October 27, 2025 – The Must See Racing Sprint Series Presented by Perfit-Parts.Com today announced that the 2026 schedule is set to be released before the end of the week. MSR annually is one of the first pavement sprint car series in the country to release their schedule to give teams ample time to pursue sponsorship and map out their season as early as possible.
MSR hinted that the new schedule will include a new track and one that the series hasn’t been to in several years.
The series also announced that the 2025 Champions Awards Celebration will be held on January 10, 2026, at the Fairfield Inn in Grand Blanc, Michigan. Both the 410 National Series and Midwest Lights Series will be honored for their 2025 accomplishments.
During the Champions Awards Celebration MSR President Jim Hanks will give a state of the series address that will give teams a glimpse into what 2026 will look like. Additional breaking news and information are expected to be revealed at this time.
For those unable to attend the Champions Awards Celebration it will be broadcast live on Racing America. In addition, a one-hour highlights version of the night will air a few days later on Racing America.TV. Racing America.TV can be viewed for free on Roku or as a subscriber to DIRECTV.
Racing America.TV is also planning to highlight this past season with a full day of Must See Racing programming all day long on Saturday November 1, 2025, from 9:00 AM EST. – 8:00 PM EST. During this time every MSR race from 2025 will be rebroadcast. The 2025 MSR Season Rewind will give fans a chance to catch any rebroadcast from 2025 they may have missed.
For more details on Must See Racing please follow us on Facebook or visit www.mustseeracing.com.
Bobby Santos III with the winner’s check at Montgomery Motor Speedway. (KR Poole Photos)
By Jacob Seelman, Must See Racing Trackside PR
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (Oct. 4, 2025) – Bobby Santos III stole a small portion of Joe Liguori’s thunder at the end of Saturday night’s Must See Racing Perfit Sprint Car Series season finale, making a last-lap, last-corner pass of Aaron Willison to complete a weekend sweep of the Perfit Southern Shootout.
Liguori, meanwhile, finished third behind that duo at Montgomery Motor Speedway to finish off his third series championship, becoming just the second driver in history to win three or more titles.
Joe Liguori (right) is honored with his third series championship by Must See Racing founder Jim Hanks. (KR Poole Photos)
It was a day of dueling storylines at the Alabama half mile, with Floridian Daniel Miller starting it off by earning his first ever fast time with Must See Racing during single-car qualifying, edging Santos to do so in thrilling fashion.
After Willison and Tommy Nichols won their respective heat races, Dylan Reynolds redrew the pole position for the second race in a row and got a good launch to lead at the initial green flag.
Reynolds paced the first five circuits, but Willison marched forward quickly from fourth on the starting grid, making an outside sweep off turn two to take the lead from Reynolds on lap six.
Moments later, the race’s lone caution flag waved when fourth-running Alby Ovitt slowed to a stop on the high side in turn four, bunching the field up for a frantic double-file restart.
Willison chose the outside for the lap-eight restart and got away cleanly, with Liguori slotting into second and Santos getting to third, setting up a three-way fight for all the marbles as the race wound into its second half.
Inside of 10 laps to go, the top three were all within a second of one another, with Santos scrapping hard for second before finally wrestling the position away from Liguori coming to five to go on the outside.
While that was happening, Willison was catching the back of the field, and the turbulent air from Kevin Mingus’ car cost him precious lap time as Santos began closing in down the home stretch.
Coming to two to go, Santos had a run on Willison for the lead, but slipped coming off turn four and seemingly lost his chance to pounce at that point. But the open-wheel veteran reloaded, and sent his DJ Racing-prepared No. 22a deep into turns three and four on the outside with the checkered flag looming.
Bobby Santos (22a) races to the checkered flag ahead of Aaron Willison at Montgomery Motor Speedway Saturday. (KR Poole Photos)
The car stuck, and Santos surged around the outside of Willison on corner exit, leading only the last 100 yards of the 30-lap main event to win for the second day in a row and bank another $10,000 winner’s check.
It gave Santos $20,000 for the weekend, as well as four Must See Racing wins on the season and 14 for his standout career. But it wasn’t easy, as Santos attested after climbing from the car and catching his breath from the intensity of the moment.
