McClellan Denied Win; Johnson Garners Victory in Open-Wheeler at Columbia | (Lake City, FL; 10/7/2000) Veteran Al Beckleheimer, Jr. had all the right moves in the right places Saturday night and led wire-to-wire to win the 25-lap Late Model stock feature event at Columbia Motorsports Park. Beckleheimer had no cake walk in the run as Michael Haigh was in his shadow for many laps before Lee Faulk took up the challenge and chased the winner to the stripe. Haigh claimed third money over Richard Turner and Richard Ferry in the final rundown. The Open-Wheelers put on a great show as Mike Johnson paced the first dozen laps before multi-time track champ J.F. McClellan powered into the lead and ran to the apparent win in the 20-lap event. Post-race discussions in the tech area denied McClellan the victory as Johnson garnered the honors ahead of Rick McManaway, Mike Bennett, Shannon Smith and Dennis Nixon. Jeff Prescott seemingly had the Street Stock feature in the bag until a blown engine off turn 2 on the last lap sidelined him as Randall Jackson took the checkers first. Tim Conrad, Clinton Keen, Shane Taylor and Oral Tanner chased Jackson's mount to the stripe. Pure Stock action found Danny Coleman the apparent victor, but his mount failed inspection and 16-year-old Nevin Gainey claimed his first career victory in the 15-lap run. William Jerkins, Jerry Fortner, Troy Davis and Rick Day chased Gainey to the line. Alan Davis roared to the win in the Dwarf car feature over Don Hess and Rick Lundeen.
-Marty Little- Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board! or send a letter to the editor!
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