The Central Arizona Raceway near Casa Grande is the place to call home if you want to see lots of racing in the month of January. Coming off a spectacular six night series for the Wild West Shootout, the track and its workers took just a very short break before turning right around to present another mid Winter spectacular, this time the IMCA TV Winter Nationals with potentially another eight nights of racing.
With just a one day break followed by a large practice session, on Wednesday night, January 21st the speedway was back in action as sit hosted a five division program of IMCA racing with well over two hundred race teams filling the large pit area at CAR. Modifieds, Stock Cars, Sport Mods and Hobby Stocks were all racing a full program plus the Mod Lites were also in action.
The opening night car count proved to be very similar in numbers to last year's event with the Modified and Stock Car fields up slightly while the Sport Mod and Hobby Stock class both saw a slight dip for 2025. The biggest gain was in the Modified class where eight more drivers signed in to race than last year's opener. Just over two hundred drivers in total plus the Mod Lites were in opening night action.
The format for this year's event would find all drivers drawing for starting positions with the heat race winners guaranteed a starting spot in the main event. The rest of the guaranteed starters would be based on passing points with either fourteen or sixteen pulled from the heat races, depending on the class. The remainder of the fields would be determined by B Features with twenty six drivers starting all main events. The exception on opening night was the Hobby Stocks where with twenty seven drivers signing in, all drivers would be running the main event.
There was plenty of racing for the fan who certainly gets his money's worth at a show like this with twenty night qualifying races proceeding the main events. Fortunately, the one spin rule was in effect for both the heats and B Features and they all moved along at a quick pace, making for a fast paced program despite the vast numbers of competitors.
All feature races would be twenty laps in length and Modifieds would be up first for their main event. Zane DeVilbiss used the outside pole to take the initial lead with Troy Morris III and Thornton moving in behind him. Four laps were completed before the yellow flag flew for debris on the track.
On the green, Tom Berry Jr, who had moved up into the top five, spun in turn one and the yellow flew once more. On the green, Thornton picked up the pace as he dropped to the low groove and was able to get past both Morris III and leader DeVilbiss on the following lap to move into the lead.
He then began to put distance on the field as the laps clicked off and with no yellows to gather the field up behind him, he gradually began to expand his margin. By the halfway point, Thornton had a comfortable lead as Chaz Baca Jr. was the driver on the move. He started sixteenth but by the halfway point had moved up to fourth and continued to press forward.
With Thornton and Morris III comfortably holding their positions, Baca Jr continued to hustle and during the last few laps was able to pass DeVilbiss for third as Brandon Beckendorf completed the top five at the finish. Remarkably, only one driver failed to finish the race.
Despite the Stock Cars normally being one of the most competitive classes around, Curt Lund has found a way to stink up the competition early during this Winter series here at CAR. After dominating and winning the Prelude on Sunday night by a large margin, he turned right around and did the same thing again on Wednesday during the opening round of the Winter Nationals.
It took him seven laps to move forward from his third row starting spot, but once he got the lead he checked out on the field, much as he had done on Sunday.
Chaz Baca Jr. jumped out of this Modified into the Gallaher X car and took the initial lead in the main event, leading the first few laps over Justin Luinenburg and Lund who quickly moved to the front. The yellow waved with four laps completed for a slowing driver and on the green, Lund pressed. He tried the outside on leader Baca Jr but found that line to be blocked so he simply changed directions, dove to the inside and drove past the Arizona driver to take over the top spot.
After a second yellow with seven laps completed for a spinning car, things came unglued for Baca Jr who spun in turn one and collected several other cars in the biggest mess of the event. Baca Jr would be done in a wreck that also collected front runners Shelby Williams, and Cole Suckow.
The last thirteen laps of the race ran off nonstop and Lund simply drove away from the field, building up a big lead and running home unchallenged. There was, however, some excellent battles going on behind him for top five positions and Luinenburg held off a late charge from Cameron Starry, who started tenth, to finish as the runner up. Mike Vondrak and Dillon Richards also battled hard behind them with heavy contact on the final corner finding Vandrak taking the fourth spot.
It was a regular competitor at CAR, Tyler Johnson, that would dominate the Sport Mod feature. He led from start to finish, grabbing the lead from the outside pole and then pulling away from the field for an easy win.
The yellow waved three times before two laps could be completed but then after that it was green flag racing for the next nineteen and Johnson motored away from the field. With no challengers in the first half of the race, he built up a comfortable advantage.
Eventually Payce Herrera, who started on the pole and battled with Braydon Whitfield early, would claim second and under the long green flag scenario, seemed to be closing the gap on the leader slightly. However, as the race continued, that margin seemed to stabilize and in the final few laps, Johnson was still comfortably in control.
Whitfield held off a late charge from Cole Suckow to claim that third spot with Danny Wagner completing the top five.
Zach Olmstead was in charge from start to finish to claim the Hobby Stock feature. While he had a comfortable lead for most of the contest, his brother Morgan made things interesting in the final few laps.
Zach took the early lead from the outside pole and built up a nice working margin as Austin Jahnz, Eric Knutson and Joel Magee battled for second. Nathan Kohl hung with this group with the first yellow waving with eight laps completed. They stayed in the same running order until the halfway point when Morgan appeared for the first time among the top five after charging up from the twelfth starting position.
As Zach continued to lead, Morgan continued to charge as he got past Knutson, Magee and Jahnz to move into third. And just what he was looking for occurred with just three laps to go when a spin slowed the action once again.
However, he would find his brother just a bit tougher to pass and despite pushing hard, Zach was still in control and refused to yield the lead as the brother combination finished first and second. Jahnz, Knutson and Magee completed the top five.
All racing was complete shortly after 9 pm in the fast paced program. Round two of the Winter Nationals is schedule for Thursday night with the same divisions again in racing action.
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