(St. Augustine, FL; 7/8/2000) Jonny Kay in his #48 supercharged Florida Pro Late Model won the pole on Saturday, July 8, at Florida Speed Park by turning a 16.683 lap. Nineteen of Florida's best Late Models came to Florida Speed Park in hopes of winning the race.

Justin Drawdy of Fort Pierce had the outside pole for the race after pills were drawn by the top 10 qualifiers. Shane Russ, points leader of the Florida Pro Series, was excited about his first race at Florida Speed Park but could not figure out why his car did not like this track. Russ started in the far back of the pack and was never really able to pass that much. On the other hand, Johnny Kay did start on the pole, but a crash took him out of the running.

The cars were lined up on the front stretch as driver introductions were made. Then,an adorable child's voice made the command, "Gentlemen, start your engines." As the cars were started and the pace car began to lead them around the track for a few laps, you could feel the tension in the air of wives, friends, and family hoping for nothing more than a safe race. Kenny Irwin was definitely on everyone's mind as the flag was flown at half mast for the race.

Chuck Rush, better known as the "Junkyard Dog" for his great demo derby driving, started the field and Johnny Kay in the #48 jumped to the lead over Ricky Carlton, Shane Sawyer, James Powell, and Justin Drawdy. But, it was shortlived action for James Powell as he had to pull the #37 onto pit road with mechanical problems. This put Larry Osteen in the fifth place position.

Caution one came out on lap 10 when the #98 went around. This car had received alot of damage during open practice that afternoon and the crew worked very hard in extreme heat to get this car back into the race. They did a great job doing so, although the car never did that well. The second caution of the race came out when the #3l of Jeff Sloan went around coming out of turn 4 as he was making his way to the front. The field was realigned, Sloan was sent to the rear, and the race was restarted.

No. 98 spinning on the backstretch brought out the third caution. Under this caution, Larry Osteen in the #22 went onto pit road for a flat and wasn't able to get back on the track in time, which put him one lap down. This was somewhere around lap 48 of the race. The scoreboard had been hit by lightning, and there was no scoreboard for the race, so it was up to the announcers to keep us informed of the lap number.

Just as the race was restarted, caution 4 came out for Shane Sawyer and Johnny Kay who were tangled up. Kaye went into the wall and Sawyer, able to keep on racing, was put to the rear of the field. This left Ricky Carlton with the lead; Justin Drawdy, Kunzie, Brian Finney, and Scott Grosenbocker rounded out the top five. Jonathan Brown, in the #9 Sterling Marlin Chevrolet, was running sixth.

On lap 60, Brian Finney running in the third spot, went into the wall with a little help from the car behind him but he was able to continue racing. This changed the top five at the halfway point of the l25 laps to Ricky Carlton, Justin Drawdy, Kunzie, Grosenbocker and Jonathan Brown.

But the #31 of Jeff Sloan, after going to the rear, worked his way back up into the top five and second place, when caution 7 was brought out for Sloan as he went around the front stretch. Sloan was sent to the rear once again but not without question. A car leaking oil on the windshields may possibly have caused the #31 to go around. The leader, Ricky Carlton, was stopped more than once to check for leaking; but no leak was found and Carlton was returned to the lead. The top five at this point went to Carlton, Drawdy, Brown, Grosenbocker, and Jeff Emery.

The race restarted about lap 107 and came under caution again when Travis Kittleson and Johnny Kay somehow got hooked up on the restart. Kittleson was able to return to the race, but Kay was done for the night. Then on lap 121, Kittleson and Finney (both on the brakes hard to keep from hitting a lap car) got tangled up with Finney coming out on the short end and pulling off, while Kittleson continued until the end.

The last caution of the race was on lap 124 when Shane Sawyer was banging his way to the lead and took out the third place car of Jonathan Brown to do so. Both cars were told to go to the rear, but Sawyer refused and left the track. The Florida Pro officials then decided to give the #9 back the third place position that Sawyer had taken and the race was continued for a green, white, checker.

In the end, 14 cars finished the race with Ricky Carlton getting the win. Justin Drawdy, Jonathan Brown, Scott Grosenbocker, and Jeff Emery rounded out the top five. The next big action for alot of these Late Model drivers will be Lakeland's USA International Speedway on July 29 and the Florida Sunbelt Super Late Model race.

-Jane-

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