Samsula, Fl(KNS) Governor Jeb Bush, Grand Marshall of the 36th Governor's Cup race and State Senator Bill Posey were the honored guests for this year's action packed Governor's Cup race. With new reserved seating and midway stands and new press box, New Smyrna Speedway was full of happy and ready to race, race fans.
The festivities began on Friday night when registration and open practice began for the field of 35 Super Late Models. Dick Anderson looked real good as well as Jonathan Brown but as we all know, the victory is never set by times. At the end of the night, drivers, crews and some special guests were ready for a real Southern meal - smoked chicken, collard greens, beans and cold slaw with, of course, ice tea. Also, by the end of Friday night, we lost Sammy Graham and the #1 Super Late to a blown engine.
On Saturday, the day started early and wet. Rain had fallen in the morning making it somewhat muddy for the cars and crews. But mud does not stop a race and by 2:30, the cars were ready for practice and upcoming qualifying. One by one they came out from the upper pits and lower pits to test for those two little laps that set a field.
First on the track to qualify was the #73 of Billy Mowery with a fast lap of 18.660 but it was James Powell in the #37 with the fast time of 18.216.
The filling grandstands were then treated to a huge parade followed by Governor Bush's arrival at the Speedway. Making his way thru the pits and crowd of well wishers and autograph seekers, Governor Bush made it to the front stretch where Lloyd Marcus sang "I am Proud to Be an American" and the National Anthem with the invocation by Brother Russell Todd. Embry Riddle ROTC Unit Honor Guard did the Presentation of Colors.
Each driver was introduced to the crowd and the Governor with each getting a photo of himself and Governor Jeb Bush at the 36th running for that Golden Cup. The cars were lined up on pit road and eagerly awaited the return of their driver and those magic words, "Gentlemen, Start Your Engines."
With the Governor getting a few quick lessons from the Flagman on throwing a green flag, the field was making the final pre-laps and waving to the standing crowd. The "one to go" was given and Governor Jeb Bush threw the green to go.
David Rogers, in the #11, jumped out to the front of the pole sitter, James Powell and for the first 14 laps Rogers lead with Powell, Dick Anderson, Mike Fritts and Daniel Keene, Sr. filling the top five spots. The first caution of 12, came out for the #74 of Barry Willoughby, #10 of Eric Black, #38 of Shane Sawyer when they tangled between turns 3 and 4. No drivers were hurt, only cars.
The race restarted lap 24 with Rogers, Powell, D. Anderson, Fritts and Keene, Sr. leading the way. But on lap 57, caution 2 came out for Eric Black #10 who hit the wall in turn 4 possibly from a tire going down. This gave some drivers the chance to pit for some necessary work. Jack Cook #96, Eric Black #10, Justin Drawdy #12 all went in their pits. Lap 60 saw the one to go and it was back to racing except a false start so the race was actually green again by lap 62.
On lap 63, Dick Anderson made his move and passed James Powell for the second place spot. By lap 65, Anderson was knocking on Rogers backdoor and the next thing the fans saw was Dick Anderson take the lead. Rogers then slipped back to third leaving Powell in the second spot with Fritts and Keene, Sr. still holding fourth and fifth.
Lap 79 saw caution 3 for the #19 of Tom Root who just did a donut on the track between turns 1 and 2. Once again, the lead cars pitted with Kittleson, Cook, Keene, Sr., Anderson, Kay, Cope, Powell, and Fritts in for serivce. By lap 84 the green was waved once again with Rogers, Wayne Anderson, Mike Bresnahan, Jimmy Cope and Jeff Scoffield in the top five slots.
Caution 4 came out for the #96 of Cook and #48 of Jonny Kay in turn 4. Both cars were able to continue. Once again, the race restarted with Rogers, Wayne Anderson, Bresnahan, Bruce Lawrence, and Jeff Scoffield leading the pack. But it was a short green lap run as Caution 5 came out for the #61 of Jimmy Cope, #92 of Dick Anderson and #51 of Warren Jacob went tangling down the front stretch with Anderson against the outside pit wall, Cope against Anderson and Warren just in front of them. The race was then red flagged for the clean up and towing in of cars. Out of the three, only Anderson was able to continue absent one front end.
The red was lifted and the race restarted on lap 98 with Wayne Anderson in the lead, Mike Bresnahan, Jeff Scoffield, Jeff Emery, and James Powell leading the way. But it was a short lead as caution 6 came out for the #39 of Morgan Hoover who went around in turn 3 and the #80 of Brian Finney and the #10 of Eric Black. Finney had to retire from this incident. Once again, this gave cars a chance to come into their pit with Dick Anderson, Bruce Lawrence, and Eric Black taking that opportunity.
