Thursday night, January 14th, I returned to the Cocopah Speedway near Somerton Arizona for round five of the IMCA TV Winter Nationals. What a great series this has been for the IMCA racers, allowing them the opportunity to race seven times over the course of an eleven day period and not once having to load up and move. Of course, there have been a couple that chose to do so just so they could get even more racing in with both Brian Osantowski and Casey Skyberg making the trip over to San Tan Valley to race at Arizona Speedway on a day when Cocopah wasn't scheduled to race. Now both have made the trip back over here to Cocopah to race during the second set of events and whether they chose to make one last run back over to Arizona Speedway for the finale on Sunday remains to be seen.
As the second set of races begins over her at Cocopah, a new set of drivers have arrived to begin this three night series with thirty drivers in attendance that were not on hand for the four night set that started last Wednesday and wrapped up Friday led by fourteen new drivers in the Modified class. A total of one hundred and thirty five drivers signed in to race on Thursday night led by the Modifieds with fifty two of them to compete. Likely more different cars will also roll in on Friday night for the weekend wrap up events.
The format for this week was changed slightly with one less both Sport Mod and Modified heat, no doubt based both on the class numbers and also the fact that management decided that they can run more cars per heat and thus keep the show moving along just a bit quicker because I would guess that if there was any criticism to be had about the opening week, it might be that the show lasted perhaps just a bit longer than it could have and things like making the heats just a bit bigger and reducing the number of events smartly is not a bad idea at all.
Among the notable new drivers added to the list this week were B.J. Shannon, Dylan Thornton, Matt Aukland, Kellen Chadwick, former IMCA Sport Mod national champ Cody Thompson up to Mods for 2021, racing legend Ken Schrader, Darrell Hughes II and Joey Franklin.
Franklin, who is the Elvis impersonator from Las Vegas, must also be a Jeff Purvis fan as his Modified is done up to look just like the Hall of Fame driver's Late Model used to look. And if you're old enough to remember Jeff Purvis, then you are also likely old enough to remember Elvis!
Both the Sport Mods and Modifieds needed a pair of qualifying B Features to whittle their fields down to twenty four and as usual, a lot of good cars were left sitting in the pits come feature time. Really hit by bad luck was current point leader Tanner Black who was leading a B Feature when he got tangled up with a lapped car, resulting in a flat tire and a DNF in that event. However, management opted to give him a provisional and he started in the back of the Modified feature race.
The Hobby Stock main was first to the track with Brandon Bombardo taking the lead from the pole position. Only one lap was completed before one of the more spectacular wrecks of the season to date took place when Zach Tate, who started in the second row was turned into the concrete wall at high speed. He slammed into the wall and turned over, coming to rest with the entire rear end assembly of his car torn right out of the car and launched over the wall. Actually, I think that this helped him as at the speed he was going I thought he was going to take a series of rolls but the car kind of dug in on its frame rails and he only went over once, landing on his wheels with everyone else able to avoid him. It's a shame when a brand new race car gets junked in January but that is the risk that drivers take every time they take to the track.
Bombardo would lead on the restart with Mitch Mohler Sr making one of the best drives of the week in the class as he would move up after starting tenth on the grid. He was passing cars rather aggressively and was using quite a bit of his front "horn" but he was moving them out of the way as he raced his way up to second.
I expected to see some fireworks on the last few laps as Mohler Sr caught the leader with Bombardo being very careful in the corners and protecting the low line where the Hobby Stocks also seemed to be running. However, while Mohler Sr got close to Bombardo, no out of line moves were attempted and while he finished close, it was Bombardo that drove home for his second win of this series. Point leader Eric Knutson headed home after last week's four races as apparently he wanted to get home in time for the Iowa blizzard which threw the points race in this class for a loop. Matt Olson would finish third in the feature.
Sport Mods would run their feature next and they would start an amazing run of green flag laps. The final three features of the evening all went green to checkered with not a single yellow flat so we ended up the night with seventy five straight laps of green flag racing! How often does that happen?
