The marathon at the Cocopah Speedway near Somerton Arizona continued on Thursday night, January 12th with round number five of the IMCA Winter Nationals presented by the Playa Azul Seypet Resort in Mexico. With seven nights of racing plus two full practice sessions intermixed during the ten days, racers and fans are getting everything they bargained for in this event.
Thursday night would be the opening night of the second week of racing with two more nights back to back to wrap up the 2023 Winter Nationals. By this time, as you might expect, the pit area starts to look just a bit like an old car boneyard with more piles of metal and in some cases, twisted wrecks of metal that used to be race cars. Still, the car counts have held up spectacularly with two hundred and twenty nine cars signing in to race on Thursday night including at least fifty drivers that weren't here on opening weekend but dropped in this week to get three quick nights of racing in and not be forced to take a lot of time off from work.
The format would be unchanged from the previous nights with heats and B Features proceeding the five main events. For the first time the Hobby Stocks had to run a B Feature also as their numbers have climbed up over the thirty mark. Heat winners plus passing points would set the feature fields along with the qualifiers from the B Features and two provisional starters in all classes except the Sport Compacts where everyone makes the main.
There has been an incredible number of laps turned on the Cocopah Speedway this week and by this time, just about any track in America would have it's tongue hanging out with the beating it has taken. On this night, they chose to not do too much track prep as the show progressed and it seemed to catch up with them just a little as unfortunately, the track took rubber and except for the Hobby Stocks and Sport Compacts that seem to thrive on those kinds of conditions, it makes for some one groove racing and this was quite apparent as the features progressed. Whether or not this had anything to do with the fact that four of the five feature winners celebrated for the first time this week is questionable, but the coincidence did occur.
Stock Cars were first and Greg Muirhead, who started on the pole, would lead all twenty five laps to take the win. He would be under extreme pressure throughout the contest though and one slip up would have cost him. The race also had five yellow flags that allowed the field to bunch up and each restart the pressure was on but Muirhead was up to the task. Early on, it was Zach Madrid who put the pressure on but he attempted to use the high side of the track and it just wasn't there on this night and he gradually faded back into the field.
Them it would be Jim Horejsi that would tail gate Muirhead through the middle of the race, running tight behind him but not able to muster a passing attempt. Following a lap twenty one yellow, fellow Minnesota driver Curt Lund would squeeze past Horejsi to take over the second spot and pressure Muirhead for the lead.
However, Muirhead would not flinch and would fight off all challenges to hold off Lund, who chose to race Greg clean, to take the win. The driver most impressive was Chase Berkeley who has been fast all week without being flashy and Thursday night he progressed all the way from eighteenth to make a late pass on Horejsi for third as he was one of the few that could pull out of line and get by other cars. Rick Diaz would complete the top five in a race with five yellows, all for minor spins.
The Modifieds would go twenty five laps nonstop with a pair of Midwestern drivers racing to the front and dominating. Jacob Hobscheidt would start on the pole and get the jump on Jeremy Mills and they would run in that order for all twenty five laps. A few of the drivers tried the outside but then quickly dived back in line and this race was run primarily hugging the inside berm all the way. Again, it was another case of a mistake likely costing the leader his spot but Hobscheidt never gave an opening to Mills.
As is often the case in nonstop races like this, when the leaders hit lapped traffic, who generally are running in the same line and not willing to move out of their groove, the leaders then have a big decision to make. Should they attempt to pass on the outside and risk getting hung out to dry or should they try and root the slower cars out of the way, risking a tangle at the same time? Hobscheidt had to weigh that decision and he played it well, carefully taking his chances when they presented themselves while not giving any opening to Mills.
At the finish, Jacob had put the car of Kody Scholpp between himself and Mills as a buffer and he would drive home for the win. Andrew Pearce would start and finish third ahead of Steven Pfeifer with Paris Archer holding off Kenny Schrader for a top five finish as there were certainly some different names up front on this night.
Two team mates would fight it out for the honors in the Sport Mod feature as car owner Miles Morris finally held off his "hired gun" in Shane Paris to get his first win of this series. Morris would also start on the pole of this race and would lead from start to finish. Morris would pull out to a good sized lead while Paris would fight his way into second with a couple of bold moves and then the battle would be on between the two identical looking #3 cars.
There would be three yellows during the first half of the race, the last of which eliminated top contender Cam Reimers who was trying to make the top side of the track work. The last fourteen laps would go off nonstop and despite his best efforts, Paris wasn't catching his car owner on this night. Morris had a strong groove going and he refused to falter and he drove home for the win with Paris pushing him in second. Casey Murdoch would impress as he would storm forward from his thirteenth place start and drive his way up to third as he may have been able to challenge the #3 cars but ran out of time. Tyler Bannister and Jacob Mallet would complete the top five.
The Hobby Stocks would thrive on the black and sticky track with three different leaders during the frantic first half of their feature race before Brandon Bombardo would lock down the top spot late and drive away from the pack. It would be Ryan Dimick and Zach Tate on the front row but Thomas Daffern would make a brilliant move on the first lap to duck under both of them and take the early lead. Those three, along with Brycen Daffern would battle early with the top group of about six drivers in a tight pack. The race would come to a screeching halt on lap three when Brycen would break a read end suspension part as he battled for the lead high up in turn three with the car digging into the track and the result a roll over onto his roof. He was OK but out of the action.
Thomas Daffern would continue to lead as the race resumed but he would be challenged by Tate and Nathan Deragon for the top spot. Suddenly, Bombardo would come up to the front as he found the top side of the track good for him and on lap thirteen he would drive past Thomas Daffern and take over the lead.
Once in front, he would then pull away as the rest of the race would go clean and green and he would drive home for the win. Tate would finish second with T. Daffern, Deragon and Jaeden Strandberg in the top five.
The Sport Compacts would complete the evening with a non stop fifteen lap event that saw Hudson Morris take the early lead. However, it would take only one more lap before David Jones would drive past him, take over the top spot and then pull away for the win. He would run unchallenged the rest of the way to take a relatively easy win over Kevin Reuter who would drive past Morris to take that spot. Payce Herrera and Chris Laff would complete the top spot.
Once again despite the huge field of cars and large number of events to complete, the show would be a smooth one and would be done shortly after 9:30 pm on a Thursday.
Unless plans change, this will be our last night of attending the IMCA Winter Nationals and thanks should go out to Brad Whitfield, his whole staff and all the officials that put this wildly successful week plus of racing on. With the large increase in racers and fans attending, one just wonders what the next step will be. They are almost at the point of this race getting so big that it is difficult to stage with so many participants but what a nice problem to have! Brad will get just a short break when this weekend is over as he is involved with the Ernie Mincy Series that will be starting at Central Arizona Speedway in Casa Grande the end of next week in a supporting role to event promoter Don Shaw as they try to maximize racing for the drivers traveling to this area and bring back Late Model racing to Arizona.
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