It’s Santos Over Swanson In Wild Owosso Must See Battle

OVID, Mich. – In what could best be described as a respectful short-track slugfest, Bobby Santos III outdueled a determined Kody Swanson to win Saturday night’s Must See Racing Perfit Sprint Car Series Fast Forty at Owosso Speedway.

Santos led all 40 laps from the pole, but had to masterfully dice his way through lap traffic in the final five laps with a hard-charging Swanson right on his rear nerf bar.

The duo cut through a swath of slower cars with several nifty three-wide maneuvers, but perhaps the most tense moment was on lap 35 – when Santos and Swanson were side-by-side at start-finish and separated by a hundredth of a second.

Two laps later, Santos executed a perfect outside-inside cross to get past two other cars and build a four car-length gap over Swanson that proved to be just enough in the end.

Though Swanson cut the deficit back down, he couldn’t get fully alongside Santos in the final set of corners, leaving Santos to eke out a slim .131-second victory in the DJ Racing No. 22a.

Saturday night marked Santos’ second straight Must See Racing national sprint car win of the year and the 12th of his career, but the talking point afterward was his electric battle with his longtime pavement rival.

Santos was quick to point out that anytime he knows he’s racing against Swanson, he has to take himself and his team to another level.

“Kody’s one of the best,” said Santos in victory lane. “He proves that week in and week out. Obviously, when he comes into this form of racing, everybody’s got to step up their game. He forces that on everybody. We were lucky enough to get a win this time, but we’ll see next time. It was close.”

For Swanson, though he came up a bit short of victory in Dick Myers’ potent No. 50m, he was grateful to Santos for a fierce – yet clean – battle right down to the wire.

“Bobby and I have been racing here a long time, and he’s a standout,” noted Swanson. “He’s the guy and been doing great in everything he drives, whether it’s got wings or open wheels or it’s a modified at New Hampshire (Motor Speedway). He puts it on them.

“That was two guys going for the win, driving 105 percent. Neither of us lift until the other one does on (corner) entry,” he continued. “To have that kind of trust that he’ll leave me space on the outside is important, and I know that I’ll do everything I can for him, too. I thought we had a great race there, and through lapped traffic as well. I hope we put on a show; that’s what we’re here for.”

The Perfit Pole Roll put Santos out front for the initial green flag, and he seized the moment over Aaron Willison, quickly opening up a two-second gap in just five circuits as Swanson worked his way forward from sixth starting spot.

Swanson got to second on lap nine, then slowly began cutting into the 2.75-second deficit he was faced with over a green-flag stint that spanned more than half the race. By lap 16, the gap was under a second.

Seven laps later, the race’s only caution waved when Tommy Nichols looped his car in turn four moments after dropping off the lead lap. That put Santos and Swanson wheel to wheel for a double-file restart that thrilled the fans in attendance.

Santos slipped clear on the inside, but Swanson stayed right with him until plotting his moves in the closing laps as traffic became the defining factor, only to come up one spot short in the end.

Behind the top two, 15-year-old Colton Bettis made a pass of Willison on the lap-24 restart and ultimately claimed the final spot on the podium – his third top-three finish in just four career starts with Must See Racing.

The good news for Bettis? Though he admitted he wasn’t in the same zip code as the two ahead of him this time, he felt he learned plenty for the tour’s return trip during Labor Day weekend in August.

“We really didn’t have anything for them tonight,” admitted Bettis. “Their two cars were hooked up, and we missed it a little bit. This is what we came here for, though, is a tune-up for that 10k ($10,000-to-win show) in August.”

Ryan Litt crossed fourth and after a nifty eighth-to-fourth surge on the final restart, 2023 champion Jason Blonde ended up closing the top five.

Willison started the night with the fastest time in qualifying at 12.848 seconds around the three-eighths-mile oval, with Nichols and Swanson topping their respective 10-lap heat races.

In the accompanying twin Must See Racing Maxima Midwest Lights crate sprint car features, defending series champion J.J. Henes and teenager Keegan Weese split the victories.

The Must See Racing Perfit Sprint Car Series continues its season Friday night, July 4 with the Independence Day Spectacular at Kalamazoo Speedway, the first time for the tour back at Kalamazoo since 2022.

For more information on Must See Racing, including the latest news and results, visit www.mustseeracing.com.

The results:

Qualifying (best of two laps) 1. Aaron Willison, 36, Statham-12.848; 2. Colton Bettis, 26P, Pierce-12.924; 3. Bobby Santos III, 22A, Fieler-13.035; 4. Joe Liguori, 68, Liguori-13.051; 5. Ryan Litt, 07, Litt-13.052; 6. Kody Swanson, 50M, Myers-13.063; 7. Jason Blonde, 42, Nosal-13.228; 8. Jimmy McCune, 88, McCune-13.382; 9. Tommy Nichols, 55, Nichols-13.449; 10. Kevin Mingus, Z10, Mingus-13.679; 11. Dorman Snyder, 99, Stickney-13.980; 12. Bobby Komisarski, 7, Fogle-13.991; 13. J.J. Dutton, 86, Dutton-14.150; 14. Jeff Bloom, 26, Bloom-14.309; 15. Tom Geren, 11G, Geren-16.117.

Heat #1 (10 laps): 1. 50M-Kody Swanson [4]; 2. 88-Jimmy McCune [3]; 3. 7-Bobby Komisarski [1]; 4. 26P-Colton Bettis [6]; 5. Z10-Kevin Mingus [2]; 6. 68-Joe Liguori [5]; 7. 26-Jeff Bloom [7].

Heat #2 (10 laps): 1. 55-Tommy Nichols [2]; 2. 99-Dorman Snyder [1]; 3. 07-Ryan Litt [4]; 4. 22A-Bobby Santos III [5]; 5. 36-Aaron Willison [6]; 6. 42-Jason Blonde [3]; 7. 86-J.J. Dutton [7]; 8. 11G-Tom Geren (DNS).

A Feature (40 laps, starting position in brackets): 1. 22A-Bobby Santos III [1]; 2. 50M-Kody Swanson [5]; 3. 26P-Colton Bettis [3]; 4. 07-Ryan Litt [7]; 5. 42-Jason Blonde [8]; 6. 68-Joe Liguori [4]; 7. 36-Aaron Willison [2]; 8. Z10-Kevin Mingus [10]; 9. 55-Tommy Nichols [6]; 10. 7-Bobby Komisarski [12]; 11. 86-J.J. Dutton [13]; 12. 88-Jimmy McCune [9]; 13. 99-Dorman Snyder [11]; 14. 26-Jeff Bloom [14]; 15. 11G-Tom Geren [15].

Lap Leader(s): Bobby Santos III 1-40.

Hard Charger: 50M-Kody Swanson (+3)