Round two of the IMCA TV Winter Nationals, presented by The Playa Azul Seypet Resort , was held on Thursday night, January 5th at the Cocopah Speedway near Somerton Arizona. Under sunny skies and with a pleasant near seventy degree day, the second portion of what will be in total a seven event series of races took place featuring the five divisions of IMCA racing once again.
The first repeat winner of the series emerged with Iowa's Shane Paris outdueling another Iowa driver in Cam Reimers for the win in the Sport Mod division while Kollin Hibdon took a dominating win in the Modified feature as he led from start to finish in the twenty five lap finale for that class. Other winners in night two, all also first time winners, included Shelby Williams in the Stock Cars, Joe Peterson in the Hobby Stocks and Mike Giorgiani in the Sport Compacts.
With a turnout of two hundred and thirty cars signed in for night two, nearly everyone returned despite some of the devastating crashes that occurred during round one racing on Wednesday night as the pit crews worked long and tedious hours to get all the race cars repaired. Some pit stalls had a pile of broken and bent parts generated from the action on Wednesday night but just about everyone made it back for night two with those few that were unable reported to have headed for shops to get some major repairs done so they could return later this week as despite this being a racing vacation for many, the number one goal is still to race, not sit and enjoy the sun.
With only six less cars on hand in total on Thursday night, and their actually being more Sport Mods than the opening night, the program would be identical to the one presented on opening night. The only change would be in that the B Feature laps were shortened to a more reasonable number and the Sport Compact feature was also shortened by five laps. Heat winners were again guaranteed to make the feature races with those winners again redrawing for the front rows with the remainder of the feature starters coming from passing points and the multiple B Features.
The running order would be changed just slightly for Thursday's show with the Sport Mods taking to the track first for their heat races but for the B Features and main events, the Modifieds would go first and then down the order to the slower divisions with the Sport Compacts wrapping up the show.
The Modified feature would be first and this event would produce the first green to checkered, non stop main of this series so far and dominating the action was pole starter Kollin Hibdon who would lead from green to checkered. He would have Ethan Dotson running close to him early before Hibdon would gradually pull away but Dotson would run second for the whole event also.
As those two would race away from the field, a good battle would develop behind them as Kody Schlopp, Ryan McDaniel, Cody Laney and Jeremy Mills would all be battling for position. Meanwhile, up front, Hibdon caught the back of the pack quickly and lapped traffic would be his major concern throughout the rest of the race as he was constantly finding himself surrounded by slower cars that he had to work through. This would prove to be Dotson's only chance but Hibdon did such a slick job of getting through the traffic that Ethan was never provided a chance to close things up. A yellow flag that might have helped him never failed to materialize either.
At the finish, the former resident of Nevada but now racing out of Fargo North Dakota would cross the line comfortably ahead of Dotson to take the win as Kollin had put eight cars a lap down to him during the race. Scholpp would finish a solid third with Laney and Mills completing the top five. Only two of the twenty eight starters were not still racing at the finish.
Shelby Williams was one of the many cars damaged in the big Stock Car wreck during Wednesday night's show but with the help of his crew and many others, he was one that was able to return for Thursday night and he would be rewarded with a checkered flag as the Stock Car feature winner. He would start on the pole but it was high flying Curt Lund who would power around the outside of the track to take the initial lead as he drove past both Williams and Bo Partain to grab the early lead.
Williams, however, picked up the pace and would drive back under Lund the next go round to claim the lead. While Williams would continue to hold a slight lead through the early going, there was much movement behind him as drivers were dicing all over the track and using lots of different grooves as they charged forward and then ebbed back in the field.
Near the halfway point of the race, the yellow flew when Dylan Thornton erupted a motor with Williams being chased by Partain, Lund, Jim Horejsi and Paul Stone at this time. Two more late yellows would bunch the field but each time Williams would pull away on the start. He would not be seriously challenged as he would race on for the win.
