Armitage Grabs First MOWA Win of 2025 at Jacksonville in Spectacular Fashion

This past Friday at Jacksonville Speedway, the defending Midwest Open Wheel Association Champion cemented himself as the driver to beat once again in 2025. From the heat race all the way through to the final lap of the A Main, Will Armitage made moves towards the front.

“We started the night out great with a 4th to 1st run in our heat race, but unfortunately let it slip away there at the end to finish 2nd.” Armitage said of his heat race effort. “We still put our speed on display for this coming feature.”

Unfortunately, with MOWA utilizing a passing points system, Armitage missed the crucial Top 8 Redraw by one position and started the night’s feature event from the 9th spot.

“As we rolled off, I was a little bummed about missing the redraw by just one spot.” The Athens, IL driver admitted. “Thankfully, we made our way into the top 5 quickly and started to find our pace.”

With the waning laps of the race looming, Armitage restarted in 3rd with 13 laps to go behind the #5D of Zach Daum. The Jacksonville Speedway track surface was quickly taking rubber on the top lane of the speedway, so any passes made would be crucial as the laps wound down.

“I knew we were getting close to the end of the race as we sat in 3rd.” Armitage said. “I knew +6 wasn’t good enough and this car deserved to be in front. For once, Jacksonville traffic played in our favor, and we were able to throw some slide jobs while racing with the lappers. After I passed [Zach] Daum for 2nd the yellow came out and set up the green-white-checkered finish. I knew I had to do everything I could to make up ground on Max [Guilford].”

New Zealand’s Max Guilford had led every lap of the race so far, but Armitage was now restarting right on the tail tank of the #16C. On the ensuing restart, the XKGLOW #7A closed quickly on Guilford, and with the white flag flying Armitage threw caution to the wind and made his move.

“It felt out of body to race with the mindset I did in the closing laps, but this past off-season I’ve been really focusing on how I finish these races, and I just let my gut take over and it paid off.”

After a slider in turns 1 and 2, Guilford crossed underneath Armitage and pulled away down the backstretch, appearing to have the win in hand. Armitage wasn’t done however, and aggressively dove low in turn 3 and made the move stick and out-dragged Guilford to the line to take his first win of 2025. Armitage admits though, that the work is not done.

“This team still has a lot of growth and potential this season, and I think that race showcased what we can do when we just focus on what’s most important; going forward.” Armitage stated. “I am stoked to give our new partners a taste of what is in store for this season, and I can’t wait to get into the heavy schedule this coming summer.”

Armitage wants to give a special thanks to his crew; Hunter, Cam, Robbie, Jim and his Dad for all of their incredibly hard work and helping make this victory possible!

The next race up for Will Armitage Racing is to be determined, but head to his Facebook page (Will Armitage Racing) for updates.

Will Armitage Racing would like to thank their partners for their support this season!

XKGLOW

CHE Precision Inc.

Armitage Collision Center

AlignLife Chiropractic 

Smith Plumbing Heating and Cooling

Custom Property Solutions

MPV Express

Alliance Community Bank

Noonan Rental

Fatt Right Foot Racing

Modern Paving & Scrap

BAM Roller Lifters

Graue Chevrolet

Gillmore-Allen Insurance

Meteer Manufacturing

SRI Performance

Croft Cleaning

Capital City Event Planning

Box3 Media

Armitage Platinum Detailing

OMP Racing

Bell Helmets

1st Phorm

Maxim Racing

Locked Down Brand

MetTec Titanium

Guess Performance Parts

You can follow Will's race team on his social media channels! You can find Will Armitage Racing on Facebook at Will Armitage Racing (group), Twitter at @armitage_will7 and on Instagram at @will_armitage_7. You can also follow his PR with Box3 Media on Facebook, @box3_media on Instagram, and @box3_racing on Twitter.

Brendon Bauman Photo