GREENBRIER, Tenn. — Bobby Santos III used patience and a late race pass to win the King of the Wing feature at Veterans Motorplex at the Rim Friday night.
It was the second of three nights of racing as part of the Midwest Tour the series is currently campaigning.
Winged sprint cars were making their first appearance at the speedway since 2004. Eric Humphries established a new track record in qualifying with a 11.270-second lap around the high-banked quarter mile.
Jason Blonde took command of the event at the drop of the green from his outside front row starting position. He had built a sizeable lead by the halfway point. But Santos began to reel him in with the id of lap cars. By lap 30, Santos had caught him.
Santos attempted several passes on Blonde to no avail. Finally, on lap 34, Blonde drifted high exciting turn two and left just enough room for Santos to get under him as the duo raced down the backstretch. Santos would take advantage of his opportunity to lead the final 16 laps and take the victory. Santos would beat Blonde to the checkered flag by 4.546 seconds.
The 50-lap feature went green to checkered in 12:54 minutes.
“It turned out to be really fun,” Santos said. “They inverted eight and we started seventh. We passed some cars and could move around. It felt really, racy. It turned out to be a fun race track. I gotta thank my crew and I’m happy to get a King of the Wing win on this tour.”
The finish:
Bobby Santos III, Jason Blonde, Eric Humphries, Austyn Gossel, Bryan Gossel, Mike Anderson, Tommy Nichols, Matt Elliott, Teddy Alberts, Tom Paterson, Johnny Gilbertson, Kevin Feeney.