Thursday night January 16th was round four of the Winter Nationals presented by Yuma Insurance at the Cocopah Speedway near Somerton Arizona. Four IMCA sanctioned classes would be in action once again with the Modifieds, Stock Cars, Sport Mods and Hobby Stocks filling out the card on what would again be a cool January evening once the sun set.
After racing last Thursday through Saturday, the drivers have been waiting for round two of the action to begin tonight, with a Pit Crew contest and practice on Wednesday getting them ready for tonight's action.
A number of different drivers were on hand for the start of this weekend with nearly twenty five cars on hand that weren't seen here during last weekend's triple header. Of course, some also headed home or were eliminated due to mechanical issues or wrecks. The Stock Car field was actually bigger this weekend than it had been for last week's shows and while the other three classes were down slightly in numbers, there were none that were significant and the only change in the race program this weekend was the elimination of the Sport Mod B Feature. Everything else was as it was then. If possible, the competition level even increased a bit in the Modifieds with drivers such as Jason Noll, Zane Devilbiss, Alex Stanford, Austin Kiefter and Darrell Hughes II added to what was already a strong field of open wheel cars.
The evening began on a sad note with the announcement that Jamestown North Dakota's Don Gumke a competitor here last weekend and for the last few years for the winter series, died on Tuesday night at his shop in the Phoenix area in a tragic accident when he was working on his race car and somehow the car fell on him. For those locally that weren't that familiar with him, Gumke was a giant in North Dakota racing and his sudden loss was felt in the pits at Cocopah but perhaps even more so at the racing meet going on at Arizona Speedway were a large number of North Dakota drivers were competing. Gumke, who was sixty four, raced for well over forty years and was a top notch Late Model driver earlier before moving to Modifieds when they became popular. His engine shop, Dakota Engine Rebuilders, was a large supplier of racing engines for drivers in that area. Also, he was the long time promoter of the Jamestown Speedway, having done every job at the race track at one time or another and as some of his driving competitors told me, everything that Jamestown Speedway was or turned into was the direct result of the work of Don Gumke. He was also a member of the Competition Committee for the reigning sanctioning body and a rock of racing in the North Dakota area. Ironically, I was told that he had been discussing retiring after this racing season, and his loss will be huge for the North Dakota racing community.
Del Arneson, who raced against Gumke and has had three sons that either raced against Gumke or previously did, had a sticker made up for this sad occasion. They were distributed to all the drivers and a sticker on a winning car for the next two days will earn that driver an extra $222. Gumke's number, by the way, was 2*.
The racing on this night, however, helped to pick up everyone's spirits though, as we saw the best night of racing so far during this series tonight at Cocopah. Two of the feature races were absolute thrillers and another was also down to the last lap with lots of good battling back in the pack and not a lot of yellow flag slowdowns either.
The concluded with a dandy as the Modifieds went at it for twenty five laps of close racing action. Jake O'Neil jumped to the higher groove on the track, one that didn't really seem to be there and certainly not many drivers had found, and he blew by front row starters Randy Havlik and Kollin HIbdon to take the early lead. Ricky Thornton Jr quickly followed O'Neil to that high side as he blew past team mate Hibdon to take over the second spot.
One quick yellow for a lap three spin slowed the action and then the top two went at it for twenty two laps in a classic two car battle. O'Neil was the leader but he had Thornton Jr right on his tale and both of them were moving all over the track, trying to find that line that worked best for them. O'Neil would go high and then Thornton Jr would try low and they were providing a great show as they pulled away from the rest of the field.
