Hulk Hogan, Rowdy Roddy Piper and The Ultimate Warrior have nothing on 19-year-old Michael Pope. Sure, all those guys can wrestle with the best of them, bodyslamming 300-pounders around the ring, but none of them would be able to wrestle a 2800-pound monster the way that Pope did on Saturday, February 14th.

Pope earned his own wrestler-like nickname "SuperPope" at New Smyrna Speedway as he had his hands full of the #51 Ocean Properties / Gilly's Pub 44 Chevrolet in the Pete Orr Memorial 100-lap Super Late Model feature. The car's power steering system was not cooperating with the driver in the event, but that was not the start to the lumps Pope and the BDI Racing team faced on Saturday, either, as the rear end of the #51 malfunctioned in practice, forcing them to borrow a backup in time for the race.

After starting at the rear of the field due to the repairs to the rear end, Pope wheeled the #51 with all his might to an impressive 12th-place finish.

"It was a big handful," said Pope. "I didn't know exactly what was wrong with it at first, but after a while I had figured out it was a power steering problem. I was having to muscle the car down the

straight-aways and through the turns. It was tough, but we made a bunch of pit stops to try to fix the problem. It turned out to be something we couldn't fix on pit road and still be in position to run well in the race, so i just had to muscle the car for the rest of the race and the guys were right behind me pushing me to keep up on the wheel.

"Trust me though, by the time the checkered flag fell, I really needed a good meal at Gilly's Pub 44. After that, I was ready for a good, long night's rest in our Ocean Properties condo, that's for sure."

Even when Pope was against the ropes, he never gave up on his goal of competing well in the final Super Late Model feature during the World Series of Stock Car Auto Racing at New Smyrna. The BDI crew never threw in the towel, either, as they serviced the #51 Chevy under each caution flag in the first half of the 100-lap feature trying to rectify the problem. Collectively, the team made the call to continue marching to the front even with no power steering - a call that turned out to be a positive one.

"Even with no power steering, we still were able to run as high as ninth after starting so far back in the field," added Pope. "We eventually fell back to 12th, but that's still not too bad at all considering all the things that tried to hold us down throughout the day and the whole weekend. We spent Thursday dialing the car in during practice, qualifying and the 50-lapper, then knew we had a good car when we were real quick on Friday. When we unloaded Saturday, we were one of the fastest cars in practice before we had a couple mechanical problems, so it was a good weekend and we've got our heads held high for the next race."

Pope competed in Thursday night's 50-lap feature at New Smyrna, finishing 17th in a fact-finding mission for the BDI Racing team as they prepared for Saturday night's 100-lap Pete Orr Memorial event to complete a positive weekend for both driver and crew.

"Going down there was still a lot of fun, that's for sure. I got to learn a new racetrack that I had never been to before. Plus, we were down there as a team for the first time with a Super Late Model. I know the team had run really well there before with the Pro Challenge car, but we had never been there with the Late Model before. It was good to be able to work with the team and with our new Jerry Babb at the track for the first time. I definitely have to thank all the guys for working so hard to get this car as good as it was. Even when we had a couple things beyond our control keep us from where we wanted to be, nobody ever gave up and everyone worked so hard on the car."

The BDI Racing #51 Chevy sported the colors of Gilly's Pub 44 and Ocean Properties and Vacation Rentals in the New Smyrna events.