By Dave Westerman

Orlando Speedworld played host to round number two of the FASCAR Sunbelt Super Late Model Series Friday night. The weather was perfect and the track lightning-fast for the 19 teams who made the trek to the high-banked three-eighths mile for the City Beverage/Budweiser 100.

Time trials saw B.J. McLeod blister the track at 13.389 seconds for quick time but Tim Russell was impressive setting the second fast lap of 14.494 seconds with no practice laps under his belt having been practicing his ARCA car at Lakeland. Russell was flown by helicopter from USA International to Speedworld, arriving just before qualifying. Jeff Choquette tripped the clocks third fastest at 13.655 seconds.

Luck of the draw inverted the top seven qualifiers for the 100 lap run with Brian Finney and Justin Drawdy on the front row for the start.

Finney snared the early lead while Drawdy settled into second ahead of James Powell III. They circulated the track in that order through lap 20 when the first caution waved for Kevin Durden who spun in turn four. On the restart, Drawdy began to really put the pressure on Finney while fast qualifier McLeod had already worked his way into fourth.

Caution again flew on lap 28 as Travis Cope looped his mount in turn two with a little help from Choquette with both going to the rear of the restart line-up. Just after the green flew, Corey Freed, Chad Pierce and Travis Towell got tangled up in turn one with Pierce having to pit to repair body damage.

Things settled down for awhile with the lead quartet of Finney, Drawdy, Powell and McLeod running in freight-train fashion but it was Mcleod bringing out the yellow on lap 47 as he got too low going into turn one and spun out of his fourth place spot.

The field took the crossed flags for half-way under caution with Finney leading Drawdy, Powell, Russell, Perry Brown, Jeff Scofield, Blake Lehr, David Rogers, J.R Garcia III and Cope.

Cope would again bring out the caution on lap 56 as both he and Towell spun in turn two. Shortly after the green came back out, Drawdy made his move opting to use the high grove to race past Finney on lap 66 and he began to pull away until slowed once again by Blake Lehr's spin on lap 82. Powell had begun to fade a bit and his night would then come to an early end on lap 89 as he hit the turn four wall after tangling with Brown.

Lap 92 saw Cope spin out of turn two for the third time in the race but that was the last thing to slow Drawdy's pace. Drawdy, who was the only Super Late Model to show up for practice on Wednesday night and who also rented the track on Thursday for even more hot laps, raced away from the field and took the checker well in front of second place Finney.

Russell drove steadily to third while Choquette put on a show for the fans, coming back from his earlier miscue to blast his way back up to fourth. Jeff Scofield, who won the Brighthouse 50 on opening night last week, was never much of a factor all night but still managed a good fifth place finish. Rounding out the top ten were David Rogers (up from 17th at the start), Corey Freed, who started dead last, J.R. Garcia, Blake Lehr and Travis Cope. Completing the finishers were Travis Towell, Chad Pierce, James Powell III, Perry Brown, Dusty Cornelius, B.J. McLeod (who dropped out shortly after his spin), Kevin Durden and Jared Allison. Kurt Jett was also at the track but blew the engine in his car during practice.



OFFICIAL RESULTS
ORLANDO SPEEDWORLD - MARCH 23

SUNBELT SUPER LATE MODEL 100
1. #12 Justin Drawdy, Ft. Pierce
2. #80 Brian Finney, Merritt island
3. #36 Tim Russell, Longwood
4. #70 Jeff Choquette, Loxahatchee
5. #07 Jeff Scofield, Plant City
6. #11 David Rogers, Longwood
7. #12 Corey Freed, Orlando
8. #0 J.R. Garcia, Wimauma
9. #4 Blake Lehr, Orlando
10. #26 Travis Cope, Bronson
11. #14 Travis Towell, Sanford
12. #57 Chad Pierce, Orlando
13. #77 James Powell, Astor
14. #22b Perry Brown, Riverview
15. #22 Dusty Cornelius, Cocoa
16. #78 B.J. McLeod, Watchula
17. #56 Kevin Durden, Archer
18. #18 Jared Allison, Cocoa