For Fieler, his partnership with Santos came at a time when he was close to closing up shop.
After splitting with DeCaire before 2015, Fieler was ready to get out of racing completely before the opportunity to bring Santos into the equation emerged at the perfect time.
“When Troy and I parted ways, I was right on the precipice … very close to stopping racing altogether,” Fieler said. “At that time, Bobby was working directly across the street … and John Godfrey from Spike Chassis said to me, ‘You ought to get Bobby to drive for you, because he can do all the maintenance work and drive the race car.’
“So that’s exactly what I did,” added Fieler with a small smile. “Bobby works full-time for me and drives my race cars, and then I give him enough time off to go run the Whelen (Modified) Tour and other types of racing when he gets a good opportunity. It’s been four very happy years for me.”
In fact, Fieler said that Santos’ involvement in his team has “made racing fun again.”
“Without a doubt, we’ve so enjoyed the time we’ve spent working together up to this point,” the veteran car owner continued. “I think he’d make racing fun for anybody, honestly. He’s just a plain good guy who knows what he’s doing with a race car.”
Friday night’s win was the first for Fieler in Must See Racing competition since DeCaire took the No. 22a to victory lane at Berlin Raceway on Aug. 23, 2014.
“I was pretty sure that was the last one we won with Jim (Hanks, series owner),” Fieler said. “Like Bobby said earlier, it’s been too long, but these are hard races to win too.”
After finally crossing a Must See Racing feature win off his to-do list, the question is begged: what is the next frontier for Santos to climb now?
An interview with SPEED SPORT prior to the start of the season provides, at the very least, a look into what Santos would like that frontier to be.
“I feel like I would be very capable and I think I would do a very good job in an Indy car,” he said. “That is kind of a dream and a goal that I would love to do someday.
“Obviously, running an Indy Lights car would help. I’ve seen people do it. I raced a lot with Bryan Clauson and Bryan was one of the best. On pavement I was every bit as good as Bryan,” Santos continued. “I think he was successful at that and I don’t see any reason why I can’t be. I think that is something that fits my style of driving and I can be successful at.”
After winning on Friday night, Santos and Fieler went to work trying to diagnose an issue with their motor that ultimately led them to the decision to sit out Saturday’s Must See Racing event at Rockford (Ill.) Speedway.
Santos wasn’t stressed about that, however. He was already looking on the bright side of the situation.
“At least we made it to the finish line first this time, right?” he laughed. “Finally some good luck for us.”
For all involved, it was a fortuitous ending, indeed. It marked yet another goal checked off.
