Bobby Santos Celebrates 40th Birthday in Five Flags Victory Lane

Bobby Santos celebrated his 40th birthday in style, kicking off the Must See Racing Southern Shootout by scoring the victory on Friday night at Five Flags Speedway.

Santos dominated the 30-lap feature after starting on the outside of the front row. He quickly jumped to the lead and distanced himself from the pack, crossing the line nearly 10 seconds ahead of runner-up Colton Bettis. The former NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion lapped all but two of his competitors en route to his 13th career Must See Racing victory, and his third of 2025.

“It starts with Dick [Fieler] and goes all the way down through the entire crew," said Santos about the win. "We have all the resources to have fast race cars, and that makes my job that much easier as a driver.

"[Santos' wife] Kristy asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday, and all I wanted to do is win tonight, so I'm happy."

While Santos made it look easy on Friday night, his win came against a stout field, with 21 cars on the property at Five Flags Speedway on Friday night.

"There's so many good cars, so much competition," said Santos. "The level of competition is just getting greater and greater. Just everything that everybody's doing in the pavement winged Sprint Car world in the last handful of years has led to moments like this.

"I've got to really thank everybody at Five Flags Speedway. You guys are awesome, great crowd. The promoters here, everyone does a great job. A lot of credit to Jim and Nancy Hanks and Must See Racing for putting an event like this on, this Southern Shootout tonight. Hopefully everyone comes and supports us at Montgomery tomorrow. They work really hard at this series and I greatly, greatly appreciate what they do."

Behind Santos, a fierce battle raged for the second position. Ultimately, that fight went to 16-year-old Colton Bettis, the rising star from Florida who has now finished runner-up three times in five Must See Racing appearances.

This was Bettis' first race in a 410 Sprint Car with his family team, and they were pleased to come away with a strong showing on Friday night. While Bettis won his heat race earlier in the evening, the redraw relegated him to seventh on the starting grid.

"[Santos] is just better at pulling pills than me," said Bettis. "He had a rocket ship, and he does this for a living.

"I think we had a really good run for our first 410 race with our own team. I think we've just got to get in the notebook. Hopefully, get a better starting spot [Saturday] and Bobby can start back there."

Similarly, third-place finisher Aaron Willison started in the eighth position after finishing second to Bobby Komisarski in the first heat race of the evening.

"Unfortunately, we drew a pretty deep pill and had to come from a little ways back," said Willison. "The initial start went pretty good for us, but the restart didn't quite go so well. I think I lost a spot or two. It took a while to dig ourselves out of there, but the Statham Construction 36 was really good tonight. We keep building on this. I'm learning about this car and getting better and better every night.

"It's an honor to be out here at Five Flags Speedway. It's an unreal facility, one of those places I've grown up watching on TV, so pretty special day to be here."

Joe Liguori finished fourth, all but clinching this year's Must See Racing Sprint Car Series championship in the process. He holds a 106-point lead over Kevin Mingus entering Saturday's season finale at Montgomery Motor Speedway. Kevin Mingus rounded out the top five.

Fans can watch Saturday's Must See Racing finale at Montgomery on RacingAmerica.TV starting at 8 p.m. ET.

-Photo credit: David Sink/Pavement Pounders

Must See Racing at Five Flags Speedway Results

Qualifying (best of two laps): 1. Bobby Santos III, 22a, Fieler-13.906; 2. Colton Bettis, 61, Bettis-14.313; 3. Alby Ovitt, 20, Parker-14.429; 4. Joe Liguori, 5, PCS-14.429; 5. Kevin Mingus, Z10, Mingus-14.606; 6. Aaron Willison, 36, Statham-14.663; 7. Davey Hamilton Jr., 14, Morgan-14.721; 8. Shane Butler, 18, Butler-14.846; 9. Daniel Miller, P1, P1 Chassis-14.868; 10. Dodge Carlbert, 9, RAD-14.937; 11. Tommy Nichols, 55, Nichols-15.020; 12. Steven Hollinger, 81, Blake-15.056; 13. Dylan Reynolds, 24, Reynolds-15.163; 14. J.J. Dutton, 86, Dutton-15.537; 15. Bobby Komisarski, 7, Fogle-15.537; 16. Scotty Adema, 67, ?-15.567; 17. Mickey Kempgens, 68R, Rudolph-15.659; 18. Johnny Gilbertson, 77, ?-15.721; 19. Joey Schmidt, 32, TB-15.770; 20. Todd Bliss, 121, Bliss-17.031; 21. Butch David, 21, David-17.070.

TTI Machine Heat #1 (8 laps, all transfer): 1. 7-Bobby Komisarski [1], 2. 36-Aaron Willison [4], 3. P1-Daniel Miller [3], 4. 81-Steven Hollinger [2], 5. 77-Johnny Gilbertson [6], 6. 5-Joe Liguori [5], 7. 21-Butch David [7].

TTI Machine Heat #2 (8 laps, all transfer): 1. 61-Colton Bettis [5], 2. 18-Shane Butler [3], 3. 55-Tommy Nichols [2], 4. Z10-Kevin Mingus [4], 5. 86-J.J. Dutton [1], 6. 121-Todd Bliss [7], 7. 68R-Mickey Kempgens [6].

TTI Machine Heat #3 (8 laps, all transfer): 1. 22a-Bobby Santos III [4], 2. 24-Dylan Reynolds [1], 3. 9-Dodge Carlbert [2], 4. 67-Scotty Adema [5], 5. 32-Joey Schmidt [6], 6. 20-Alby Ovitt [3], 7. 14-Davey Hamilton Jr. (DNS).

Perfit A-Feature (30 laps): 1. 22a-Bobby Santos III [2], 2. 61-Colton Bettis [7], 3. 36-Aaron Willison [8], 4. 5-Joe Liguori [6], 5. Z10-Kevin Mingus [3], 6. 9-Dodge Carlbert [10], 7. 77-Johnny Gilbertson [16], 8. 55-Tommy Nichols [11], 9. 7-Bobby Komisarski [5], 10. 21-Butch David [19], 11. 81-Steven Hollinger [12], 12. 121-Todd Bliss [18], 13. 18-Shane Butler [4], 14. 68R-Mickey Kempgens [15], 15. 24-Dylan Reynolds [1], 16. 32-Joey Schmidt [17], 17. 86-J.J. Dutton [13], 18. P1-Daniel Miller [9], 19. 67-Scotty Adema [14], 20. 20-Alby Ovitt (DNS), 21. 14-Davey Hamilton Jr. (DNS).

Lap Leader(s): Bobby Santos 1-30.

Hard Charger: 77-Johnny Gilbertson (+9)