Bo Partain would take the lead early and this race would turn out to be a two car battle from start to finish. Josh Most quickly moved into second and the twenty five laps were highlighted by Most racing is guts out as he tried to get past the smooth running Partain. The leaders were very equal in speed and it was up to Most to find a line that would give him that small advantage and without yellows to help, it was tough.
Most settled on a line where he ran the cushion in one and two and tucked to the inside in three and four while Partain just hugged the bottom all the way around the track. And after the halfway mark, Most's work was starting to pay off. Gradually, a car length at a time, he would slowly creep in on Partain and as the laps ran down, it looked like it would come right down to the wire as Most was only a couple lengths behind with just a few laps to go.
Then suddenly and with no warning, Most shut his car down exiting turn four and dived into the infield as he must have had some indication that something serious was happening and he wanted to save his car, perhaps the motor. In any event, this left Partain with a clear path to victory and he drove on for the win. Shane Paris had a nice run up to second while point leader in the series Fred Ryland had another strong run, coming from ninth to finish third.
The groove moved up the track for the Modified feature with just about everyone running the cushion which was very fast. Ethan Dotson is having a wonderful series and after drawing the pole, he would lead all twenty five non stop laps for the win. He was flawless on the cushion and no one was able to even provide the smallest of challenges to him.
Montana's Joey Price quickly took the second spot and he would remain there throughout the race. Near the halfway point however, he would get a stiff challenge from D.J. Shannon who pulled to his rear bumper and worked hard to try and get by. However, Price held his line well and would not yield the spot and near the end, Shannon would jump the cushion and give up third to Jerry Flippo who had his best run of the week to date. Shannon and Bone Larson would complete the top five.
The Stock Cars would wrap up the evening and Kyle Heckman, just off of a run in the Modified feature, would try and run his Stock Car just the way the Mods had raced the track. While everyone else would drop down to the low line, Heckman was throwing his full bodies car through the cushion and while it lasted, he was fast. He took the lead from the outside pole and was walking away from the field as he twisted his car high up on the cushion and occasionally lifted his left front tire as he free wheeled through the turns with a style not often seen in the Stock Cars.
Unfortunately, hid right rear tire was not up to the challenge and only lasted ten laps before it blew and Heckman's night was done. In a show of sportsmanship, Heckman limped off the track so the yellow wasn't needed and it an age when far too many drivers park on the track just to trigger a yellow and then scramble to the "hot pit" area for attention, his move was a refreshing change.
Aaron Spangler, who had been making smooth laps on the inside line, thus inherited the lead on lap eleven and he led the rest of the way to take the win back to Colorado. Andy Altenberg pushed hard but had to settle for a close second place and Scott Sluka got his best finish so far this week in third.
I was told that after last weekend, track management brought out the heavy equipment and pulled down some of the track material from up against the wall which they used to further bank the corners. And while this was the warmest and windiest night so far, while the track got as slippery as ice, it did not rubber up which was obviously a good thing with the fast groove varying from class to class.
The track has been favored with some excellent announcers this week. Along with track announcer Bill G., they have brought in some "voices" to help them. Last week it was Chris Stepan that classed the Sport Mods and Mods and now with Stepan on his way to Florida to work Speed Weeks, Ben Detherage was brought in and he also did an excellent job with those two classes.
Unless some last minutes surprises occur, Tonight was my final visit of the Winter season to Cocopah Speedway and I want to thank promoter Brad Whitfield and all his staff for their hard work and cooperation. This track is truly a "Diamond in the Desert" and rapidly becoming one of my favorite places to visit. I wish them good luck with the rest of their 2021 racing season and hope that the track continued to trend upward as it certainly has done the last couple of years. I truly love their Winter series and the more dates they want to race, the better I say! They expanded the series to seven nights this year and that seems to have been a smart and successful move and I can only hope that as many or more nights are planned for 2022. If you are in the Yuma area on vacation, be sure to check out the Cocopah Speedway for an entertaining night of racing at a first class facility.
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