November 2, 2025 – Las Vegas, Nevada – We are just days away from the kick-off of the 2025 Bitnile.com Open Wheel Showdown Presented by askROI at the “Bullring” at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. For event promoter Davey Hamilto Jr., it’s been a lot of long days and many hours spent at the track since mid-September.
Hamilton Jr. is a perfectionist, and the organization of the event reflects himself. Every aspect of the event must be done right with no exceptions. He oversees virtually every aspect of the November 6-8, 2025, event year-round. But Hamilton Jr. will be the first to admit this has been a very unusual year regarding the Open Wheel Showdown.
“It’s not necessary for me to be here that early” explains Hamilton Jr. “But I want everything to be so perfect and continue to grow like it has been. I go to the racetrack every single day to see what they’re doing, learn, and meet new people. I am taking notes to see what needs to be done before our event.
“There’s so much that goes into this one race. Even yesterday I spent two hours printing probably 2000 different papers and documents that are for the teams to have. We have contingency decals. So, we had to put together 250 different bags with twenty or so different companies’ stickers in them. It sounds easy but it takes hours, if not a whole day. And there are so many banners that need to be hung. I have been doing everything myself. My help won’t start arriving until Sunday. There is a lot to it, but I take pride in this event, and I want everything to be perfect with it.
“This has been a weird year. I’ve been dealing with some personal things that’s made it tough. We have had a lot of people back out as far as helpers go. Our entire hospitality truck, everybody backed out. The chefs, helpers, drivers, everybody. Thanks to the Bitnile group they plugged in people to get it out here.
“The guy who handles my media is dealing with some personal stuff as well. It’s just been a weird year where there have been problems with people. We’re still going to make the most of it and see how it goes. It would have been nice coming into this year with no hiccups.
As the creator of the event, Hamilton Jr. is also a competitor in the winged sprint car portion of the race. Perhaps nobody wants to win this race more than Hamilton Jr. himself. He has made no secrets of wanting an Open Wheel Showdown trophy on his trophy mantle. He finished third in the inaugural 2023 running. But his dreams of an OWS victory might have to be shelved in 2025.
Hamilton Jr. was involved in a very serious accident in a Must See Racing event at Pensacola, Florida on October 3, 2025. A parts failure sent him hard into the outside retaining wall. He received a neck injury that forced him to withdraw from a scheduled INDY NXT test and hasn’t been in a race car since that crash a month ago. It’s unclear if he will participate in this year’s race.
“To be honest, there is a concern with me even racing this year. It may not even happen. Nobody’s gonna know until Thursday, including myself, if I’m even able to run the event. Regardless, I’m gonna be there as a promotor. Hopefully I’ll be there as a driver too. If I can’t go as a driver, it’s gonna be a tough weekend for me. I put my entire life into this event 365 days of the year. I’m gonna get in the car Thursday and make some laps and see where we’re at.”
When Hamilton Jr. announced the inaugural Open Wheel Showdown in July of 2023, it sent shockwaves through the sport. Never had a pavement sprint car paid $50,000 to win from a combined purse of over $150,000
That inaugural OWS helped fuel the fire for bigger paying pavement sprint car races annually. Winged pavement sprint car races paying $10,000 or more to win are becoming the regular, Hamilton Jr. showed it was possible, and teams deserved a few bigger paying races throughout the calendar year.
In late September Floridian and current car owner Dick Fieler announced his intentions to contest four high-paying winged pavement sprint car races in 2026, at four different tracks around the country, with a total purse of $600,000 using his personal monies. The new “Race for the Million” series will also include a substantial point fund at the end of the year, announced at $300,000 for the four races.
Hamilton Jr. has mixed emotions on the new series due to how he feels the group attempted to ride the coattails of his hard work and blueprint for the OWS success the past three years.
“I did my event with the sole purpose of giving the pavement guys, who spend an incredible amount of money and race for so little, a chance to race for good money. I wanted to show promoters we can race for good money and put on a good show. I accomplished that.
“I’m excited about this “Race for the Million” series. The only thing I disagree with is they tried to negotiate a deal to overtake my event at the exact same location. That would kill me. It’s great and I’m gonna be a driver in that deal.
“I’ve put all my effort, energy, life, sweat, blood, everything into this event. To even hear or see that there were conversations of overtaking my event around the same time frame. I probably would have walked away and never tried it again. I feel like I’ve taken pride and shown everybody what it’s like to race in a professional atmosphere.
“They tried to negotiate with LVMS to put on an event right before OWS. That would’ve killed OWS. Not every team has huge funding. Most couldn’t do two events in Las Vegas within a couple weeks timeframe. I’m so excited its happening with our sport, but I’m disappointed they even tried to think about doing that at LVMS.
“I’m thankful someone like Dick (Fieler) is putting up that kind of money. Unfortunately, the guys he put in charge are Wankers and Clowns and are using his money one hundred percent. Dick could’ve done a better job of working with other series and tracks. It’s gonna hurt local tracks and series. People are gonna be saving their time, energy, and money to spend $10,000-$20,000 each time to go run these four races. Tires, fuel, hotels, pit passe, all that stuff. It’s gonna water down your local races. Teams are gonna basically run five races next year. The Million Dollar Series and my deal at Las Vegas. But we’ll see.
“I had a talk today with the title sponsor. I already kind of know the direction of the next few years with the track and multiple sponsors. I’m not gonna release anything right now. On top of everything I have new partners. These are people who do way bigger events than I do. They want to be involved with the event. They’re coming out this year. It’s exciting for me right now. As soon as Sunday hits, it’s all about next year.” concluded Hamilton Jr.