By Jacob Seelman
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.
TTI Machine Heat #1 (8 laps, all transfer): 1. 7-Bobby Komisarski [1], 2. 36-Aaron Willison [4], 3. P1-Daniel Miller [3], 4. 81-Steven Hollinger [2], 5. 77-Johnny Gilbertson [6], 6. 5-Joe Liguori [5], 7. 21-Butch David [7].
TTI Machine Heat #2 (8 laps, all transfer): 1. 61-Colton Bettis [5], 2. 18-Shane Butler [3], 3. 55-Tommy Nichols [2], 4. Z10-Kevin Mingus [4], 5. 86-J.J. Dutton [1], 6. 121-Todd Bliss [7], 7. 68R-Mickey Kempgens [6].
TTI Machine Heat #3 (8 laps, all transfer): 1. 22a-Bobby Santos III [4], 2. 24-Dylan Reynolds [1], 3. 9-Dodge Carlbert [2], 4. 67-Scotty Adema [5], 5. 32-Joey Schmidt [6], 6. 20-Alby Ovitt [3], 7. 14-Davey Hamilton Jr. (DNS).
Perfit A-Feature (30 laps): 1. 22a-Bobby Santos III [2], 2. 61-Colton Bettis [7], 3. 36-Aaron Willison [8], 4. 5-Joe Liguori [6], 5. Z10-Kevin Mingus [3], 6. 9-Dodge Carlbert [10], 7. 77-Johnny Gilbertson [16], 8. 55-Tommy Nichols [11], 9. 7-Bobby Komisarski [5], 10. 21-Butch David [19], 11. 81-Steven Hollinger [12], 12. 121-Todd Bliss [18], 13. 18-Shane Butler [4], 14. 68R-Mickey Kempgens [15], 15. 24-Dylan Reynolds [1], 16. 32-Joey Schmidt [17], 17. 86-J.J. Dutton [13], 18. P1-Daniel Miller [9], 19. 67-Scotty Adema [14], 20. 20-Alby Ovitt (DNS), 21. 14-Davey Hamilton Jr. (DNS).
Lap Leader(s): Bobby Santos 1-30.
Hard Charger: 77-Johnny Gilbertson (+9)