Santos Stays Unbeaten With Sandusky MSR Sprint Score
Kelly Poole Photos
SANDUSKY, Ohio (July 26, 2024) – Bobby Santos III kept his streak of perfection in the Must See Racing Perfit Sprint Car Series going by winning his third race in as many starts this season on Friday night.
Racing as part of the Fast Friday portion of Hy-Miler Supermodified Nationals week at Sandusky Speedway, Santos took the lead of the 30-lap feature from Charlie Schultz on a restart two laps prior to the halfway point.
From there, the Franklin, Mass., veteran grew his advantage to a full straightaway en route to his 10th career series victory – becoming just the fourth driver in history to reach double-digit wins and tying reigning champion Jason Blonde for third on the all-time list.
“The restarts in these cars are always unpredictable; the biggest thing is that Charlie is a good, clean racer and gave me plenty of racetrack so that the two of us could battle heads-up,” said Santos in victory lane. “Racing against competition like that is always valuable, and it’s cool to be part of Hy-Miler weekend with the sprints and supermodifieds racing on the same card.
“This is a great win for our team, and we’ll just keep working toward even more.”
Schultz did what he could to stay with Santos in the closing stages, but had to settle for second in the end. It was, however, the home-state driver’s best finish so far this season.
“I wouldn’t say that he [Santos] snookered me, but that he just had a better car,” said Schultz. “I just couldn’t get off the corner … in turn two, but to finish second after the season we’ve had so far … it feels like a win.”
Mike McVetta, who ran double duty by competing both with Must See Racing and the ISMA supermodifieds, finished third in the Dick Myers Racing sprinter after starting eighth.
Five-time series champion Jimmy McCune was fourth after having to drop to the tail for the initial start due to replacing a loose oil plug following his initial push start. Kevin Mingus closed the top five.
Sixth through 10th were Dorman Snyder, Luke Griffith, point leader Joe Liguori, Tom Geren, and fast qualifier Colton Bettis.
Bettis, the standout 14-year-old rookie driving for car owner Aaron Pierce, started off the evening with his first-ever Must See Racing Quick Time Award but was inverted to sixth in the feature lineup and fought a throttle linkage issue later in the race. He was the final driver to fall out and finished 10th.
Two-time defending Must See Racing Maxima Midwest Lights champion Cody Gallogly won the companion crate sprint car main event, using a restart on lap 13 of 25 to take the top spot from Andrew Bogusz and leading the rest of the way.
It was a special win for Gallogly, who was not only celebrating a birthday at the track, but whose stepson Blane was also assisting with the public address call of Friday’s Midwest Lights race.
“You can’t ask for much more than that,” Gallogly noted with a smile.
Bogusz hung on to finish second after leading the first 12 laps, with J.J. Henes completing the podium ahead of Sawyer Stout and Charlie Baur.
Polesitter Brandon Tregembo crashed in turn four with 12 laps complete, while running inside the top five, and failed to finish. He was credited with 12th in the final results.
Must See Racing teams head next to Ohio’s Midvale Speedway on Saturday, Aug. 3.
The results:
410 sprint car feature (30 laps): 1. 22a-Bobby Santos III, 2. 9s-Charlie Schultz, 3. 50m-Mike McVetta, 4. 88-Jimmy McCune, 5. Z10-Kevin Mingus, 6. 99-Dorman Snyder, 7. 12-Luke Griffith, 8. 68-Joe Liguori, 9. 11g-Tom Geren, 10. 26-Colton Bettis, 11. 55-Tommy Nichols, 12. 7-Bobby Komisarski, 13. 81-Steven Hollinger, 14. 85-Rick Holley, 15. 14-Davey Hamilton Jr.
Crate sprint car feature (25 laps): 1. 27-Cody Gallogly,