“Oh my God, that was tough,” Santos said. “After looking at it now, I’m glad we started where we did, but going in we were deep enough I wasn’t sure we’d be able to pull this off. I had to work my butt off. That was such a hard race, and I didn’t know I was going to get to fifth … let alone to second and even with a shot to win there at the end.
“I thought the lap cars actually cost me the shot to win the race, and then a lap car ended up giving me the opportunity to win the race in that final corner,” he added. “It’s all for these guys on my team. They work so hard and it’s great to reward them with an exciting win like this.”
Willison was understandably disappointed with runner-up honors, after leading 24 of the 30 laps and coming oh-so-close to his second win of the year.
“The Statham Construction [No.] 36 was really good all night; we just got burned by a cloud of lap traffic right on that last lap,” Willison lamented. “It happens every now and then, when you come up on four or five of them racing each other really hard, and you’re just pinned in. There was nothing I could do.”
Liguori’s third-place finish at Montgomery backed up his win at the track from four years ago, the same night he earned his first Must See Racing points title in 2021.
This time, while it wasn’t a race win, the big trophy still went home with the Lebanon, Ind., resident.
“At the beginning, Aaron was a bit better than us, but he started cooking the right rear [tire] a bit and we were able to close on him,” Liguori reflected. “I’d sneak up on him a bit and then lose the nose … and I just had the wing too far back to get in his dirty air and be able to do anything, and that let Bobby get around me.
“It’s a testament to our team that we came back for a podium, after we blew off the left rear tire in the heat race. We were lucky we didn’t get any damage from that, and we just kept fighting. Three championships in six years with Must See is really cool, and hopefully we can add to that in the future.”
Miller crossed fourth and Dodge Carlbert, the current Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series 360 point leader in the Southeast, completed the top five. Both drivers’ finishes were MSR career bests.
While Miller’s 16.716-second lap (109.835 mph) was just a shade off the Must See Racing track record at Montgomery of 16.544 seconds from 2021, it was nowhere close to the all-time mark at the .51-mile oval of 15.038 seconds (122.090 mph). That lap was turned by Santos on April 3, 2016.
Liguori and the rest of the Must See Racing field will be honored for their season accomplishments during the sanctioning body’s annual Night of Champions this winter.
Specific details will be announced in due course at www.mustseeracing.com.
RESULTS: Must See Racing Sprint Car Series; Montgomery (Ala.) Motor Speedway; Oct. 4, 2025
Qualifying (best of two laps): 1. Daniel Miller, P1, P1 Chassis-16.716; 2. Bobby Santos III, 22a, Fieler-16.741; 3. Colton Bettis, 61, Bettis-16.859; 4. Aaron Willison, 36, Statham-17.015; 5. Joe Liguori, 5, PCS-17.083; 6. Alby Ovitt, 20, Parker-17.145; 7. J.J. Dutton, 86, Dutton-17.448; 8. Dodge Carlbert, 9, RAD-17.496; 9. Dylan Reynolds, 24, Reynolds-17.555; 10. Kevin Mingus, Z10, Mingus-17.563; 11. Tommy Nichols, 55, Nichols-17.731; 12. Shane Butler, 18, Butler-17.937; 13. Bobby Komisarski, 7, Fogle-18.118; 14. Johnny Gilbertson, 77, Crowder-18.335; 15. Mickey Kempgens, 68R, Rudolph-19.750; 16. Steven Hollinger, 81, Blake-NT.
PENSACOLA, Fla. (Oct. 3, 2025) – By pulling the outside front-row starting spot in the feature redraw, Bobby Santos converted his night-long speed at Five Flags Speedway into a $10,000 Must See Racing Perfit Sprint Car Series victory Friday.
Santos swept to the point on the initial start of the Perfit Southern Shootout opener at the half-mile paved oval and never looked back, eventually lapping all but the top three in an utterly dominant performance.
The past NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion led from start to finish for his 13th career Must See Racing victory and third in four tries this season.
After the race, he credited his DJ Racing team for a lightning-fast No. 22a sprinter that carved through traffic with ease, as the final 29 circuits of the 30-lapper ran uninterrupted.
