Aaron Willison Wins Inaugural $50K Open Wheel Showdown Winged Sprint Car A-Main In Vegas

Story By: OPEN WHEEL SHOWDOWN – LAS VEGAS, NV – Aaron Willison of Langley, British Columbia, Canada led wire-to-wire for the richest payday in pavement open wheel history, a $50,000 USD or $67,480 Canadian haul, after the 100-lap Riskon360! Open Wheel Showdown for Winged Sprint Cars at the Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“We need equipment to go racing and this is going to fund our entire year. I work really hard on my restarts. We work really hard on our motor program. We work really hard on getting the thing to take off. There’s a lot of effort that goes into that stuff behind the scenes. You got to have a well-rounded skillset if you think youre going to hold off the best in the country. This was the greatest race car I’ve ever driven today and it’s been a dream season.”

Willison earned pole for the 100-lap contest after claiming Friday’s fast-dash. The C- and B-Main Events narrowed the 52 Sprint Cars on the grounds to 26 starters for the feature event on the .375-mile oval.

Bryan Gossel spun in turn four for the first caution flag on lap two. The choose cone allowed track-record holder Jason Blonde of Litchfield, Michigan to drive up alongside Willison on the restart. Willison held the top spot however. Willison, Blonde, and Franklin, Mass.’s Bobby Santos III broke free of the large pack of Sprint Cars. Anthony Quintana of Idaho spun in turn four and collected Canadian Jeff Montgomery for the next caution flag, ending both of their evenings on lap seven.

Eighth-starting Ryan Litt of London, Ontario, Canada challenged Santos for third in lapped traffic but couldn’t complete the pass with a three-wide maneuver. A restart allowed him to later gain the track position for third.
Willison led Blonde, Litt, Santos, and Tacoma, Washington’s Evan Margeson into the lap 50 break for fuel and a fresh right rear tire.

When racing resumed, Falcon, Colorado’s Mike Hathaway crashed hard into the front stretch wall in an incident which tangled up Audra Sasselli of Selma, Calif. as well.

Blonde back pedaled significantly on the subsequent restart, drifting back to the eighth position. Litt slowed from the third position while Canadian Richie Larson and Oregon’s Kyle Alberding crashed in the fourth turn for a caution on lap 69. Idaho’s Mike Murgoitio also stopped and had to be retrieved. Spins followed on two successive restarts before track workers had an extended stop to clean fluid from turns three and four.

Willison dominated the final 30 laps of the proceedings for the $50,000 pay day with a 4.882 second advantage at the checkered flag. Santos finished second followed by tenth-starting Davey Hamilton, Jr. Canadian Robbie Price and Idaho’s Bryan Warf rounded out the top-five. Margeson surrendered a top-five finish with just two laps to go due to mechanical issues and was scored tenth. Santos earned $20,000 for second while Hamilton was a $10,000 third.

Winged Sprints

Risk On! 360 Open Wheel Showdown A Feature (100 Laps): 1. 14-Aaron Willison[1]; 2. 22A-Bobby Santos III[6]; 3. 14H-Davey Hamilton Jr[10]; 4. 21P-Robbie Price[7]; 5. 91-Bryan Warf[12]; 6. 15-Eric Humphries[5]; 7. 6G-Bryan Gossel[14]; 8. 50M-Jason Blonde[4]; 9. 65-Levi Rose[16]; 10. 57-Evan Margeson[3]; 11. 12B-Monty Bergener[24]; 12. 22L-Richie Larson[23]; 13. 07-Ryan Litt[8]; 14. 17-Mike Murgoitio[9]; 15. 76X-Kyle Alberding[20]; 16. 93R-Dylan Reynolds[21]; 17. 8A-Brad Aumen[11]; 18. 27-Mike Hathaway[25]; 19. 77-Audra Sasselli[17]; 20. 41-Tyler Roahrig[18]; 21. 33J-Jeff Montgomery[2]; 22. 02-Anthony Quintana[15]; 23. 36R-Ryan Burdett[22]; 24. 26-Aaron Pierce[19]; 25. 81-Casey Tillman[13]

