| Jonny Kay Returns To Victory Lane | Franklin Tries but Fails to Come from Rear of 23 Car Field
By Jack Smith
The Bad Boys of South Florida stock car racing hit the pavement at Charlotte County Saturday night for a 100 lap test of endurance and driver skill.
Racing for the Hooters trophy and $3000 winner's purse started off explosively. Literally.
On lap five with eventual winner Jonny Kay roaring down the front straight, a tangle of cars in the middle of the pack caused Gary Padulla to try and drive the high side to escape.
Padulla made contact with another car and slammed into the turn four wall and the number 35 late model exploded in flames. The race was immediately red flagged.
Tense seconds ticked off as the safety team raced to the scene, Padulla half scrambling, half falling out of the his burning car. The safety team was right on it, put the fire out and attended to a shaken Padulla, collapsing against the wall. He was unhurt but it was a crash he won't soon forget.
The rest of the race gave fans the drama of watching Mike Franklin, Jr. try to drive his familiar number 12 to the front. Though a total of twelve cautions and one red flag slowed the pace of the race, Franklin moved steadily through the field and getting behind the third place car of Randy Fox by lap 20.
On Lap 32 Franklin got a run off turn two and passed Fox going into turn three, but by lap 55 Fox had regained the third spot and Franklin was never a factor eventually finishing fourth.
Kay was dominant throughout the race building up big leads interrupted only by the slower cars as he and his shadow Bobby Shelton, racing in second the whole way, weaved their way through the lapped traffic.
Fox made things interesting in the final 4 lap laps as he made a strong move, getting by Shelton with two to go, but Kay was pulling away as the checkered flag waved for the #48 for his first win in a long time.
 Bobby Shelton, driving a Padulla race car, ran determined and smart race and ended up with third place money.
"Believe it not it has been three years since we won, I'm a little embarrassed to say that", Kay said in the winners circle. "We have been so close a bunch of time. I'm really glad we did it here in front of you people, it is a little bit of vindication for last time, it means a lot to me."
In the last race at Charlotte Kay and Franklin had a bit of an ugly encounter, for which Mike Franklin took a moment to talk to the fans. "I want to take this opportunity to apologize to my fans for what I did in the last race, you wear your emotions on your sleeve here a lot. I was going for four wins in a row and I got into somebody and embarrassed myself and embarrassed my team, I would like to extend my apologies to them. That won't happen again."
Karo Vaughn was having a good run, until late in the race running in fifth, got together with the number 5 on lap 94 ending Vaughn's night.
Chris Huntoon joined the late model ranks driving the #58, made it to lap 96 before his equipment wore out.
After a five year absence form Late Model racing Rob "Bonehead" Elting , returned to racing, finishing the race which was quite a feat for this test of toughness at Charlotte County Motorsports Park.
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