“This team is so good at coming together to give me everything I need to succeed,” said Santos, who also celebrated his 40th birthday Friday as well. “It starts with Dick [owner Richard Fieler] and goes all the way down through the entire crew. We have all the resources to have fast race cars, and that makes my job that much easier as a driver.
“[Wife] Kristy asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and all I wanted was to win tonight,” he added. “It’s not easy; there’s so much competition and the depth of field keeps getting greater and greater, so to put together a night like we did here isn’t something to take for granted and we definitely have to appreciate when it comes, because you never know when you’ll be on the other end of it.”
The only yellow flag waved with one lap complete, after the No. 32 of Mississippi’s Joey Schmidt spun in turn three to set up the lone restart of the event.
Santos elected the outside lane with his leader’s prerogative, then jumped to an advantage he never relinquished as polesitter Dylan Reynolds faded back from the front row.
That allowed for a fierce battle for runner-up honors to develop through the middle portion of the race, with 16-year-old Colton Bettis eventually coming out on top of a three-car tussle for second place.
Bettis took the position on lap 16, but had nothing left to chase down Santos, who drove away by 9.443 seconds at the finish.
“I just missed it in the redraw,” said Bettis, who started the feature from seventh. “He was just better at pulling a pill than I was tonight. But he had a rocket ship, too, and there’s no denying that. He does this for a living, and it shows how talented he is when he goes out and whoops us all like that. It’s a push for all of us to get better and work to catch him. I think we had a really good piece tonight, though. We just have to build our notebook and hopefully get a better starting spot for the next one.”
“Unfortunately, we had to come from pretty far back,” added third-place finisher Aaron Willison. “The initial start was good on our end, but the restart didn’t go quite as well, and I lost a spot or two. It took a while to dig out from that hole, but we were really good through the center portion of the run … and just burned my stuff up a bit trying to get around Colton there late in the going.”
By finishing fourth, Joe Liguori unofficially clinched his third career Must See Racing Sprint Car Series championship and second in a row, adding to previous titles from 2021 and 2024.
Liguori has an insurmountable 106-point margin over Kevin Mingus with just one race remaining.
Mingus closed out the top five, followed by Dodge Carlbert, the highest finisher in the field with a 360-cubic-inch engine in sixth.
Santos kicked off the night with the fastest time in qualifying, a lap of 13.906 seconds, then joined Bettis and Bobby Komisarski as heat race winners prior to the main event.
Must See Racing teams conclude the season Saturday night, Oct. 4, at Montgomery (Ala.) Motor Speedway with the second and final night of the Perfit Southern Shootout.
Coverage will be streamed live on Racing America, and Liguori will officially be honored for his season championship at the same track where he won to clinch his first title four years ago.
RESULTS: Must See Racing Perfit Sprint Car Series; Five Flags Speedway; Pensacola, Fla.; Oct. 3, 2025
Qualifying (best of two laps): 1. Bobby Santos III, 22a, Fieler-13.906; 2. Colton Bettis, 61, Bettis-14.313; 3. Alby Ovitt, 20, Parker-14.429; 4. Joe Liguori, 5, PCS-14.429; 5. Kevin Mingus, Z10, Mingus-14.606; 6. Aaron Willison, 36, Statham-14.663; 7. Davey Hamilton Jr., 14, Morgan-14.721; 8. Shane Butler, 18, Butler-14.846; 9. Daniel Miller, P1, P1 Chassis-14.868; 10. Dodge Carlbert, 9, RAD-14.937; 11. Tommy Nichols, 55, Nichols-15.020; 12. Steven Hollinger, 81, Blake-15.056; 13. Dylan Reynolds, 24, Reynolds-15.163; 14. J.J. Dutton, 86, Dutton-15.537; 15. Bobby Komisarski, 7, Fogle-15.537; 16. Scotty Adema, 67, ?-15.567; 17. Mickey Kempgens, 68R, Rudolph-15.659; 18. Johnny Gilbertson, 77, ?-15.721; 19. Joey Schmidt, 32, TB-15.770; 20. Todd Bliss, 121, Bliss-17.031; 21. Butch David, 21, David-17.070.
