| Things would only get
worse for Finney a lap later as he spun wildly coming off
turn four. The spin broke something in the car and he was
the first driver to retire from the event.
Bowers continued to set the pace but
the veteran Drawdy was all over him. On lap 19, Bowers made
the wrong descision in lapped traffic allowing Drawdy to drive
by in the high lane and take over the lead. Drawdy was able
to maintain his spot through a number of minor spins that
brought out the yellow four more times before 50 laps could
be put in the books.
A restart on lap 52 saw Russ Shaw and
Koot Sapp collide on the back stretch sending Shaw's car hard
into the wall. Shaw was not injured but his mount was sidelined
for the remainder of the event.
Drawdy's car was a bit sluggish on
the restarts, but after a couple of green flag laps he appeared
to have the field under his control. He continued to hold
on through a caution period for Vince Keeler's spin on lap
69 and again for a tangle between Dusty Cornelius and Corey
Freed on lap 83. Just after the field completed lap 91, Fain
Skinner and Travis Towell crashed hard on the backstretch
in an incident that spilled over into the pit area.
Once things were brought under control
it was Bowers who looked like a veteran as he drove high on
Drawdy going into turn one then diamoned the corner coming
off of turn two to slide underneath Drawdy. The two raced
side by side for a pair of laps before Bowers surged ahead.
Bowers looked to have things in hand
but Drawdy had other ideas as he cooled his Goodyears for
a few laps then put on a late charge. With two laps to go,
Drawdy tried to sneak underneath Bowers off turn two, got
on the flat part of
the track, then moved up into Bowers' car sending him for
a wild spin. Bowers got his car back under control without
hitting anything, but fourth-running Jeremy Colangelo couldn't
avoid the stalled car.
The damage to Bowers' machine was minimal
while Colangelo had severe cosmetic damage to the front of
his car but opted to stay on the race track. Drawdy was ordered
to the rear of the field for the restart while both Bowers
and Colangelo got their spots back. Colangelo's car was a
handful on the restart and he stacked up the field on the
restart allowing Bowers and Tim Russell to scoot away to the
finish.
Bowers crossed the line a car length
in front of Russell to take not only his first Sunbelt win,
but his first-ever win in a Super Late Model. Russell came
home second and padded his point lead while Colangelo gamely
held on for third
in front of David Rogers and Sam Watts. Interestingly enough,
Bowers, Colangelo and Watts are all graduates of Orlando Speedworld's
tough Saturday night Legend Car division.
South Florida driver Mike Franklin,
Jr. made his first start here in a long time and drove the
Sytsma/Impact Designs car to sixth after starting 14th. Patrick
Conrad, Corey Freed, Dustin Henderson and Koot Sapp rounded
out the top ten. The remaining finishers were Drawdy, Daniel
Webster, Fain Skinner, Travis Towell, Dusty Cornelius, Brad
Bischoff, Russ Shaw, Vince Keeler and Brian Finney.
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