Open Wheel Showdown Winner Aaron Willison Enters Children's Dream Fund 50

Must See Racing Sprint Series Presented by Perfit and the BG Products Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series officials have announced that Canadian Aaron Willison is the latest ‘Children’s Dream Fund 50' entrant. Willison will be competing in Florida for the first time in his career during the March 2 event at Citrus County Speedway in Inverness, Florida.

Willison is fresh off his $50,000 victory in the Davey Hamilton Jr’s Open Wheel Showdown at Las Vegas last December. Willison dominated the event and led all 100 laps. Things will be slightly different this go around as he finds himself in an unfamiliar car, unfamiliar tires, a new track, and new competitors. Willison will be behind the wheel of the JJ Dutton owned #86 Hurricane Chassis. Willison is up for the challenge.

“I’ve never even been to Florida” laughed the Langley, British Columbia, Canada native. “I’m looking forward to seeing a new part of the country I haven’t seen before. I can’t wait to get to the track to meet all the local people and have some fun.”

“JJ called me up and told me what was going on. He told me he was promoting a charity race for the Childrens Dream Fund Organization. He explained it all to me and asked me if I wanted to come out. I thought it was a great opportunity to come to Florida to do some racing.”

Willison is not only a good driver who has won some big races recently, but he’s an excellent qualifier and has claimed many track records at most of the tracks he has competed at in recent years. It will be interesting to see how he fares in a new car at a track he has only seen videos of.

“I’ve been watching videos from the track. Everything always looks different in pictures and videos compared to when you get there. I’ve put a fair bit of thought into it already. The car is certainly laid out different compared to how I run my own stuff. It’s gonna be a great opportunity to drive a Hurricane to see what these cars are all about.”

“The closest thing I can equate Citrus County Speedway to is Western Speedway in Victoria, B.C. It’s got longer straightway and tighter radius corners. It doesn’t have a ton of grip. It’s very similar to Western Speedway, a track up here we just lost. I’m hoping my lessons and thought process from that place will apply to Citrus County Speedway. We’ll find out when we get there.”

Willison is coming off a season that saw him claim 8 feature victories. In addition to his 50k Las Vegas triumph, he claimed $10,000 at Eureka, California in May and was crowned the Northwest Sprint Tour champion. He would like nothing better than to start his 2024 season off with a 10k payday in Florida.

“I think paying $10,000 to win this race is really positive for pavement sprint car racing in the state of Florida. It’s nice to have bigger paying races at that end of town. The Northwest has been doing well for pavement sprint car racing. They keep inching their way up. The races are becoming bigger and more prestigious. It’s good for the Southeast to have something being built as an annual race that’s gonna pay well, draw lots of cars, and draw national attention.”

“I talked to JJ for about five minutes when we were sitting in the line to go hot lap at Vegas one day. We were parked beside each other, and I introduced myself to him. Aside from that I hadn’t really talked to him much until he called me up and started talking to me about this race.”

“If we get through the weekend and everything goes well, runs smoothly, and we can run top three or five, I’ll be happy. There are a lot of obstacles to overcome. Being in a different car, a different motor package, a different tire. I haven’t run the American Racer since 2015. We’re gonna do our best to figure everything out” concluded Willison.

-Must See Racing Press Release
-Photo credit: David Sink