Friday night, January 5th the third round of the IMCA.TV Winter Nationals would continue at the Cocopah Speedway near Somerton Arizona. With it being the start of the weekend, both the car count and the crowd watching in the massive grandstand would continue to escalate. Two hundred and fifty four drivers would sign in to race on Friday including the largest car counts of the week so far in the Sport Compacts, Hobby Stocks and Modified including seventy four Modified racers.
First time winners would emerge in all five classes as the last chances for clean sweep bonus money were eliminated in all divisions. Pit crews are now starting to be challenged to keep the racing machines running but despite the fact that both Joseph Baker and Daniel Pittman were involved in wild flips on Thursday night, both cars would return to racing action on this night as after hauling all the way to the desert to race, no one wants to be forced to spectate.
In an effort to move the program along just a bit, the heat races and B Features were all shortened by just a couple laps on this night and it seemed to help while at the same time not penalizing the drivers trying to make their way into a main event. The program would remain exactly as it had otherwise with the same number of qualifying heats and B Mains. The upside to this event is that all the drivers entered get to run a full program each and every night but the downside is that this produces a whole lot of racing and every the toughest of fans( I like to think I'm included in this group), start to "zone out" with tushy pain as the program moves into hour six and beyond. By the time the Hobby Stocks and Sport Compacts take to the track for their mains, most of the fans have called it a night and headed for home or the camper.
After all the qualifying was completed, the first of the twenty eight car feature fields would roll to the track and it would be the Stock Cars that would run first on Friday night. This race would prove to be a bit of a dub, but only because a gigantic restart pileup would eliminate nearly half the field.
The early leader would be Shelby Williams as the Texas driver looked for his first win of 2024 with Bo Partain and Dylan Thorton putting the pressure on him. Three early yellows for debris, spins and minor collisions kept the field bunched and perhaps too anxious to engage in all out racing. The result was that after a lap seven yellow, when the field came pounding down the front chute to receive the green, one of the drivers near the front either broke and slowed or got turned into the wall and then all Hell broke loose with driver after driver piling into the accident at high speed. About a dozen drivers were involved in the wreck with many suffering big time damage. Fortunately there were no injuries but "The Hook" wrecker crew was kept busy removing damaged cars and the roll back made multiple trips to the pits with smashed Stock Cars.
The restart would find the same three up front and Williams would again take the lead. However, while most of the field was hugging the low side, Thornton moved up one lane and found success. He would drive past Partain and then, on lap eleven, do the same to Williams to take over the lead.
Interestingly, the rest of the race would go non stop with Thorton pulling away from the field. Partain would also pass Williams in the late going to take second with Williams settling for third ahead of Zane Devilbiss and Cole Czarneski. Because of the time required to clean up the wreck, this race was cut short by time limits.
Iowa drivers would go three for three in the opening rounds of Modified action here at Cocopah as on Friday night it would be Jeremy Mills holding off the stiff challenges of Ethan Braaksma to take the win. Mills would start on the pole with Chaz Baca Jr. moving into second and Braaksma quickly moving from fifth into the third spot.
The lone yellow would fly on lap five for a spin and on the green Braaksma would move into second and the race would be on. Tim Ward and Grey Ferrando would slip into top five positions at this point and that would not change the rest of the race.
Mills built up a big lead but gradually Braaksma would pick up the pace and put heavy pressure on the leader. Lapped traffic was an issue with both front runners slicing and dicing their way through the slower cars. Mills made an excellent move between a couple cars that bought him some time but Braaksma was relentless. However, a final lap push by Ethan came up just short as the two put on a show with Mills driving into victory lane by a car length in another good Modified race.
Things would get wild on the opening lap of the Hobby Stock main when Morgan Olmstead, starting in row two, would attempt to pass both the cars in the row in front of him. He didn't quite make it though and was turned into the back stretch wall where some how a disaster was avoided for the most part with no big wreck resulting despite a number of near misses.
Ryan Gilland would take the lead on the restart with Jaeden Strandburg racing up to second. On lap seven, Strandburg would drive into the lead and he would then lead the rest of the way for the win. He was closely followed though by first Gilland and then Dillon Richards who traded the second spot back and forth.
With just two laps to go, Murray Haugen would drive up on the wall in turn four and topple over on to his side, triggering the red flag. Strandburg would take off strong on the final green and pull away for the win with Gilland getting past Robinson to cross the line third. However, Robinson would fail tech inspection which would shuffle the running order then, with Nathan DeRagon scored third ahead of Brandon Beeter and Cody Williams. Williams, looking for a third straight win, suffered a flat tire in his heat race and he had to dig from twentieth to complete the top five.
The Sport Mod feature would have a surprise finish when a late race mechanical issue would side line the race leader. Before that point, the race was a two car battle between Tyler Bannister and Miles Morris. They had started in the front row beside each other with Bannister getting the early jump. After two, second lap yellows, the race would then go green to checkers with Bannister and Morris pulling away from the field in their own private war. And no matter how hard Morris pushed, it seemed that Bannister would be able to fight him off for the win.
However, as the leaders passed the starting line with just two laps to go, Bannister's car began making some bad back fires from the motor and he slowed rapidly, powerless as he pulled into the infield. Morris would then take over the lead and drive home by himself for the win. Nathan Speten would get second and Jason Bannister third. T. Bannister's problem was diagnosed as a blown motor.
The last chance at a clean sweep bonus continuing was ended when Oliver Monson would stop Kaytee DeVries' win streak at two in the Sport Compact feature. Three different leaders would hold the point before this race was decided with Monson taking the early lead from the pole before Jacob Cordova would get past him on lap five. Following a yellow on lap seven. DeVries would drive into the lead and hold that position through the halfway point of the race with Monson and Cordova closely following.
But Monson would not be stopped on this night and he would drive past DeVries in the late going to take over the lead once again and this time he drove away from the pack to take the win over DeVries and Cordova.
On sunny days here, which is most days, they have to take a late afternoon break of thirty to forty five minutes when the sun begins to set and blinds the drivers as they race down the back chute. As J Van has coined, the "Sun Break" is a time to stretch for the fans and for some track prep. However, since they race in the bright sunshine of afternoon anyway, I think that perhaps it might be wise to even start just a little earlier, get all the qualifying in before the "Sun Break", then a pause before the main events instead of stopping right in the middle of the action for the break. And since everyone is already on the grounds, starting a bit earlier wouldn't be a problem and it doesn't seem to hurt the track conditions one bit even racing in the bright sunshine. It would also help get the show done just a bit earlier in the evening.
However, despite the big crash in the Stock Cars that took quite a bit of time to clean up, this was the quickest show of the three so far but a considerable bit as there are never any delays between events.
Note: We had planned to visit at least one more of the IMCA.TV Winter National events at Cocopah but the severe weather which made driving in the desert very dangerous, stopped us from doing so.
So we want to thank Brad Whitfield and his staff for all their help and consideration and promise to do better next year.
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