This will be the first time unrestricted 410 winged pavement sprint cars have raced in the area since Must See Racing last visited Montgomery Motor Speedway in 2021. It has been since 2014 that MSR last raced at Five Flags Speedway.
Teams will be racing for a combined weekend purse of nearly $64,000 including bonuses and other incentives. The winner will receive $10,000 for finding victory lane each night.
The all-time track records could be in jeopardy at both tracks this weekend. Must See Racing bills itself as being the “Fastest Short Track Cars in the World”, and for good reason. Must See Racing in the only 410 pavement sprint car series in the world that doesn’t utilize restricted or detuned 410 engines.
Brian Gerster established the all-time track record at Five Flags Speedway on April 11, 2014, with a lap of 13.046 seconds around the famous half mile. Bobby Santos III established the current all-time track record at Montgomery Motor Speedway on April 3, 2016, 15.038 seconds (122.090 mph). A $250 bonus will be awarded to the fast qualifier each night.
This weekend’s events have drawn interest from some of the top drivers in winged pavement sprint car racing. Santos III headlines a list of some of the best from the Midwest and Southeast. Santos III has been hot in winged competition this season. He has won twice with Must See Racing thus far in 2025. He also picked up a par of $10,000 to win unsanctioned events at Dacono, Colorado in July.
16-year-old Florida standout Colton Bettis is also entered for this weekends ‘Southern Shootout’ The teenager got off to a hot start in the spring and hasn’t slowed down. He currently leads the nation with 9 pavement sprint car feature victories in 2025. He will be making his second MSR start of the season.
Joe Ligouri, who is the current series points leader, is looking to finish off his season with a third MSR title. Liguori is winless so far in 2025 and would like nothing more than to finish his potential championship run by adding another career MSR feature victory to his season.
Langley, British Columbia hot shoe Aarron Willison is set to return to Must See Racing competition after two podium finishes with MSR over Labor Day Weekend. Willison was victorious with MSR at Sandusky in on July 23. He was the inaugural Open Wheel Showdown champion and runs strong in big money races.
Davey Hamilton Jr. makes his return after a busy season that has saw him split time between sprint cars and the Indy NXT Series. The multi-time MSR winner will be a strong contender all weekend.
A significant number of Floridian drivers are entered for this weekend’s events including Scotty Adema, Shane Butler, JJ Dutton, Johnny Gilbertson, Steven Hollinger, Mickey Kempgens, Daniel Miller, Tommy Nichols, and Dylan Reynolds.
Other expected entrants include Todd Bliss, Butch David, Bobby Komisarski, Kevin Mingus, Alby Ovitt, and Joey Schmidt among others.
September 30, 2025 – Ocklawaha, Florida’s Daniel Miller is set to make his Must See Racing Sprint Series Presented by Perfit-Parts.Com debut when the series visits the Panhandle area for two nights of racing as part of the ‘Southern Shootout’. Not only will it be his first points paying MSR debut, but it will also be the first time he has run an unrestricted 410 engine in competition.
The series will visit Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida on Friday October 3 and will conclude the racing weekend the following evening on Saturday October 4 at Montgomery Motor Speedway in Montgomery, Alabama. Both events will pay $10,000-to-win.
The 2023 Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series champion is no stranger to asphalt winged sprint car racing. In addition to his championship, he has previously won with the series during his racing career.
Miller did compete in the special co-sanctioned MSR / SSSS ‘Children’s Dream Fund 50’ non points event in 2024, but it was a restricted 410 engine race. This weekend’s racing agenda will be the first time he will get to feel the true horsepower of a 410 engine. The SSSS is a 360 series.
“It will be the first time I’ve run with Must See Racing and with a 410 before. It’s definitely gonna be a learning curve” explained Miller. “I haven’t even tested the 410 yet. There is an open practice on Thursday. We’re gonna try and make it up for that to get some seat time.
“We’ve talked about running these races for a while. My car owner Chaz Hambling has had the 410 for a while. We ended up putting the 410 in about a month ago just to make sure we didn’t have any bugs or anything going on.
