PUNTA GORDA, Fla. — Scott Adema held off rookie driver Nolan Allison to win his first BG Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series race of the season Saturday night at 417 Southern Speedway.

When the green flagged waved, Troy DeCaire went from twelfth to third in the matter of two laps courtesy of two three-wide passes for position at the start of the race. It appeared DeCaire was on the way to his seventh twin of the year. Two laps later, DeCaire exited the track with front end damage after contact with Sport Allen which ended his night.

Adema continued as the race leader for the next 11 laps until the caution flew on lap 15. On the restart it allowed Allison to start alongside Adema on double-file restart. Allison was only making his second-ever sprint car start and had worked himself into second position coming all the way from eleventh very quickly.

Adema got the jump and built a sizable lead. With five laps to go Adema encountered heavy traffic and Allison caught him. Adema disposed of lapped cars quickly and Allison couldn’t make a serious challenge for the lead.

“When the green flag dropped, we were able to stay on the outside,” Adema said. “We kept it clean. Just hung out there and some holes opened. We were able to make our way up to the front. On the first two laps we got all the way up to fourth.”

John Inman was crowned 2020 SSSS champion and L.J. Grimm received rookie-of-the-year honors.

The finish:

Scott Adema, Nolan Allison, L.J. Grimm, Joey Aguilar, Sport Allen, Daniel Miller, Stan Butler, Tommy Nichiols, Ray Bragg Jr., Travis Bliemeister, Gary Wiggins, Ryan Adema, Michael Tharp, Troy DeCaire.