be guessed as a bad boy of the sport. Determining ones personality can be a bit difficult when the average spectator only sees the graphics and personalization of their cars once they roll out for competition.
This twenty year old could definitely hide behind the tough exterior of his speed plant but once the helmet comes off it is easy to like who was inside.
Rattliff is soft spoken, coming across as very friendly and humble to say the least. When the conversation switched to his thoughts on La Salle he wasted little time complimenting the Illinois Valley’s speed arena. “This place is nice, I will definitely be back,” Rattliff said.
Last season he raced a total of 100 races but never followed a touring series such as he has done in 2007. “We went to 100 races last year but never ran a series. We weren’t sure about following one but Lucas Oil has been great,” Rattliff commented.
Saturday night, the Rattler closed in for the strike during the twenty seventh lap of competition en route to the biggest payday of his young career. Thirty eight competitors signed the roster board for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Spring Shootout at La Salle Speedway but only one could claim stake to the bounty.
The fifty lap main event topped the venue with the who’s who in the sport.
Eight states were represented in just the first eight starting spots. On the grid’s front row was fast qualifier Don O’Neal from Indiana on the inside of the Kentucky young gun Rattliff. Behind the duo, Billy Moyer of Arkansas and Rick Eckert of Pennsylvania rolled up ahead of Iowa’s Brian Birkhofer and Wisconsin’s Jimmy Mars. The fourth row held West Virginia’s Steve Shaver and finally an Illinoisan, Darren Miller.
Once the green flag racing got under way, O’Neal wasted little time grabbing the lead, Rattliff took his position in the runner up seat over Eckert, Mars, Moyer and Miller.
With a mere six laps in the books, the races only caution was thrown bringing the twenty four contenders back to a single file format. It didn’t take O’Neal long to pull into his own zip code until he caught the tail of the field during the eighteenth lap. While O’Neal followed the soon to be lapped traffic Rattliff was forming a strategy all his own with a perfect view of what was happening.
“I moved down a bit because it was starting to rubber up,” Rattliff explained during a post race interview. “The track was good during the heats and there was some marbles up on top but half way through the feature it took rubber.”
During Lap 27, Rattliff put his instincts to good use when he pulled up and under the drivers door of O’Neal and into command for the first and final time. Now it was Rattliff maneuvering the lapped machine of Eddie Carrier Jr. once around him it was in the bag.
There wasn’t a lot of passing going on as they flew around the bottom side of the deep highbanked clay.
Rattliff scored the $10,000 check putting himself in the record books and his name on the map. O’Neal captured second over Eckert, Mars, Bikhofer, Moyer, Miller, Florida’s Earl Pearson Jr., Scott James of Indiana, Shaver, Brady Smith, Jeep VanWormer, Dan Schlieper and Brian Shirley.
O’Neal grabbed the lead using the outside rim during the first Heat race to beat Birkhofer, Smith and Terry English. Rattliff secured his outside front row feature start with the second Heat victory over Mars, James and Schlieper. Eckert won Heat race number 3 with Shaver, Shannon Babb and Brian Shirley trailing. The final Heat win was earned by Moyer with Miller, Pearson and VanWormer in tow.
Carrier and Damon Eller won their “B” Main races.
The weekly Late Model class at La Salle competed as one of the support classes for the night.
Maple Park’s Ralph Markham dominated the division’s sixteen car field with his third feature victory for the 2007 season.
Markham started on the front row outside next to Tonica’s Scott Schmitt.
Oglesby’s Keith Piano and Mike Glynn of La Salle were in row two.
Once green, Markham quickly took the lead as Glynn dodged around Schmitt into second. By the fourth lap of competition, Markham was already on the back bumper of Jeff Small. Markham made contact with his back side sending the almost lapped car into a tail spin and a caution.
Immediately following a restart of Lap 10, Ed Williams running in third didn’t quite cut the turn two corner right and found his nose slammed into Glynn’s ride. Both exited for the pits and returned to the tail of the field before the action got under way again.
With Markham and Schmitt out front, Piano held onto a strong third place run while Billy Weistart Jr. was busy moving up the field. Weistart and Steve Oeder diced it up for fourth.
Markham outpowered Schmitt to claim the win. Piano finished third over Weistart, who began his journey ninth on the grid, Oeder, Mark Larson, Eric Dauber, Dave Miller, Doug Newlin, Glynn, Williams, and John Piccatto.
Piano and Schmitt won the Heat races.
The UMP Modified race ended in controversy. Mineral’s Marty Thompson started on the pole next to Nathan Balensiefen while last weeks winner Milo Veloz and Mike Dyas were in row two.
Thompson took off quick to grab the lead with Veloz close behind. Several restarts kept bringing the pack back together. Veloz gave it his all to get around Thompson but just didn’t have enough until Lap 15 when Thompson slipped up a little higher and Veloz shot to the leader role. A caution before the lap could be completed put Veloz back to second.