“These tracks will be new for me. I’ve run Five Flags in a late model but never in a sprint car. I liked Five Flags. It was definitely different. I remember it was fast and ate tires a lot. But comparing the late model to a sprint car there are two different animals.
‘We’re trying to get through some recent misfortunes with the car. We’ve struggled. We’re trying to get through some of the lows of the P1 car. We’re trying to get some of the things we’ve found wrong with the car straightened out. I think we’re there. If we do good this weekend, I think Chaz and everybody will be happy to do some more 410 racing in the future”.
The 29-year-old Miller began driving for the Chaz Hambling owned P-1 Chassis racing team in the spring. Despite driving for two different teams this season, he currently sits in seventh place in the SSSS points standings despite missing a race.
“Chaz has been great to drive for. Anything we’ve needed he’s bought. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to win. We explain it and he’s on board.
“I’d love to win this weekend. If the car is good, I think we’ll have a chance. I’d love to run in the top five. We’re gonna have a bunch of cars there so even a top ten and I’d be happy” concluded Miller. Visit www.mustseeracing.com for additional information of this weekend’s events.
The Geismar, Louisiana driver will be one of the two drivers from the state of Louisiana competing. It will be the first time a driver from Louisianna has competed with the series. David will have his work cut out for him. He will be one of a few 360 cars battling the 410 invaders from the north.
“I follow Must See Racing on Facebook, so I was aware of the Five Flags race” explained David. “I’m not sure how many cars will be there, but I’d like to see if I can run top ten against those guys. I don’t have a lot of asphalt experience; I’ve only run a handful of races up to this point”.
The 63-year-old was running strong at a 360-winged asphalt non-sanctioned event in Alabama this past April. He was running third with one lap to go before getting involved in an accident with another car with one lap to go. “I went there with my dirt car. I was running third and one of the lapped cars got into me when I shot down under him. It ended up taking me out. After the race I thought this was much more fun than running dirt anymore. That was what made me wanna get an asphalt car. I wanted to do some more asphalt racing. I decided I’d rather do this.
“I called the Schmidt’s because I knew they had a car for sale at one time. They told me they sold it to Shane Morgan years ago. I made a deal with Shane for one of my dirt cars against their asphalt car. So now I have a Hurricane pavement car and I’m looking to do some asphalt sprint car racing. I knew if I got a decent asphalt car, I could get a little more competitive. I ran third with the car the first time out with it a couple weeks ago”.
In his thirty-one years of dirt sprint car racing David has won a variety of championships that include a Cajun Series championship, Louisiana State championship, Super Sprints championship, and 305 championship among others.
“I looked at the money for this race. If I could run in the top ten it would be an ideal run for me, especially against 410’s and people who basically do it for a living. That’s what I’m shooting for” concluded David.
The ‘Southern Shootout’ will officially kick off Thursday October 2 with an open practice at Five Flags Speedway with a complete night of racing at Five Flags Speedway the following evening. The weekend will conclude Saturday night October 4 when the series will visit Montgomery Motor Speedway in Montgomery, Alabama.
Early entrants already confirmed include Scotty Adema, Colton Bettis,Todd Bliss, Shane Butler, JJ Dutton, Johnny Gilbertson, Davey Hamilton Jr., Steven Hollinger, Mickey Kempgens, Bobby Komisarski, Joe Liguori, Jimbo McCune, Jimmy McCune, Daniel Miller, Kevin Mingus, Tommy Nichols, Alby Ovitt, Dylan Reynolds, Bobby Santos III, Joey Schmidt, and Aaron Willison among others. This year’s ‘Southern Shootout’ has been made possible due to a handful of sponsors including Dutton Safer Fencing and TTI Machine among others.
The bonuses that were announced are incentives for 360 area teams and dirt competitors who regularly compete in area events. In addition to the $700 to start money, 360 competitors will be gunning for a slew of additional incentives designed to draw interest from locals and help promote a competitive racing program for local fans with drivers they recognize.
