Local Auto Racing: Rain should never have final word on champions

• Reprints

Updated: November 9, 2011 5:22PM

First off, hail to the champions at Grundy County Speedway — Eddie Hoffman in the late-model division, Billy Knippenberg in the Mid-American class, Logan Love in the street stocks and Rich Dearborn in the pure stocks. Kudos, too, to Hoffman for winning the Lee Schuler Memorial.

Now let’s turn to the unfortunate way the points season ended at Illiana Speedway, especially in the late-models.

Going into what was supposed to be the final night on Sept. 3, Hoffman led Blake Brown by two points. It figured to be anticlimactic because Hoffman was in Michigan at a traveling series race. All Brown had to do was show up to claim the crown.

Brown did show up. So did a downpour around 4 p.m. The rain ended around 4:45, after which the drivers brought their cars onto the speedway and put in a Herculean effort to dry it up. Then, just before qualifying, another downpour caused the program to be canceled.

Amid the raindrops, conversation swirled in the pits. According to the rules, Brown was to be awarded five points for showing up race ready. And with no rain date on the schedule, that would be it. Brown was the champion by three points.

There was, however, a rain date of Sept. 17 set for the Bettenhausen Classic, which was slated for Sept. 10.

After a consultation with track officials, Illiana owner/promoter Mike Mikuly announced to all present that if the Bettenhausen went off on schedule, the Sept. 17 rain date would be used for a final points night.

Then Mikuly went home and over the next two nights changed his mind.

“I made a pressure decision the night of the rain. The wrong decision was made,” Mikuly said Saturday. “We never had a rain date. The more I thought about it, believe me, I never slept all Saturday or Sunday night.”

On Sept. 5, it was announced on the Illiana website that the standings (with updated showup points) were final, and that Blake Brown was the champ, along with Eddie Wolf in the turbo stox, Alex Arelano in the legends and Chris Czaszwicz in the pure stocks.

I’m not sure what bugs me more, that Mikuly (1) didn’t already have a rain date for the last night of points, or (2) announced publicly that the season would be extended one week and then yanked it back.

As for Hoffman, I can’t feel too sorry for him because all season he talked about how he wasn’t running for points (because of his travel committments) and the only reason he was a contender was because of rainouts (7 total). How it ended was a lousy way to lose a title, but it was his decision to not show up on Sept. 3.

Mikuly said he would look into creating a schedule starting next season where there are two nights available to end the points. He also said he is seeking Schererville’s permission to have three Sundays available for rain dates.

This isn’t the only time points standings have ended with a rainout. It happened at least twice at Santa Fe Speedway. I also remember at Raceway Park, in 1978, Pete Jenin rescheduling two or three times before Barb Bosak and Nancy Prince battled it out in a winner-take-all final hobby stock feature in October.

Man, I’ve still got the chills thinking about Hoffman and Brown battling side by side for all the marbles. Too bad, so sad. Let’s fix this in the future.