by Rick Anges

(KNS) Mother nature forced the U.S.A.R. Hooters Pro-Cup to run the season opener Sunday afternoon rather then Saturday night. Rain not only washed out Saturdays show but the Friday practice also had to be scrubbed. With only an hour and a half of practice crews were scrambling to not only get the right setup but to change strategy from a night race to an afternoon race on a green race track.

Forty-three cars rolled out onto the grid to make qualifying attempts on the high-banked three quarter mile oval. Early fast time was Mike Williams in the #24 with a 22.205 second time. Defending Pro-Cup champ Bobby Gill nearly looped the car in turn one his first lap but came back strong with a 22.215 sec.time.

Jason Sarvis was the 36th qualifier and blistered the track with the only sub 22-second run at 21.97 to take the pole for the race.

When the green flag dropped on the Lucas Oil 250 presented by Jennie-O Turkey Store, it was the outside pole sitter Bill Plemons in the #15 who jumped out to the early lead. The field stayed side by side for the first ten laps behind Plemons.The first caution of the day was when the #21 of local favorite Derrick Kelley tangled with the #61 of Morgan. Kelly later retired the car with mechanical problems. Another Florida fan favorite also suffered mechanical woes, as Mario Gosselin had to retire his mount early in the race.

David Buggy Pletcher #51 was moving up through the field when he tangled with another car and got a flat right front tire, fortunately for him the caution came out.

Pletchers team struggled getting the tire off the car and he had to go out on the track with a flat to keep from going a lap down. He was able to stay on the lead lap and later lead for several laps.

Gill who had moved into second place behind Plemons made an early pit stop with several other cars during caution on lap 47, the hood went up on the #5 car but no work was done and the defending champ was down and away.

Meanwhile back on the track Steven Christian in the #16 and the #9 of Chad Mullis had moved into second and third and were setting their sites on the lead. On lap 90 Christian was able to get under Plemons and take the top spot becoming the second leader of the 250-lap event.

On lap 97 a hard crash coming out of turn four took out the cars of Calvin Redwine #85 and the #41 of former open-wheel stand out Luke Hill.

Taking advantage of another caution on lap 120 most of the leaders dove into the pits for four fresh tires and gas.
Pletcher who had pitted earlier stayed out on the track and was the leader at the half way mark under caution.

Mart Nesbitt #30 who had moved himself into the top ten was caught up in a crash on lap 134 with the lapped car of Hooters North driver #16n Jeff Oakley. Nesbitt suffered front-end damage to the car, which ended his bid for the win.


On lap 147 Jeremy Bowser who had to start at the rear of the field took the lead from Pletcher.

Gill in the meantime had moved his way back up through the field and was quietly running in second several car lengths behind Bowser. Slowly Gill made his way up to the leader and in patented Dominator fashion moved under Bowser and powered himself into a lead he would not relinquish.

“We had a really good car today,” said Gill. “We made a couple of pit stops to check some things and we were able to get out front and stay there at the end. The lapped traffic gave me a cushion with Steven because I knew he had a car that could challenge us.”


Steven Christian tried all he could do to get around Gill in the closing laps but the #5 held off the challenge scooping up the opening win of the 2002 season in the same way he closed out 2001. Christian held on for second. Micheal Ritch #28 who had a strong race car all day beat #9 Chad Mullis to the stripe for third and rounding out the top five was Pro-Cup veteran #84 Shane Huffman.

With this win Gill becomes the first Hooters Pro-Cup driver to go over 1 million dollars in winnings. Gill also showed why he has earned the nickname the "Dominator" and has made a jump start to his fourth consecutive championship.

The stars and cars of the Hooters Pro-Cup series make their way to the tough half-mile of Five Flags Speedway on March 16th and then on to the even tougher high banks of history filled New Smyrna Speedway April 6th to wind up the early 2002 Florida tour.

-PHOTO GALLERY FROM SUNDAY'S ACTION AT USA: CLICK HERE.

-Rick Anges

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