(Ellisville, FL; 9/2/2000) James Powell III, driving Mark Cowherd's familiar #37 A Natural Difference Skin Care Products late model, held off a hard charging Mac Johnson to win the 125 lap Florida Pro Series event at Columbia MotorSports Park Saturday night. Powell became the series only two-time winner of the year having previously won the FPS event at Columbia MotorSports Park in May.

Powell was driving a new Hamke Chassis Chevy Monte Carlo out of the Gilbert Allen Racing stable and it proved to be very good early in the race. "I could turn the wheel and drive wherever I needed to at the beginning of the race" said Powell who was quite pleased with the outcome. "We brought the old car up here in case the new one didn't shake out just right and Friday night the old car was significantly faster. We talked it over after practice and came out here this morning and made some changes to the new car that really paid off. It still didn't practice as good as the old car but we wanted to race the new one so that's what we did."

The race lineup was set according to FPS points due to off and on rain on Saturday. In fact, it was very questionable whether or not the race would be run at all on Saturday night. Bert Ashleman and his Columbia MotorSports Park crew did a good job of getting the track and pit area racable and moved the FPS event up in the schedule to give it a better chance of getting in.

The 'points' lineup put Shane Russ on the pole and Rick Carlton on the outside and left contenders such as Powell, Jimmy Cope, Wayne Anderson, Jon Kay, Shane Sawyer and Mac Johnson back in the pack of 19 starters. Powell moved quickly into third place and took the lead about lap 70.

Meanwhile, Mac Johnson began to work his way through the field and took over the second place spot. Johnson began to put the pressure on Powell, finally getting under him coming off of turn four. Third running Rick Carlton dived to the bottom making it three wide going into turn one. Carlton spun off the bottom of the track bringing out the caution flag which put Powell back in front. On the restart, Johnson once again began to dog Powell, looking for an opening but Powell was determined to hold the bottom racing line.

"My car got loose later in the race and I couldn't drive through the corners the way I could earlier. Mac was getting through the corners very well so I had to hold my line and give him the outside" said Powell after the race. "Mac was determined to try to pass underneath and gave me a few shots trying to loosen me up but never tried the outside line. It was his if he wanted to give it a try. That last lap he knocked me sideways coming off turn four but I wasn't going to lose the race on the last lap. I kept my foot in it and beat him to the line."

Officials said the outcome wasn't in doubt but Powell won it by less than a foot. It was definitely the closest Florida Pro Series finish that anyone could remember.

-Jack Bacon-

Finish Order
1. #37 James Powell III
2. #6 Mac Johnson
3. #61 Jimmy Cope
4. #84 Wayne Anderson
5. #48 Jon Kay
6. #34 Rick Carlton
7. #0 Rich Pratt
8. #4 Doc Batson
9. #16 Tom McCann
10. #10 Al Beckelheimer, Jr.

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