A $100 bonus will be up for grabs for the highest finishing 360 car each night. Another $100 bonus will be awarded to the highest finishing dirt chassis each night. At the conclusion of the weekend a points fund will be awarded to the top six 360 cars based on a two-night points average. The payout will be $250-$200-$175-$150-$125-$100. A 360 competitor could potentially walk away with as much as $2050 for the weekend. Each event will start up to twenty-four cars each night.
In addition to 360 bonuses, MSR regulars will have an opportunity to pocket an additional $250 each night for setting quick time. With the addition of these announced bonuses and previously announced purse money, teams will be racing for nearly $64, 000 in total purse money. This will make for one of the richest weekends of sprint car racing ever seen in the area in many years, if ever.
Five Flags Speedway. Children’s Dream Fund, and Dutton Safe Fencing & Safer Systems have made these bonuses and additional monies possible.
These events are expected to draw teams from the Must See Racing, Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series, and the Panhandle area. A good car count is anticipated each night.
A complete entry list of competitors expected for these events will be released in the coming days. An open practice will kick off the weekend Thursday October 2 at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida. Racing will begin at Five Flags the following evening October 3 and conclude on Saturday night October 4 at Montgomery Speedway in Montgomery, Alabama.
These events will give fans a rare opportunity to watch 410-winged pavement sprint cars compete on a half-mile speedway, which is a rarity in today’s racing world.
For more information on Must See Racing and the ‘Southern Shootout’ like and follow the series on Facebook or log onto www.mustseeracing.com.
September 10, 2025 – Holly. Michigan – The Must See Racing Sprint Series Presented by Perfit-Parts.com is preparing for the biggest weekend of its sixteen-year existence when the 410-winged asphalt sprint car series visits the Gulf Coast Region of the country October 2-4, 2025.
The series will kick off the ‘Southern Shootout’ Friday night October 3, 2025, when it visits Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida for the first time in eleven seasons. The following evening October 4 the series will head north to Montgomery Motor Speedway in Montgomery, Alabama for the first time since 2021.
Teams will be battling it out for a $10,000 winners share from a total purse of $31,000 each night. These events will pay $700 to start the twenty-four-car starting field each night. This will be the richest weekend in the history of the series that inaugurated in 2010. A total weekend purse of over $62,000 will be up for grabs.
In addition to Must See Racing regulars, the event is expected to draw teams from the Florida based Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series and the new Alabama/Mississippi Sprint Car group.
The Gulf Coast area isn’t new to Must See Racing. From 2012 -2014 the series annually visited he area with stops at Five Flags and Mobile, Alabama. It returned to the area with a weekend visit to Montgomery in 2021.
Aaron Pierce was victorious the last time the series visited Five Flags Speedway on April 11, 2014. Troy DeCaire and Joe Liguori found victory lane the last time the series competed at Montgomery Motor Speedway in October of 2021.
It is only fitting that the 2025 MSR season will conclude at two of the most historic venues in the southern part of the country. It will also be a rare opportunity to watch winged pavement sprint cars compete on half-mile venues, which has been a rare occurrence lately.
Five Flags Speedway opened in 1953 and is the home of the annual Snowball Derby Super Late Model race. Montgomery Motor Speedway opened in 1955 and hosted numerous NASCAR Grand National events in the early years of its history.
Joe Liguori looks to close out the 2025 MSR season with another MSR championship. He currently holds a commanding 64-point lead over Ryan Litt. Kevin Mingus sits in third place currently 41 points behind Litt.
Entries for these events are just now beginning to be received. MSR will reveal the entries as they are received beginning in the next few days. Like and follow Must see Racing on Facebook or visit the series website at www.mustseeracing.com for the latest news regarding the 2025 ‘Southern Shootout’.
Kody Swanson celebrates with a wing dance after winning Sunday’s Must See Racing national sprint car feature at Owosso Speedway. (David Sink photo)
From Jacob Seelman, Must See Racing Trackside PR
OVID, Mich. (Aug. 31, 2025) – When the arguable best pavement short-track driver in the discipline links up with the arguable best pavement sprint car team in America, magic tends to happen.
It certainly did Sunday at Owosso Speedway, as Kody Swanson and owner Dick Myers authored a complete drubbing of the Must See Racing Perfit Sprint Car Series field to complete a weekend sweep of the two-day Mid-Michigan Pavement Sprint Car Nationals.
