From Jacob Seelman
MARNE, Mich. (Aug. 9, 2025) – Ryan Litt made Berlin Raceway his personal summertime playground yet again Saturday night, authoring another dominant performance with the Must See Racing Perfit Sprint Car Series.
Litt stormed from third to first in less than two laps at the seven-sixteenths-mile oval and never looked back, leading 29 of 30 circuits for his second Must See Racing victory of the season and the sixth of his career.
The London, Ontario, Canada veteran has now won the tour’s late summer event at Berlin four years in a row, an incredible stretch at a single racetrack in 410ci pavement sprint car competition.
To get the job done, however, Litt had to defeat one of the best pavement racers of the current generation in Bobby Santos III.
Santos passed Litt on a late restart to win Must See Racing’s first stop at Berlin back in May. This time around, Litt was more prepared to hold his ground and did so successfully on a restart of his own.
“[Santos] is probably, right now, the best pavement sprint car driver in America,” said Litt, whose familiar No. 07 won by 2.798 seconds. “When he’s up next to you, you’ve got to be on your game. At the start, I was kind of leaning towards saving my equipment a little bit for the end, because he snookered me last time we were here. I burned my stuff up and got caught in lapped traffic, and he got me.
“The car was set up good and it had tons of grip this time, so I just pretty much went full send there at the end. I tried to go as hard as I could.”
There was still a bit of a nervous moment for Litt near the checkered flag, though, as Litt felt his car beginning to lose power in the final few laps.
“Luckily, the car held on. It sounded like it might have dropped a cylinder there at the end,” Litt noted. “I was getting oil all over my visor and stuff, so I was just hoping and praying I was going to make the checkered flag there.
“I think if it’s up to me, we cancel that spring race [at Berlin] and keep coming back in August.”
Following the redraw, another Canadian in Aaron Willison led the field to the green flag, getting into clean air for a moment with a good launch on the initial start.
Litt slotted into second for the first half-lap, then charged the apron of turn four to pull alongside Willison at the flagstand before taking firm control after that point.
A red-flag stoppage came on lap four when sixth-running Alby Ovitt spun and tagged the inside wall on the frontstretch, tipping his No. 20 onto its side. Ovitt was uninjured, but his night was over.
Litt chose the bottom lane for the ensuing restart, quickly streaking away from Willison as Santos pressured from behind for the runner-up spot.
Santos moved into second place on lap nine with a daring outside move on Willison in turns three and four, but found himself two seconds adrift of Litt at that point. Unfazed, Santos slowly began cutting into the gap before the night’s second and final caution flag waved on lap 13.
Willison slowed from third place with a shredded right rear tire aboard his No. 36, coasting to the work area and getting it changed to resume battle from the tail of the lead lap.
That set up one final try for Santos to get past Litt on the restart with 18 to go, but Litt never blinked.
Santos was able to keep pace with his rival for the first few laps after the restart, but eventually faded back by more than a second with 10 laps to go and could never muster another charge.
Afterward, Santos applauded Litt for the strong effort and admitted his own car just wasn’t strong enough to seal the deal.
“I didn’t do a good job on the restart,” said Santos. “Ryan did a better job than I did. I kind of used it up trying to run outside of him there for four or five laps, and I wish I handled the situation a little differently. Ryan did a better job tonight. Those guys did a good job.”
Two-time and defending series champion Joe Liguori crossed third and extended his point lead in pursuit of a third title, with Ohio’s Kevin Mingus earning his best finish of the season in fourth.
Home-state driver Dorman Snyder rounded out the top five, trailed by Willison, who battled back to sixth place after his tire issue.
Santos set the fastest time in qualifying at 13.438 seconds (117.205 mph), with Willison, Litt, and Liguori topping their respective eight-lap heat races prior to the feature.
Must See Racing Perfit Sprint Car Series teams get two weekends off to prepare for the biggest race of the season, the Mid-Michigan Sprint Car Nationals at Owosso Speedway during Labor Day weekend.
A full program will be held on both Aug. 30 and Aug. 31, with the Sunday finale paying $10,000 to win.
For more information on Must See Racing, visit www.mustseeracing.com.
RESULTS: Must See Racing Perfit Sprint Car Series; Berlin Raceway; Marne, Mich.; Aug. 9, 2025
Qualifying (best of two laps, top four to redraw): 1. Bobby Santos III, 22a, Fieler-13.438; 2. Ryan Litt, 07, Litt-13.506; 3. Alby Ovitt, 20, Parker-13.710; 4. Joe Liguori, 68, Liguori-13.766; 5. Dorman Snyder, 99, Stickney-13.768; 6. Aaron Willison, 36, Statham-13.806; 7. Kevin Mingus, Z10, Mingus-13.988; 8. Tommy Nichols, 55, Nichols-14.204; 9. Alfred Galedrige, 66, Liguori-14.213; 10. Bobby Komisarski, 7, Fogle-14.321; 11. J.J. Henes, 81, Blake-15.087; 12. J.J. Dutton, 86, Dutton-15.362; 13. Tom Geren, 11, Geren-15.596; 14. Teddy Alberts, 44, Wolverine-15.871; 15. Andrew Bogusz, 17, Fast Company-16.355; 16. Jeff Bloom, 26, Bloom-NT.
Heat #1 (8 laps, top two to redraw): 1. 36-Aaron Willison [2], 2. 20-Alby Ovitt [3], 3. 66-Alfred Galedrige [1], 4. 17-Andrew Bogusz [5], 5. J.J. Dutton [4].
Heat #2 (8 laps, top two to redraw): 1. 07-Ryan Litt [3], 2. 99-Dorman Snyder [2], 3. 55-Tommy Nichols [1], 4. J.J. Henes [4], 5. 44-Teddy Alberts [5].
Heat #3 (8 laps, top two to redraw): 1. 68-Joe Liguori [2], 2. Z10-Kevin Mingus [1], 3. 22a-Bobby Santos III [3], 4. Bobby Komisarski [4], 5. 11-Tom Geren [5], 6. Jeff Bloom (DNS).
Perfit A-Feature (30 laps): 1. 07-Ryan Litt [3], 2. 22a-Bobby Santos III [6], 3. 68-Joe Liguori [2], 4. Z10-Kevin Mingus [7], 5. 99-Dorman Snyder [4], 6. 36-Aaron Willison [1], 7. 81-J.J. Henes [10]; 8. 17-Andrew Bogusz [12], 9. 86-J.J. Dutton [13], 10. 11-Tom Geren [14], 11. 55-Tommy Nichols [8], 12. 66-Alfred Galedrige [9], 13. 44-Teddy Alberts [11], 14. 20-Alby Ovitt [5], 15. 26-Jeff Bloom [15], 16. Bobby Komisarski (DNS).
Lap Leader(s): Aaron Willison 1, Ryan Litt 2-30.
Hard Charger: 17-Andrew Bogusz (+4)