Risk On! 360 Open Wheel Showdown B Feature (20 Laps): 1. 26-Aaron Pierce[1]; 2. 10-Austin Carter[2]; 3. 76X-Kyle Alberding[4]; 4. 93R-Dylan Reynolds[5]; 5. 36R-Ryan Burdett[6]; 6. 22L-Richie Larson[18]; 7. 93-Dude Teate[20]; 8. 27-Mike Hathaway[11]; 9. 12B-Monty Bergener[8]; 10. 25-Arie Luyendyk Jr[19]; 11. 1-Natalie Waters[17]; 12. 15L-Josh Lewis[22]; 13. 7D-Randy Dubois[14]; 14. 0-Drew Crenshaw[15]; 15. 24-Trey Burke[9]; 16. 94W-Geoff Wade[12]; 17. 36J-Jarett Burdett[3]; 18. 12L-Ron Larson[7]; 19. 68-Mike Anderson[10]; 20. 45-Justin Kawahata[16]; 21. 86S-JJ Dutton[13]; 22. (DNS) 16G-Austyn Gossel

Rick On 360! Open Wheel Showdown C Feature (15 Laps): 1. 25-Arie Luyendyk Jr[8]; 2. 93-Dude Teate[3]; 3. 16G-Austyn Gossel[2]; 4. 15L-Josh Lewis[4]; 5. 4S-Kevin Schramek[1]; 6. 24G-Willy Ginn[6]; 7. (DNS) 64-TJ Sneva; 8. (DNS) 11-Cody Ridge

Rick On 360! Open Wheel Showdown Practice (40 Laps): 1. 02-Anthony Quintana, 00:12.226[33]; 2. 22A-Bobby Santos III, 00:12.258[39]; 3. 17-Mike Murgoitio, 00:12.453[30]; 4. 26-Aaron Pierce, 00:12.490[31]; 5. 10-Austin Carter, 00:12.505[12]; 6. 41-Tyler Roahrig, 00:12.510[36]; 7. 8A-Brad Aumen, 00:12.582[4]; 8. 91-Bryan Warf, 00:12.604[46]; 9. 93R-Dylan Reynolds, 00:12.676[34]; 10. 12L-Ron Larson, 00:12.687[24]; 11. 21P-Robbie Price, 00:12.742[32]; 12. 14-Aaron Willison, 00:12.771[48]; 13. 81-Casey Tillman, 00:12.782[44]; 14. 33J-Jeff Montgomery, 00:12.822[29]; 15. 7D-Randy Dubois, 00:12.836[14]; 16. 15-Eric Humphries, 00:12.847[21]; 17. 6G-Bryan Gossel, 00:12.848[18]; 18. 36J-Jarett Burdett, 00:12.853[8]; 19. 07-Ryan Litt, 00:12.868[26]; 20. 36R-Ryan Burdett, 00:12.885[9]; 21. 94W-Geoff Wade, 00:12.928[45]; 22. 57-Evan Margeson, 00:13.126[28]; 23. 27-Mike Hathaway, 00:13.128[20]; 24. 22L-Richie Larson, 00:13.138[23]; 25. 50M-Jason Blonde, 00:13.150[7]; 26. 65-Levi Rose, 00:13.265[38]; 27. 12B-Monty Bergener, 00:13.285[6]; 28. 93-Dude Teate, 00:13.292[43]; 29. 86S-JJ Dutton, 00:13.416[15]; 30. 68-Mike Anderson, 00:13.473[3]; 31. 25-Arie Luyendyk Jr, 00:13.536[27]; 32. 16G-Austyn Gossel, 00:13.696[17]; 33. 76X-Kyle Alberding, 00:13.701[2]; 34. 45-Justin Kawahata, 00:13.760[22]; 35. 0-Drew Crenshaw, 00:14.319[13]; 36. 1-Natalie Waters, 00:14.332[47]; 37. 24-Trey Burke, 00:15.509[10]; 38. 4S-Kevin Schramek, 00:15.931[41]; 39. 15L-Josh Lewis, 01:44.035[25]; 40. (DNS) 76-Andy Alberding; 41. (DNS) 4B-Alan Beck; 42. (DNS) 24B-Nathan Byrd; 43. (DNS) 24G-Willy Ginn; 44. (DNS) 14H-Davey Hamilton Jr; 45. (DNS) 11-Cody Ridge; 46. (DNS) 71-Riley Rogers; 47. (DNS) 77-Audra Sasselli; 48. (DNS) 64-TJ Sneva