GRAND BLANC, Mich. — Must See Racing recognized its top drivers and teams from the 2024 season during the sanctioning body’s Night of Champions celebration Saturday at the Fairfield Inn & Suites of Grand Blanc.
Chief among the banquet’s honored guests were Must See Racing National Sprint Car Series presented by Perfit champion Joe Liguori and Maxima Racing Oils Must See Racing Midwest Lights titlist J.J. Henes.
Liguori wasn’t able to celebrate his championship season at the racetrack after the finale was lost to a combination of weather and extenuating circumstances back in September, but collected the major hardware by 42 points over runner-up and fellow owner-driver Kevin Mingus.
After a top-shelf, post-COVID 2021 season that couldn’t be formally recognized at the time, Liguori was able to nod in his title acceptance speech to the fact that 2024, in effect, marked his second time at the top of the Must See Racing mountain.
“We’ve just somehow made a habit of not being able to celebrate until a lot later,” joked Liguori of his championship crown.
“My daughter Emilee was supposed to help me write a speech, but I’ll just wing it,” he continued. “For the five years we’ve been on tour, Jim and Nancy (Hanks, series owners) have given us a great platform and I appreciate them accepting us into the series and dealing with our antics, because I know we can make it difficult sometimes (laughter).
“But I’m glad to race with everyone that we do and that we’re all able to be at the racetrack having fun, because that’s really what this is about. None of this is our profession, but it’s what we all love to do and I think that’s what separates this series from anywhere else, is the passion that’s brought to the table.
Henes also returned to the pinnacle, topping the Midwest Lights crate sprint car division for a second time after previously winning the tour’s inaugural title in 2020.
“It’s been a pleasure to race against Cody (Gallogly, Midwest Lights runner-up) but man, he’s been putting a whooping on us up until this past year,” noted Henes. “My dad and I had been talking about building a new race car (after the 2022 season) and we finally decided to do it last offseason because we were tired of Cody beating up on us (laughter).
“Going into the year, I was scared, to be honest. When you build a brand-new race car and don’t know anything about it (on-track) because it’s completely different to anything that you’ve done before, it’s a lot of unknown … but as soon as we got that first (win) at Owosso (Speedway) I knew we had something really good,” he added.
“To capitalize the way that we did as a family team … it means a lot and you can’t ask for much more.”
Among the other Must See Racing national honorees Saturday was Dick Myers, the longtime leader of the iconic RAM Engineering No. 50m sprint car team, who received Car Owner of the Year honors.
Liguori was named Driver of the Year for the third time in his decorated career, while his chief mechanic Brad Ringer secured Crew Chief of the Year laurels for a second time.
Additional Midwest Lights award recipients included Ethan Rader (Rookie of the Year) and Terry Bogusz (Crew Chief of the Year), while Jon Henes and J.J. Henes were named Car Owner and Driver of the Year, respectively.
The night’s highest honor, the Jerry Caryer Ironman Award for commitment to Must See Racing, was presented to journeyman Rick Holley as the driver who most exemplified loyalty to pavement sprint car racing as a whole and for his spirit in making nearly every series race over the last five years.
Holley joined Tom Jewell (2021), Charlie Schultz (2022), and Ryan Litt (2023) as the fourth recipient of the perpetual honor, which is housed at Must See Racing’s series headquarters in Holly, Mich.
“I truly wasn’t expecting this,” said an emotional Holley, who was joined by son Chance and granddaughter Frankie at the podium afterward. “Jerry was a friend and loved this series as much as anyone before we lost him, so to be honored like this … I hope he’d be proud.”
