PINELLAS PARK, FL (February 23, 2020) — Bobby Santos III survived slippery track conditions and several restarts to capture Wednesday night’s “Dave Steele World Non-Wing Championship 125” tune-up event at Showtime Speedway. Santos III led wire-to wire for his first win of 2020.
Wednesday’s nights 30-lap event was a prelude to Thursday nights $5,000 to win 125-lap event as part of the annual “Ice Crusher Week” that will also see a $15,000 to win Late Model Figure 8 and a $10,000 to win Super Late Model event. It was also the first time 410 non-winged asphalt sprint cars have competed in the state of Florida in over a decade. The events will officially conclude Florida Speedweeks 2020.
When the green flag waved Joe Liguori dove under polesitter Kyle O’Gara and Santos III and a three car drag race ensued immediately for the lead. Santos III took command of the event and lead the entire distance despite multiple double-file restarts. Santos III hung on for the win over a close finishing O’Gara who came on strong at the finish. Joe Liguori came home third followed by John Inman and Tommy Nichols.
Santos eluded to the fact the track was slippery and presented challenges during the feature event. “The track was slick and tough to get hooked up on” explained Santos III in victory lane. “We kinda fought it all day. We got it better, but we benefited from a good starting spot. We just gotta keep working on it to get better for tomorrow”.
“I think we were pretty good, but we weren’t great. John Inman passed cars based off what I saw from the score board so that tells me its doable to pass cars here. So, I don’t see why I couldn’t have if I needed to”. Santos III also expressed his thoughts on what to expect for tomorrow’s 125-lap event.” A slick racetrack. But hopefully it should be good racing. 30 laps is just a warm-up. Once we get passed the 50-lap mark the tires start to wear out and change. I think hopefully it will be pretty racy tomorrow”.
Santos also explained he liked the double file restarts throughout the night. “I personally enjoy the double file restarts” commented Santos III. “I’m used to it from modified racing. That’s all we ever do. I think it’s a good thing for the fans and racing as long as everyone races clean”. Concluded Santos III.
The only serious incident of the night occurred on lap 8 when Dylan Reynolds rode up over John Inman in turn one. The contact launched Reynolds hard into the wall and he rode the top of the wall for several feet before coming to a halt in turn two. Reynolds was unharmed during the incident.
Teams will be back in action early for Thursday nights “Dave Steele World Non-Wing Championship 125” event with practice beginning at noon followed by a two hour qualifying window, that will see 4-lap qualifying format, similar to that used at the Little 500 in Anderson, Indiana.
Showtime Speedway
Pinellas Park, FL
Wednesday February 19, 2020
Non-Wing 410 Sprint Cars
Feature:
1. 22a – Bobby Santos III
2. 67 – Kyle O’Gara
3. 13 – Joe Ligouri
4. 59 – John Inman
5. 68 – Tommy Nichols
6. 22 – Branden Blended
7. 4 – Travis Bliemeister
8. 52 – Kody Karl
9. 42 – Phil Haddad
10. 77 – Kody Swanson
11. 26 – Aaron Pierce
12. 555 – Dylan Reynolds
DNS: 18 – Shane Butler