AUTO RACING | ILLIANA'S 60TH SEASON

Driver Mike White and car owner Tom Rose have had a pretty good run since teaming up in 1995 for the late model stock car racing action at Schererville's Illiana Motor Speedway.

Despite stories of its closing, Illiana is slated to open its gates for its 60th year of automobile racing Saturday night with the first green flag at 7 p.m. Late model, limited late model, Mid American sportsman, Turbo Stox and pure stock divisions again will be part of Illiana's weekly schedule.

Driving for Rose, White -- a 42-year-old Monee resident -- has won four Illiana late model season championships, including last year's driving title. Wheeling a variety of Rose-owned Monte Carlos, White has captured 28 of his 126 career feature wins in the Schererville car owner's trademark "00-numbered" machinery.

"I kind of got lucky when he (Rose) called me to drive his car," White said. "We hit it off right from day one as far as ideas of what makes these things (stock cars) go."

White began racing stock cars in 1986 at Raceway Park near Blue Island and won the late model crown at the old speedway in 1988. Before winning three consecutive championships in 1997, 1998 and 1999 at the Illiana half-mile paved oval, White was also the late model track titlist at the Grundy County Speedway in Morris in 1993, 1995 and 1996.

"You never start the season looking for a championship," White said. "One year you get awful close and that lights the fire. We did that the first year I started driving for Tom and we finished second behind (Frank) Gawlinski (nine-time Illiana champion). I want to say that the first championship we won at Illiana (in 1997), we were really going for it.

"Once you win the first one (championship), it's kind of out of the way and, after that, we just started to go out there and try to win races. If you do well and keep the car on the race track, the points will come."

Last year, which looked like it might be the final season of racing at Illiana, was a different story.

"Actually, we kind of went for the championship at Illiana last year," White said. "Like a lot of people, we thought it might be the last year of racing there. We were geared up for it.

"We didn't think we could do it until about mid-season. It's never easy to beat any of those guys. We hit on something about mid-year and it paid off."

The White/Rose combination has never finished worse than seventh in the points at Illiana. That year (2004) saw White banged up in several crashes with injuries hampering him throughout the balance of the season. A fourth in 2000 and six second-place finishes in the points sum up the winning duo's career at Illiana.

"When the green flag drops, that baby (White) is on kill," Rose said about his driver. "He goes hard from start to finish, but focused, never out of control. He is dead set on getting to the front of that race as fast as possible and winning it.

"It doesn't matter if it is a heat race or feature, Mike wants to win it. That's how you accumulate a lot of points and win championships."