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2001
NEWS ARCHIVE
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| Florida Pro Series Heats Up | Anderson Takes Second Win in a Row
by Jane Smith
 Rain washed out practice on Friday night for Columbia Motorsports Park and the Florida Pro racers. But, sun greeted them the next day. But it was blankets, lots of hot chocolate and gloves that greeted the fans of this Super Late Model series last night.
Jonny Kay set fast time with a 16.941 with James Powell, Dick Anderson, Jonathan Brown, Rich Pratt and Michael Williams behind him. But, during tech inspection after qualifying, Powell was found light. So, second was taken from him and he was sent to 26th, the last position in the field. After pills were drawn, it was Michael Williams in the #40s South Forty Green Machine on the pole, Rich Pratt on the outside, followed by Jonathan Brown, Dick Anderson, Jonny Kay and Shane Sawyer.
Twenty-six racers took the green flag with Michael Williams taking the lead. By lap 3, the #42 sister car of Michael Williams, George Murphy, had pulled off the track. Murphy took one of those surprise rides in practice and visited the woods of Columbia Motorsports Park. The car did not look damaged on the outside but never really got up to speed, so he retired it.
By lap 3, Williams had his hands full with Dick Anderson in the #00 trying to take away his lead position. By lap 4, the lead belonged to Anderson with Williams, Pratt, Brown and Kay in second through fifth.
The first caution of the race came on lap 18 when Mike Good in the #27 went around off turn 4. The #6 of Mac Johnson took this time to take a quick visit to the pits, and by lap 23, we were off once again to green flag racing.
The second caution came out on lap 27 when the car of Hubert Simmons, Jr. spun around. The race restarted with Anderson up front and Shane Sawyer in the #38 taking second place from Williams #40. This tight racing action between Sawyer and Williams caused the third caution on lap 40; Williams went off the track into the grass, and caused the caution, sending Williams to the end of the lead lap. The race restarted on lap 43.
Caution 4 came shortly after the restart when the #12 of Justin Drawdy received damage and was out of the race and the #7 of David Russell and the #127 of Kenny Vaughn went around in turns 3 and 4. The race restarted on lap 53, and the #7 of Russell retired.
The race restarted shortly with caution 5 coming out for the #127 of Vaughn going around between turns l and 2. This was lap 64 with restart on lap 66. But by lap 70, it was caution 6 for the turn around on the front stretch by Brown, in the #9. The race restarted on lap 72 only to see caution 7 come out on lap 73 for Brown #9, Vaughn #127, and #8 Eddie Gainey having a meeting between themselves between turns l and 2.
The green came out once again on lap 76 with Anderson, Sawyer, Pratt, Kay, Grossenbacher, Powell and Carlton in the top spots. By lap 81, caution 8 was flying with Vaughn #127 off the track and the #4 into the dirt wall of turn 2. On lap 83, Williams #40 retired; the #127 of Vaughn returned to the race on lap 86.
The restart on lap 90 was a very exciting moment. Powell #37 and Kay #48 were fighting hard for the same place. Powell bumps Kay sending him three spots back. At this time, Kay goes spinning, but the #6 of Mac Johnson brings out the yellow and the race is restarted with Kay and Powell back to their original places. After this incident, Kay guarded his rear more.
The green comes back out on lap 95 with Anderson still in the lead, only to see caution 10 on lap 96 for Mike Good in the #27 taking a spin around in turn 3. Lap 99 went green until lap 101 when caution 11 came out for the #80 of Brian Finney. Finney was doing quite well and in the top 10, but someone got greedy and turned him causing Finney to go off the track in turn 4 and causing enough damage to end his night. The track was cleared and Finney taken into the pits. Green came out once again on lap 109.
But lap 109 saw caution 13 and a red flag when the #99 of Glenn Whitney went flying off into the woods where George Murphy earlier had had a scenic tour. The fans were on their feet waiting to see if Whitney was okay or not when you heard the roar of his engine restart. To everyone's glee, Whitney drove that #99 out of his tour and back onto the track and into the pits.
The race was restarted with Powell in the #37 taking over fourth place, and Kay in the #48 going to sixth place. Powell gave Kay just a little bump but enough to switch places. Caution 14 came out when the #127 of Vaughn went around in turn 2 on lap 112.
Once again we saw green and another exciting moment. The #34 of Carlton, last year's champion, and the #0 of Rich Pratt were fighting hard for third place. Pratt bumps Carlton, sending Carlton squirming down the back stretch. The yellow comes out for the incident with Carlton sent to the rear of the lead lap, and Pratt pulling into the pits and retiring. Pratt had run in the top five the whole race.
Since it is the rule that the last five laps must be run under green, the fans saw five laps of green flag racing and 16 out of the 26 starting cars still fighting hard for places. But, it was Anderson taking his second win in a row in the #00 Joe Harris car. Shane Sawyer came in second with James Powell third after fighting his way back from the last starting position, Jonny Kay fourth, the #09 of Scott Grossenbacher fifth, Mike Bresnehan #3 sixth, and Jonathan Brown #9 seventh.
1. Dick Anderson
2. Shane Sawyer
3. James Powell, III
4. Jonny Kay
5. Scott Grossenbacher
6. Mike Bresnahan
7. Jonathan Brown
8. Jeff Emery
9. Rick Carlton
10. Glenn Whitney
11. David Logan
12. Donnie Oden
13. Mac Johhson
14. Mike Good
15. Eddie Gainey
16. Keith Zavrel
17. Richard Pratt
18. John Carter, Jr.
19. Brian Finney
20. Kenny Vaughn
21. Michael Williams
22. Hubert Simmons
23. Jay Middleton
24. David Russell
25. Justin Drawdy
26. George Murphy
-Jane Smith
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