Aaron Willison started fifth in Saturday night's Must See Racing Sprint Car A Feature at Owosso Speedway, but that didn't matter much as he had an incredibly fast No. 50 Dick Myers-prepared machine.
The Canadian-born racer described that he knew it was going to be a special night after feeling how his car reacted in the warm up laps prior to the start of the Main Event.
"In the warm up laps before the feature started, I got up there and felt around a little bit, and I was like, 'Oh, this baby is good, they're going to get it,' I had that in my back pocket," Willison stated. "As soon as the green flag fell, the 50M was on rails and rolling forward."
Willison stormed to the runner-up spot in the opening couple of laps, where he then set sail to catch early-race leader and reigning series champion Jason Blonde. Willison would pull off the pass for the lead on Lap 8, and he wouldn't let the foot off of the throttle for the remainder of the race.
In the back half of the race, Willison was consistently turning laps half-a-second, or faster, than the competition. As he crossed the finish line on Lap 40, Willison secured the win by a massive victory margin of 10.762 seconds over Joe Liguori.
"[My team] Put together an absolutely outstanding car," Willison explained. "This thing for an old pale she really had some good drive in it. Had a lot of really great opportunities here lately. And to come out and get a win in Michigan is fantastic."
Kevin Mingus, Dorman Snyder and Charlie Schultz, who started from the front but lost the lead to Blonde on Lap 1, finished fifth. The top-five finish for Schultz was impressive as he rallied from a mid-race spin.
Blonde, the only real threat on the night for Willison, suffered heartbreak as he had a mechanical failure knock him out of the race with just three laps left in the event. He would be relegated to a 10th-place finish.
However, Blonde wasn't the only driver that found trouble at Owosso Speedway on Saturday night.
Prior to the start of Saturday night's Must See Racing Sprint Cars A Feature at Owosso Speedway, Joe Speakman was unable to get his No. 72S machine fired. The driver even got an assist in the form of a push from the pace pickup truck, but he could not get the car to turn over.
Without being able to get the car started up, Speakman was pushed back to the work area, where his night would end before the race even began. He would not be able to turn a lap in the event, and would be credited with a last-place finish in the 15-car field.
Tom Geren, Shane Butler, Bobby Komisarski also suffered race-ending mechanical gremlins down the stretch in the 40-lap race, which was delayed by a weather delay earlier in the evening.
Must See Racing Sprint Cars Results - Owosso Speedway
| Pos | No. | Driver | Laps |
| 1 | 50M | Aaron Willison | 40 |
| 2 | 68 | Joe Liguori | 40 |
| 3 | Z10 | Kevin Mingus | 40 |
| 4 | 99 | Dorman Snyder | 40 |
| 5 | 9S | Charlie Schultz | 40 |
| 6 | 85 | Rick Holley | 38 |
| 7 | 59X | John Inman | 38 |
| 8 | 55 | Tommy Nichols | 38 |
| 9 | 44 | Teddy Alberts | 38 |
| 10 | 42 | Jason Blonde | 37 |
| 11 | 7 | Bobby Komisarski | 32 |
| 12 | 26 | Jeff Bloom | 19 |
| 13 | 18 | Shane Butler | 13 |
| 14 | 11 | Tom Green | 11 |
| 15 | 72S | Joe Speakman | 0 |
Prior to the Must See Racing Sprint Cars A-Feature, the Must See Racing Midwest Sprint Lights division took to the Owosso Speedway.
JJ Henes, who finished runner-up to Cody Gallogy in the championship standings a season ago, took the early lead in Saturday night's event with an electrifying three-wide move on Lap 1, from the outside lane in Turns 1 and 2.
Henes would go on to dominate the event in his black and orange No. 36 machine, and he would finish 5.858 seconds over runner-up finisher Andre Bogusz. For racers, a win is always a welcomed sight, but for Henes, he is proud that his race team was able to hone in on blind changes to his car when qualifying and the heat races were washed out by Mother Nature.
"We didn't have the greatest car in hot laps, it was tight all day. Then we lost the qualifying heat race, we were going to try some things. So we just threw some things at it, hoped for the best, and obviously it worked."
By snagging his first win of the season, Henes hopes he can go on to challenge Gallogly for the 2024 Midwest Sprint Lights Division championship.
"Cody and me were both always fast and the guys to beat for sure," Henes explained. "Last year, he started off with two wins in the season, and that's just hard to come back from. Hopefully getting a win in the first race this year, we'll be able to start off good and stronger."
Cody Gallogly finished third, Lucas Krick was fourth, and Charlie Bauer rounded out the top-five finishers in the A feature for the Midwest Sprint Lights Series.