Before they could really keep it under green, Thompson took his ride back to the pits with mechanical woes. Veloz was now safely at the helm with Balensiefen running second over Joe Adam, Ray Bollinger, Mike Spatola and Jeremy Gustaf.
Just after the Mod’s got the eighteenth lap in the books, something went terribly wrong with the leaders. A sight not often witnessed and probably couldn’t be repeated without practice. Coming out of turn two, Veloz lead the field with Balensiefen close on his tail.
There was contact between Veloz’ back bumper and Balensiefen’s front bumper.
Next the unthinkable, six cars connected looking like the cars of a miniature freight train. Front bumpers on top of back bumpers the resolution – the race was called.
After much discussion with the drivers and track decision makers, the finish order was declared with the last lap scored.
The following was the paid finish respectively; Veloz, Balensiefen, Adam, Bollinger, Spatola, Gustaf, Dyas, Justin McCoy, Brian Lucas, Mark Vervynk, Mike Ahlgren, and Mark Novorolsky.
Veloz and Thompson each took home the Heat race wins.
Ed Williams Jr. collected the UMP Street Stock feature win edging out Rick Koltveit, Spud Balensiefen, Justin Rutledge, Jimmy Partipilo, Nick Sell, Matt Ramer Jim Phelps, Gary Schmitt and Mike Hughes.
Koltveit and Rutledge won their Heats.
La Salle Speedway Results 5/19/07
Lucas Oil Late Model – Dirt Series – 39 Cars Fast Qualifier: Don O’Neal 12.773
Heat One: Don O’Neal, Brian Bikhofer, Brady Smith, Terry English, Ryan Dauber, Kerry Hansen, Kevin Weaver, Scott Schmitt, Dennis Erb Jr.
Heat Two: Justin Rattliff, Jimmy Mars, Scott James, Dan Schlieper, Eddie Carrier Jr., Donnie Moran, Freddy Smith, Brad Neat, Mike Provenzano, George Scheffler
Heat Three: Rick Eckert Steve Shaver, Shannon Babb, Brian Shirley, Damon Eller, Steve Casebolt, Ray Cook, Tony Izzo, Billy Drake
Heat Four: Billy Moyer, Darren Miller, Earl Pearson Jr., Jeep VanWormer, Mike Mataragas, Andrew McKay, Rich
“B” Main #1: Eddie Carrier Jr, Donnie Moran, Kerry Hansen, Kevin Weaver, Brad Neat, Freddy Smith, Dennis Erb Jr., Scott Schmitt, Mike Provenzano, George Scheffler John
“B” Main #2: Damon Eller, Steve Casebolt, Ray Cook, Billy Drake, Andrew McKay, Mike Mataragas, Tony Izzo, Rich Bell
Feature: Justin Rattliff, Don O’Neal, Rick Eckert, Jimmy Mars, Brian Birkhofer, Billy Moyer, Darren Miller, Earl Pearson Jr., Scott James, Steve Shaver, Brady Smith, Jeep VanWormer, Dan Schlieper, Brian Shirley, Brad Neat, Billy Drake, Terry English, Kerry Hansen, Eddie Carrier Jr., Ray Cook, Damon Eller, Shannon Babb, Donnie Moran, Steve Casebolt
Late Model – 16 Cars
Heat One: Keith Piano, Mike Glynn, Ed Williams, Steve Oeder Heat Two: Scott Schmitt, Ralph Markham, Aaron Schmidt, Mark Larson
Feature: Ralph Markham, scott Schmitt, Keith Piano, Billy Weistart Jr., Steve Oeder, Mark Larson, Eric Dauber, Dave Miller, Doug Newlin, Mike Glynn, Ed Williams, John Piccatto, Aaron Schmidt, Lake Knutti, Joe Fratt
UMP Modifieds – 16 Cars
Qualifying: Milo Veloz 14.930
Heat One: Milo Veloz, Matt Weibel, Jason Anderson, Justin McCoy Heat Two: Vince Cooper, Nathen Balensiefen, Ray Bollinger, Bill Thedorf
Feature: Milo Veloz, Vince Cooper, Ray Bollinger, Justin McCoy, Jason Anderson, Joe Adam, Nathan Balensiefen, Eric Alwin, Mark Vervynck, Mike Dyas, Brian Lucas, Wally Forsythe, Mark Novorolsky, Bill Thedorf, Mike Algren, Matt Weibel
UMP Street Stocks – 20 Cars
Heat One: Rick Koltveit, Gary Schmitt, Jimmy Partipilo, Spud Balensiefen Heat Two: Justin Rutledge, Ed Williams, Nick Sell, Brent Carlson
Feature: Ed Williams Jr., Rick Koltveit, Spud Balensiefen, Justin Rutledge, Jimmy Partipilo, Nick Sell, Matt Ramer, Jim Phelps, Gary Schmitt, Mike Hughes, Brent Carlson, Steve Lewis, Justin Sellers, Roger Rickels, Alex Clubb, Jay Mesarchik, Joe Jelinek, Billy Dauber, Steve Schwemlein, Matt Hinnoks
