Night one of the Winternationals kicked off on Thursday night, January 9th at the Cocopah Speedway near Somerton Arizona. After a relatively small number of cars were on hand for practice on Wednesday, many more showed up on Thursday for the first full night of the six race series featuring the IMCA Modifieds, Stock Cars, Sport Mods and the Hobby Stocks.
When all was said and done, the IMCA Mods, which featured the largest field of cars and had the highest purse, saw a regular winner of special events throughout the county win one again as Ricky Thornton Jr, driving a second car for Kollin Hibdon, led all twenty five laps to record the win. Other winners on opening night included Troy Jerovetz, , Shelby Frye and Josh Cordova.
But before the feature racing could begin, a lot of activity was ongoing in the pits early on this day. Missouri's Jardin Fuller blew up a motor during practice on Wednesday night but fortunately they had a spare so they swapped power plants on Thursday. Not so lucky was Stock Car driver Texan Leslie Gill who also blew up on Wednesday but without another motor, his car sat out already before ever getting the chance to even race at all. Later on this night Michael Johnson would swap a motor so that his Sport Mod efforts could continue.
One hundred and nine cars signed in to race on opening night with the Modifieds producing nearly half that field and only their class needing to run B Features before the four main events. While Track Manager Brad Whitfield and Promoter Benji Lyons had the program ready to go with the first heat race lined up on the track ready for opening ceremonies even a few minutes before the advertised starting time, the heat races had a tough time maintaining any momentum. The track was considerably different than it had been for the practice night, just another reason why many teams opted to save their tires etc and not run the practice session. It was dry and slick but with a strong wind blowing in toward the main grandstand, the track was slow to clean off and it took quite a while to clean off the racing surface. Meanwhile, it was heavy coat weather in the stands and unfortunately, the wind made it more than a little dirty for the fans also.
The Modifieds did the best job of maintaining racing action during their heat races and following quite a long track prep session, they came back to run two tough B Features which set the field for their main and then it was time to go feature racing. A one spin rule was in effect Thursday to try and move the show along but the flagman was so quick on the yellow that he didn't give the drivers much chance to move if they made a mistake so the yellows were not fewer in number, just more drivers eliminated from events quicker.
The Hobby Stock feature was up first and twenty drivers took the green flag for that event. Jimmy Robinson was the early leader but it only took Josh Cordova six laps to move up and then make the pass for the lead which would eventually hold up for the win. Late in the race Cordova was challenged by Brainerd Minnesota's Tim Gonska who had several opportunities to challenge for the lead. Each time Cordova would move up the track and break Gonska's momentum as Gonska would have to back off. One last attempt would not work and track champion Cordova would take the win over Gonska, North Dakota's Brad King, Eric Knutson who move all the way up from eighteenth and Jason Beshears.
In victory lane Cordova admitted to being exhausted as he said the power steering went out on his car early in the race, making it a handful to drive. I wonder how sympathetic drivers like Parnelli Jones and A.J. Foyt would be to this as they drove Sprint Cars in long distance races without the use of power steering, but that indeed was back "in the day."
Not racing here on a normal basis, the Stock Cars had the smallest field of cars and after wrecking several of them during the main, one wonders if they will have enough to get through another five nights of racing. Troy Jerovetz led all twenty laps to win the main event but he had Steffan Carey literally beating on his rear bumper the last five laps or so, trying to get by. Carey inherited second when Chanse Hollatz suddenly dropped out of the race while running close behind Jerovetz. Gene Henrie, Andy Altenburg and Tony Hill completed the top five.
During the feature, a wild wreck on the front chute saw a couple of car very badly damaged and J.C. Parmeley tossed for rough driving as only eight of the starting field were around for the finish.
The Sport Mod feature had an even wilder finish. It was a tough contest which was shortened to ten laps due to multiple yellows as the evening drew longer and colder by the moment. Six yellows in eight laps was about as much as Race Director Whitfield could stand so the call went out to cut it off at ten laps. Shelby Frye had led from the start with tough pressure from Tyler Inman. Meanwhile, Cody Thompson, Chris Toth and Michael Johnson were working their way up through the field and coming in a hurry.
After the last restart, Thompson made hard charge, passing Inman for second and closing on the leader. Racing into the last corner, he got way too hot in the turn and clipped the leader, sending her spinning, causing the entire field to scramble and total hell broke loose. As cars scrambled to avoid the spinning cars and race to the checkered, Toth came from fourth to cross the line first with Johnson just behind him but there was much sorting out to do before a winner was announced.
The ruling was that since Frye had the lead until she was turned in the last corner, she was awarded the win and based on the finishing order, it appeared that they scored the race back to the white flag lap with Inman credited with second ahead of Toth, Johnson and Miles Morris. Neither Toth nor Johnson were happy as they buzzed their tires upon leaving victory lane but truly it seemed the decision was the fairest one that could be rendered. Thompson, meanwhile, was DQ'd for rough driving. Not a very noble way for the defending national champion to kick off 2020.
Last up on the schedule was the Modified feature; twenty five cars for twenty five laps. This was a good race and saw the yellow waved only one time. Tim Ward and Thornton Jr battled early before Thornton Jr took over the top spot. Jake O'Neil raced his way into second and appeared that he would catch Thornton Jr but then Ricky found a quicker way around the track and while he didn't pull away from O'Neil, Jake couldn't close up any further either. Kollin Hibdon hung in there for quite a few laps in third but eventually Jeff Taylor, Bobby Hogge IV and Marlyn Seidler started to move up.
Thornton Jr continued to hold the top spot, O'Neil had nothing for him and Ricky drove home for another win in another different car. Taylor made a late charge to get third followed by Tom Berry, from sixteenth, and Hibdon.
Yuma Insurance breathed a sigh of relief as Thornton Jr, scheduled to run a Late Model most of the next two weeks, won't be a candidate to sweep and take home the twenty five grand offered for a clean sweep. Ricky may next be in Cocopah next Thursday which would be an open date for him.
Apparently IMCA allows a driver to switch cars in midstream if he has issues as John Parmeley wrecked his brand new Shaw Modified in a heat race and they then rolled out his old car, he started in the back of a B and he managed to qualify for the main event.
I should have expected him to be here but I didn't really consider it so it was a pleasant surprise when IMCA West Coast Director Paul Vetter showed up to say hello. He will be on hand for all three races this weekend.
The tribe is very busy right now as they are building a new convenience store directly across from the casino that looks like it will have a road that goes directly to the race track. They were continuing to work on the approach roads to the track right up to race time once again on Thursday.
Along with also being a desert track, Cocopah reminds me in one other way of Las Vegas Motor Speedway Dirt Track and that is the fact that fighter jets keep buzzing right over the track at all times of the day and night. For locals who live here they don't even notice it but for me it's either an eye grabber or if caught off guard, a "holy crap!" moment.
I'm told that the Yuma area averages only about four inches of rain a year, yet the scenery looking from the grandstand out over the back chute is about as lush as it gets. The crowd on Thursday was a bit on the small side but not unexpected I would guess and crowds should get bigger as the weekend approaches.
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