Restart lap 102 saw Wayne Anderson still in the lead but on lap 105 the #37 of James Powell took over second spot from Mike Bresnhan giving Bresnahan the third spot followed by Scoffield and Emery. Kittleson held the sixth place followed by Cook and Rogers. On lap 117, Jonathan Brown #9 was sent to the rear for the turning of the #48 of Jonny Kay. Coming in to pit were the leader - Wayne Anderson, Scoffield, Bresnahan, and Emery. This gave the lead to James Powell with Kittleson, Cook, Rogers and Dick Anderson as the top five.
The race went green again and on lap 124 Rogers made his move to third with Dick Anderson following Rogers to take fourth from the now fifth place car of Jack Cook. But debris from one of the cars caused the yellow to be waved yet again for Caution 8. The debris was removed and the green once again flew until Jonathan Brown did his donut trick in turn 4 causing Caution 9 of the night.
Lap 135 restart saw Powell in the lead but by lap 138 Rogers had slipped by Kittleson for the second place leaving Kittleson with the #84 of Wayne Anderson now knocking on his backdoor for the third place. By lap 140, Wayne had third, Kittleson was fourth and Dick Anderson, with half a car was fifth. It took Dick Anderson a few laps to get pass Kittleson for fourth and on lap 148, Kittleson spun around in turn 4 giving fifth place to Jack Cook. Caution 10 saw Kittleson and Kay in the pits for some much needed tires.
Lap 151 saw green once again with Powell, Rogers, W. Anderson, D. Anderson and Jack Cook in the top five. But all the sudden, the #92 of Anderson slowed and creeped it's way back to the pits leaving for the night giving Mike Bresnahan in the #3 fifth place with Cook taking fourth. But on lap 154, Bresnahan pitted vacating fifth place to the #07 of Jeff Scoffield. By lap 159, Wayne Anderson had slipped by David Rogers for the second place position.
Then, once again, the crowd saw a red flag for caution 11 of the night. Somehow the #88 of Travis Kittleson ended up on top of the #96 of Jack Cook with the #12e of Jeff Emery also damaged. After the race, Kittleson said he did not realize that he was on top of Cook until he went to get out of his damaged car and then he knew but Cook and Emery were both fine. Once the track was cleared and cleaned, the race restarted on lap 163 with Powell, W. Anderson, Scoffield, Rogers and Kay filling out the top five spots. On lap 166, Rogers made his move on the #07 of Scoffield and took over third leaving Scoffield and Kay filling the fourth and fifth place spots. But Bresnahan wanted his fifth place spot and eventally worked his way around Kay. By this time, only nine cars were still running out of the thirty two who started. Powell, W. Anderson, Rogers, Scoffield, Bresnahan, Sloan, Mowery, Kay and Griffin. But caution 12, the last caution of the night, flew on lap 194 taking Scoffield out of the race with a visit to the turn 2 wall and a blown tire.
The last five laps of the race was a show between Powell, Wayne Anderson and David Rogers. Each trying as hard as possible to pass the other for that one goal - the winner of the 36th Governor's Cup. But in the end, Powell hung tight and next year for the 37th Governor's Cup race, the little golden plate that adorns the Cup will say JAMES POWELL III - 2001.
Final Standings: 1. #37 - James Powell 2. #84 - Wayne Anderson 3. #11 - David Rogers 4. #48 - Jonny Kay 5. #73 - Billy Mowery 6. #19 - Tom Root 7. #3 - Mike Bresnahan 8. #31 - Jeff Sloan 9. #07 - Jeff Scoffield l0. #7 - Matt Griffin 11, #9 - Jonathan Brown 12. #88 - Travis Kittleson 13. #12e - Jeff Emery 14. #96 - Jack Cook 15. #92 - Dick Anderson 16. #5x - Daniel Keene, Sr. 17. #39 - Morgan Hoover 18. #16 - Bruce Lawrence 19. #80 - Brian Finney 20. #12 - Justin Drawdy 21. #61 - Jimmy Cope 22. #28 - Jeff Dufresne 23. #27x - Mike Fritts 24. #51 - Jacob Warren 25. #10 - Eric Black 26. #87 - Gary Balough 27. #78 - B.J. McLeod 28. #74 - Barry Willoughby 29. #38 - Shane Sawyer 30. #2 - George Richardson 31. #89 - Lee Collins 32. #40 - Michael Williams