Thornton Jr was trying extremely hard to find a way by and finally he was able to slide under O'Neil and take away the lead. But Jake wasn't just giving up after that happened and he got right back on Ricky's rear bumper and worked him just as hard, trying both high and low and it appeared that neither of the leaders was just not quite certain where they needed to be on the track. With only a few laps left in the race, the leaders hit lapped traffic and as they split the car of Zane Devilbiss, O'Neil got a great run on the top side and edged past Thornton Jr back into the lead. Ricky tried hard in the last few laps to make another pass but O'Neil had found the fast line for his car and he held off Thornton Jr for a big win in what was a highly entertaining race. Hibdon held third the entire contest as he fought off big challenges by R.C. Whitwell and Tom Berry.
The Stock Car feature was every bit as good and saw a remarkable last lap pass for the win by Brendan LaBatte. The first few laps were wild with drivers all over the track and racing side by side for the lead. Wayne Dotson grabbed the top spot but he was challenged by Steffan Carey, Gene Henrie and Loren DeArmond as they swapped places and just a bit of paint with them being two and third wide on more than one occasion.
Carey and Henrie surrounded Dotson as they battled for the lead and then Dotson started to slow as he had a tire going down. Both the others got by him and Wayne had to head for the infield with his race done. However, the battle for the lead was just as intense and crowded as when he left with Carey and Henrie going side by side while DeArmond and LaBatte tried to move up too.
A late spin set up a seven lap race to the finish and on the double file restart, LaBatte lined up fifth. However, he didn't stay there long as he found a fast line higher up on the track, a groove that had been watered previous to this race but that none of the drivers were using.
LaBatte found great speed on the corner though and he closed up on Carey and Henrie who were still battling side by side for the lead as the white flag came out. LaBatte closed and he again used corner three and four's top side to get a great run and as the three raced to the line, LaBatte surged ahead on the top side of the track, passing both down the front chute and securing a thrilling and unexpected win. The Canadian driver pulled off a slick move to take the win over Carey, Henrie, DeArmond and Troy Jerovetz.
The Sport Mod feature was another close one and in this race, it was the leader that held off a late challenge of the severe kind to withstand. Local driver Miles Morris started in the front row and took the early lead. Three early yellows kept the field bunched but once racing broke out for a longer period of time, Morris built up a big lead and at one point was nearly a full chute ahead of the pack.
Meanwhile, it was Chris Toth and Cody Thompson that were putting on the show as they worked up from the eighth and twelfth starting positions respectively toward the front. They were making some strategic moves as they roared up through the field but Morris was still comfortably in front. Just after Thompson was able to pass Toth on the high side for second, the unexpected happened when Chase Alves, in the top five, spun with only three laps to go. This would put Thompson right on the rear bumper of Morris for the three lap shootout.
Thompson guarded the low groove which was the dominant one for the Sport Mods. Thompson was breathing right down his rear bumper as he looked for an opening. It came down to the final lap and as they raced down the back chute, Thompson, who had been known to use his front bumper on occasion, gave Morris a pretty solid rap as they raced into turn three. Morris got up the track higher than he normally would and Thompson dove to the inside.
They raced to the line for the finish and Morris had just enough momentum that even though he was racing off the slower groove, he held on by less than a car length to take the win. Toth finished third with Wayne Dotson and Ron Schreiner completing the top five.
A small field of Hobby Stocks ran off a nonstop main event with Minnesota's Tim Gonska getting his second win of this series. Scott Tenney was the early leader and led for much of the first part of the race with Gonska moving from fifth into second quickly as contender Josh Cordova had a bad start and lost quite a bit of ground.
Gonska followed Tenney for several laps before he finally found an opening and powered into the top spot. Cordova was pushing hard trying to catch back up but the lack of yellow flags slowed his efforts. Gonska continued to drive a consistent race and not make any mistakes and while Tenney remained within a few car lengths, he was not able to provide a strong challenge as Gonska drove on to the win. Cordova managed to get back up to third at the finish with Brad King and a closing Jason Beshears rounding out the top positions.
It was a very good night of racing with some very entertaining main events. The program was run off in a timely manner and everyone on hand had to have been satisfied with the experience on this night. A good job was turned in by everyone to make this a nice night at the races.
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