Wheeling Myers’ familiar No. 50m, the car nicknamed ‘Seabiscuit’ which has won countless features over nearly a quarter century, Swanson charged from fifth to first in just seven laps around the three-eighths-mile paved oval.
From there, the Kingsburg, Calif., native then controlled the final 34 circuits and drove off to a staggering 8.291-second victory over runner-up and fast qualifier Aaron Willison, who’d started on the pole following the feature redraw and paced the opening six laps.
But once Swanson got outside position on Willison exiting turn four on lap seven, he flexed his muscles and said farewell to the rest of the competition.
With a car that could go “anywhere I wanted it to,” Swanson surgically knifed through slower traffic throughout the weekend finale and lapped all but the top five in a stout 20-car feature field.
He banked $10,000 for his efforts Sunday, bringing his weekend winnings to $14,000 in total.
It marked Swanson’s third career Must See Racing victory overall and second with a wing overhead, as he and Myers seemingly finally unlocked the full potential of their pairing at last.
“This is one wail of a race car,” said Swanson in victory lane. “Dick and his crew always have this car spectacular, but tonight it was truly in tip-top shape. I’m just thankful to be the one that they’ve tapped to drive it, and when you have a race car this good, as a driver you just don’t want to mess it up.
“It’s been a learning process to figure out how these guys race with the wing on top, but I think we’re there where we need to be now.”
The 40-lapper actually ran green to checkered, following a stack-up in the middle of the field on the initial start that forced a second try to get the feature underway.
That incident saw 10th-starting Jason Blonde fail to get up to speed with a throttle linkage issue, causing the likes of Taylor Ferns, J.J. Dutton, and Johnny Petrozelle to accordion together near the back of the field. All three slowed dramatically, forcing the only yellow flag.
During the caution period, third-starting Jimmy McCune Jr. – the 16-year-old son of five-time Must See Racing national champion Jimmy McCune – surprisingly pulled pit-side with a loss of oil pressure, ending his hopes of a breakout performance after a stellar heat race victory from earlier in the program.
Once the race resumed, however, the headlines were all about Swanson as he did what he so often does by methodically driving forward and crushing the hopes of those pursuing him.
The domination came despite what Swanson described as a “high-RPM vibration” that developed briefly on his second time-trial lap and had the nerves of the eight-time USAC Silver Crown champion on edge for a while during the afternoon hours.
Kody Swanson in victory lane with his family Sunday at Owosso Speedway. (David Sink photo)
“I get emotional anyway [after wins], but if you knew everything that we were working through from post-qualifying through the race … that’s why this one is a big deal to us,” Swanson noted. “I’m not sure if it was truly an engine problem or just some phantom thing that us drivers feel sometimes, but these guys just kept after it and kept looking and kept working to try and make sure of what we had.
“Finally they gave me the green light for the feature, and said, ‘Hey, if it feels right, then you’re racing it.’ And man, it certainly felt right out there when it mattered.”
Willison found himself at a straightaway deficit by the halfway point and knew then that there was no catching his rival. The pair has built a legacy of respectful competition between them over the past two years as the top two pavement sprint car drivers in North America.
“When you race Kody, you know you’re racing against the cream of the crop every single time,” said the Canadian veteran, who hails from Langley, British Columbia. “They did a great job, and congrats to them on a well-deserved win, but I’m also really happy about our Statham Construction team’s performance and where we’re at as a whole. We made some big gains this weekend and it’s a program we’re continuing to build.
“We’ve got our qualifying speed hammered down now, and we made some strides in our race pace from Saturday to Sunday as well,” Willison added. “I just didn’t have any balance in the car for about the first 12 laps … and by the time I felt more comfortable, Kody was just long gone at that point.”
Saturday night runner-up Troy DeCaire was three quarters of a second behind Willison at the finish, earning a second straight podium for car owner Aaron Pierce and the Sam Pierce Racing squad.
Ontario’s Ryan Litt made it two Canadians in the top four, with Joe Liguori crossing fifth as the final car on the lead lap to extend his point lead in pursuit of a second straight and third overall series title.
