PENSACOLA, Fla. — Aaron Willison made history Saturday night at Five Flags Speedway, capturing the inaugural Race For The Million race presented by Sunbelt Rentals, against a stacked field of pavement sprint car talent.
Traveling all the way from Langley, British Columbia, Willison proved he could handle the pressure and the Pensacola half-mile when it mattered most after starting sixth.
Willison narrowly avoided disaster with just six laps remaining, getting by lapped traffic as cars tangled ahead of him. He gained control on the final restart and maintained the lead until the checkered.
Fellow British Columbian, Jeff Montgomery, made it a Canadian one-two finish, followed by Bobby Santos, one of the most accomplished pavement racers, who completed the podium in third after battling inside the top five all night.
“I’ve never felt like I excelled at half-mile tracks. I didn’t grow up racing them, it’s something that’s very foreign to me,” Willison said. “To be able to conquer that and get up over that hump and feel like we’re really good on half-miles, it feels great…This may be the biggest sprint car race that’s happened in the state of Florida, and I’m really proud to bring it home for [Car owner Ken Statham].”
The inaugural event drew nearly 50 pavement sprint cars from across North America and delivered a race worthy of its name.
The finish:
Feature (40 laps): 1. 36-Aaron Willison [6]; 2. 33J-Jeff Montgomery [1]; 3. 22A-Bobby Santos [4]; 4. 88SR-Jimmy McCune [3]; 5. 50M-Kody Swanson [2]; 6. 6G-Bryan Gossel [8]; 7. 14-Davey Hamilton Jr. [12]; 8. 5-Joe Ligouri [7]; 9. 41-Troy DeCaire [14]; 10. 29-Jake Trainor [25]; 11. 1-Dakoda Armstrong [15]; 12. 99-CJ Leary [13]; 13. 0-Michael Lewis [19]; 14. 44-Teddy Alberts [18] 15. 24N-Kevin Newton [20]; 16. OH6-Adam Hilton [21]; 17. 88C-Chase Locke [23]; 18. 26C-Chase Cabre [11]; 19. 57-Evan Margeson [16]; 20. 07-Ryan Litt [10]; 21. 15-Eric Humphries [9]; 22. 9-Dodge Carlbert [17]; 23. 4-Donnie Adams Jr. [24]; 24. 86-J.J. Dutton [22]; DNS: 61-Colton Bettis.