However, there remained much action just behind him as both Partain and Lund faded out of the top five at the end with a great charge put on by Zach Madrid. Not in the top five when the last yellow flew with only eight laps to go, Madrid would go to the cushion and race his way all the way up to third with him challenging runner up Horejsi at the finish. Stone and Chase Berkeley would complete the top five.
It would be instant replay time in the Sport Mods with last night's contenders duking it out once again on Thursday as the Iowa combination of Shane Paris and Cam Reimers would fight it out once again.
Bobby Horton would lead the opening lap of the Sport Mod feature but again using the top side of the track, Reimers would go screaming around on the berm and pass Horton to take over the lead. Two laps later Horton would spin as he tried to keep up with the leaders, triggering the first yellow of the race.
While Reimers would continue to lead, it took Paris just a bit longer to catch the top runners as he was utilizing his middle of the track, more conservative approach that gradually allowed him to catch the leaders. By the halfway point he had moved into third behind Tyler Bannister as Reimers continued to run the top side, pushing hard through the corners.
A lap sixteen yellow after Matt Sanders pounded the first turn wall would prove to be the key point of the race. On the restart, Paris accelerated past Bannister for second and then looked to the inside of Reimers for the lead. And just like Wednesday night, the track came to Paris as the middle lane picked up while Reimers started to fade on the top side and Paris would drive under Cam to take over the lead. Reimers pushed the top side as hard as he could but it just caused him to fall further behind as Paris would smoothly pull away for the win and become the first repeat winner this week. Reimers would hold on for second with Tyler and Jason Bannister next in line and Phillip Shelby completing the top five.
What a difference twenty four hours would make for the Hobby Stocks. Wednesday night's mess of a feature had eight yellows and was ended prematurely while on this night, the feature race had only a single yellow, everyone raced hard but clean and no one was asked to leave the track due to rough driving.
Iowa's Eric Knutson would lead the first six laps of the main event after making repairs following a major crash on Wednesday but he wasn't able to hold off the strong running Joe Peterson who would come from fifth to take over the lead. With the last fifteen laps of this race going nonstop, Peterson would pull away to record a strong win. Knutson would hold off Brandon Bombardo until late in the race when Bombardo would get past with Knutson settling for third. Brycen Daffern and Scott Tenney would round out the top five.
A grinding crash just as the green flag was dropped in the Sport Compact feature would end the night for Katie Barthel but then there would be only a single more yellow flag, although it would be a very significant one. Last night's winner Kevin Reuter would take the lead but he was receiving heavy pressure from Mike Giorgiani, Jacob Cordova and Hudson Morris. The four were running as a pack when they came up on a slower car and then things would get wild.
Just at that moment, Morris lost a wheel and would slow but leader Reuter would get tangled up with the lapped car and stall on the track. With the yellow for Morris, Reuter also had to go to the back as he was stopped on the track and this allowed Giorgiani to inherit the lead.
He would then go on for the win, having to hold off a late charge by Cordova to do so. Chris Laff, Billy Foultz and D.J. Werkmeister would finish behind them.
A tip of the hat goes out to promoter Brad Whitfield, the track prep crew and all the track organizers along with the drivers for a significantly improved performance on Thursday night. Not being familiar with this track, I did not think it was that bad on Wednesday night but drivers and the staff was bemoaning the condition it was in on Wednesday and whatever they did, there was notable increase in side by side racing and many more grooves to race on.
This helped cut down the spins and the drivers must have had the law laid down to them as the vast majority of spins saw the racers move and the yellow not be needed, even during the main events. This resulted in a much smoother program with much better racing. Better track prep also cut down in the number of misting and prep sessions needed later. With approximately the same number of race cars in action, the same number of events on the card, with all the good things that happened the result was a program that was completed a full two hours earlier than it had been on Wednesday night!!!! An 11:30 pm show on Wednesday became a 9:30 pm show on this night and congratulations to all for a job well done.
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