Justin Harper, driving a second entry for Liguori Motorsports, was the night’s hard charger after advancing from 17th to 10th.
Willison began the program with a scorching 12.297-second (109.783 mph) lap in qualifying to obliterate his all-time track record from 22 hours earlier, while McCune Jr., Dorman Snyder, and Donnie Adams Jr. won their respective eight-lap heat races prior to the main event.
Though Adams won his heat, he was one of four drivers – joined by John Trudell, Jeff Bloom, and Alby Ovitt – who were unable to start the weekend finale due to engine issues or other mechanical maladies.
In all, 24 drivers were on the property Sunday, marking the largest field of the season for Must See Racing’s national contingent.
In support action, J.J. Henes swept Sunday’s Twin 20 features for the Must See Racing Maxima Midwest Lights crate sprint cars to wrap up his third series title in that division, while Austin Maynard won the street stock main event before climbing aboard H.D. Carter’s No. 13 sprint car to do double duty.
The Must See Racing Perfit Sprint Car Series concludes its season Oct. 3-4 on the Gulf Coast, with a weekend doubleheader split between the half-mile ovals of Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Fla., and Montgomery (Ala.) Motor Speedway.
For more information on Must See Racing, visit www.mustseeracing.com.
RESULTS: Must See Racing Perfit Sprint Car Series; Owosso Speedway; Ovid, Mich.; Aug. 31, 2025
Qualifying (best of two laps, top four to redraw): 1. Aaron Willison, 36, Statham-12.297 (NTR); 2. Troy DeCaire, 26D, Pierce-12.432; 3. Ryan Litt, 07, Litt-12.591; 4. Kody Swanson, 50m, Myers/RAM-12.638; 5. Joe Liguori, 68, Liguori-12.761; 6. Jason Blonde, 42, Nosal/TNT-12.846; 7. Kevin Mingus, Z10, Mingus-12.864; 8. Bobby Komisarski, 7, Fogle-12.904; 9. Jimmy McCune, 88, McCune-12.947; 10. Tommy Nichols, 55, Nichols-13.224; 11. Taylor Ferns, 126, Pierce-13.232; 12. Dylan Reynolds, 24, Reynolds-13.241; 13. Donnie Adams Jr., 4, Adams-13.250; 14. J.J. Dutton, 86, Dutton-13.304; 15. Landon Butler, 18, Butler-13.313; 16. Justin Harper, 66, Liguori-13.393; 17. Dorman Snyder, 99, Stickney-13.475; 18. Jimmy McCune Jr., 88JR, McCune-13.539; 19. Johnny Petrozelle III, 81, Blake-13.576; 20. Tom Geren, 11, Geren-13.920; 21. Austin Maynard, 13, Carter-14.776; 22. Alby Ovitt, 20, Parker-NT; 23. John Trudell, 7T, Trudell-NT; 24. Jeff Bloom, 26, Bloom-NT.
TTI Machine Heat Race #1 (8 laps, all transfer, top two to redraw): 1. Jimmy McCune Jr. [1], 2. Landon Butler [2], 3. Jason Blonde [5], 4. Dylan Reynolds [3], 5. Jimmy McCune [4], 6. Ryan Litt [6], 7. Austin Maynard [7], 8. Jeff Bloom (DNS). [1:50.167]
TTI Machine Heat Race #2 (8 laps, all transfer, top two to redraw): 1. Dorman Snyder [1], 2. Troy DeCaire [6], 3. Joe Liguori [5], 4. Taylor Ferns [3], 5. J.J. Dutton [2], 6. Bobby Komisarski [4], 7. Tom Geren [7], 8. John Trudell (DNS). [1:51.085]
TTI Machine Heat Race #3 (8 laps, all transfer, top two to redraw): 1. Donnie Adams Jr. [2], 2. Kevin Mingus [4], 3. Kody Swanson [5], 4. Tommy Nichols [3], 5. Justin Harper [1], 6. Johnny Petrozelle III [7], 7. Aaron Willison [6], 8. Alby Ovitt (DNS). [1:48.945]
