DACONO, Colo. — British Columbian driver Aaron Willison picked up a $10,000 first-place payday for winning Sunday night’s final night of the Independence Day Sprint Car Spectacular at Colorado National Speedway.
He survived a lap-39 double file restart to claim the victory in convincing fashion.
Bryan Warf led the first eight laps from his pole starting position before Davey Hamilton Jr. ran him down and assumed the point on lap nine. Hamilton would hold the top spot until Willison took the lead on lap 23.
Willison, who came from the fifth-starting spot, appeared to be in control and built a sizable lead as Hamilton trailed. On lap 34 Hamilton surrendered second position to last night’s winner Bobby Santos III as Hamilton’s motor appeared to stall and he coasted into the infield and out of the race.
Santos set sail for Willison, but it appeared there wouldn’t be enough time to run down the Canadian speedster. Then on lap 39 of the 40-lap feature the yellow flag waved for a spun car in turn two, setting up a thrilling green-white-checkered finish.
Willison chose the outside lane on the restart leaving Santos on the pole position. When the green flag waved, Willison got the jump and never looked back, taking the win and $10, 000 first place prize.
Due to the green-white-checkered finish, the race went 41 laps instead of the advertised 40.
Following Santos were Jeff Montgomery, Bryan Gossel and Eric Humphries. Santos was the night’s fastest qualifier (13.450) for the second night in a row.
“I made a really dumb mistake early in the day,” Willison said. “I piled this thing in the fence really damned hard trying to drive around like a hero in that storm that came up. I wanna thank my crew and Jeff Montgomery’s crew for helping us get it back together. We built on our program from last night and tried to get her to fire off quicker. It was able to do that tonight. The No. 14w Rendle / Willison Tri-X Group Racing Team was rolling tonight.”
The finish:
Feature (41 laps): 1. 14w-Aaron Willison; 2. 22a Bobby Santos III; 3. 33J-Jeff Montgomery; 4. 6g-Bryan Gossel; 5. 15-Eric Humphries; 6. 91-Bryan Warf; 7. 6r-Ryan Land; 8. 02-Hunter Stanley; 9. 16g-Austyn Gossel; 10. 12b-Monty Bergener; 11. 1-Natalie Waters; 12. 36-Jarett Burdett; 13. 25-Arie Luyendyk Jr.; 14. 55-Gary Land; 15. 86-JJ Dutton; 16. 16-Rob Grice; 17. 0-Drew Crenshaw; 18. 4s-Kevin Schramek; 19. 14-Davey Hamilton Jr.; 20. 8a-Anthony Offutt; 21. OH6-Adam Hilton; 22. 27-Mike Hathaway; 23. 22l-Cory Lockwood; 24. 50-Duane Zeinstra