Dillon Richards completed one of the greatest two week runs seen in recent times Saturday at the Central Arizona Raceway as the Hobby Stock driver from Beatrice Nebraska won his fifth straight feature race and eighth of nine during the IMCA Winter Nationals to claim the point title in the Hobby Stocks. In other feature action, Robbie Thome won his third feature race in the Sport Mods during the Winter Nationals, Shelby Williams topped the Stock Cars for his first win of the series and Dylan Thornton came back from his Friday night disappointment during the Modified feature to edge out Brandon Beckendorf and claim the win in the series finale.
Another very solid field of twenty hundred and twenty seven drivers signed in to race on Saturday for the finale, a great number considering that some had to already head home for various reasons including wrecks, mechanical failures and impending weather conditions affecting travel. But there were still plenty of cars on hand as the same format was still needed with the exact same number of qualifying events as has been the case this week.
Nine feature events, including the Gene Freeman non point race held on Tuesday night, were available to the Hobby Stock drivers. And incredibly, Richards won eight of them, only being edged out from a perfect record by Dillon Thompson in a main last week. And despite the fact that the biggest number of Hobby Stocks during the whole mini series showed up to race on Saturday, they were still all battling for second as Richards dominated once again.
His secret during the whole series was to have spectacular runs in his heat races so that he would start toward the front in the main events, thus making his job much easier. A great ninth to first run in his heat on Saturday would guarantee him the pole for the twenty nine car Hobby Stock feature and he led the event from start to finish to claim the win plus the point title in the Winter Nationals. Despite the big field of drivers including seven that were making their initial runs of the week, the Hobby Stock drivers put on a smooth show with there being only one yellow flag during the event.
Richards wasted no time establishing his lead as he pulled away from Scott Bernards and Hunter Ferrell early. As the leader pulled away from the field, his main competition all week, Dillon Thompson, was busy working his way into contention as he moved into the runner up spot after starting sixth by the halfway point of the race. Blake Luinenburg was also on the move, as he settled into the third spot.
Thompson's main challenge as the race continued was to wind his way through heavy traffic as he caught the back of the pack and he managed to put a number of drivers a lap down without incident. Just as it looked like he would be home free, a spin on the back chute triggered the lone yellow of the race and set up a four lap sprint to the finish.
Richards wasn't going to let this one slip away however, and as the green returned he again pulled away from the pack, allowing no one to make a last lap attempt to steal one away from him. He crossed the line comfortably ahead of Thompson but just as the leaders completed the race, several drivers trying to gain that last spot came together on the front chute, producing a grinding crash that saw the race finish under a checkered/yellow situation. Hard hits were recorded by Joe Peterson and Joe Gallaher and while their cars were badly damaged, they were both both able to walk away, despite a flash fire in Gallaher's car.
The official scoring saw Luinenburg finish third with Morgan Olmstead and Bernards completing the top five. Richards' record of achievement will be one that will be hard to top in coming seasons.
Shelby Williams became a first time winner as the Texas Stock Car driver wasted no time getting to the front of the twenty eight car Stock Car field and then dominated the proceedings the rest of the way. Williams started in the second row but when pole starter Bill Brack slid up the track on the opening lap and steered Mike Albertsen up the track with him, Williams shot to the inside and crossed the line the leader by lap one.
With both Brack and Albertsen soon to drop out with flat tires, that opened up the positions behind the leader with Todd Heinrich and Andy Morris quickly taking those spots. A single yellow slowed the action and when a spin on lap ten bunched the field, Williams was ready to pull away again.
The second half of the race saw Williams drive away from the field but the entire group was so evenly matched that in those hard ten laps, he failed to even catch the back of the pack which made his job considerably easier as there was quite the clump of cars racing together back in the field.
Williams continued to motor on without stress and he drove under the double checkers to take the win. Former winner here last week Heinrich held off all challenges from Bo Partain to take the second spot and Dillion Lawrence had his best run of the week, finishing fourth as Morris faded to fifth.
The Sport Mod feature proved to be the most difficult event of the week to complete as six yellows littered this race, bogging it down at certain points. Former winner last week Jake Smith sat on the pole but it was Aaron Spangler from the outside that grabbed the early lead. Smith began to fade immediately and he quickly pulled off the track, calling it a night.
Spangler led through the first yellow, which waved after just three laps for a spinning car. On the restart, two time winner Robbie Thome came from the third position to blast past both Boddie Parker and Spangler and take over the lead.
Thome was probably glad that he made his move when he did as the race then really got bogged down with the yellow waving four more times in the next five laps for a variety of spins and crashes as the field was quickly diminished in size.
Finally the drivers were able to put multiple laps in under the green with Kaden Woodie, last night's winner, moving up from the third to take over second. Cole Suckow was close behind with Parker and Jake Kierstad in the top five.
Thome continued to lead with the best battle for second as Woodie and Suckow battled for that position. One last yellow produced a lot of concern for Thome however, as a two lap sprint for the win would see Woodie and Suckow right up behind him. As Thome took off, Suckow claimed the second spot and he charged right up behind Thome, going for the win. Going into turn three, Suckow threw a slider and moved under Thome for the lead but Thome wisely waited him out, crossed under him after he slid by and then drove home for the win, with Suckow's effort a good one but he still settled for second to the multi feature winner. Woodie settled for third with Rob Gallaher and Kade Dimick finishing off the top five. It was a rough race, with just fourteen drivers, half the starting field, still on the track at the finish.
The final race of the IMCA Winter Nationals was the Modified feature and it was a good one. Run for twenty five laps, this race went green to checkers and produced a spectacular battle for the win between Dylan Thornton and Brandon Beckendorf. They started on the front row, side by side, and their battle would continue throughout the race, made even more spectacular by the fact that as they battled with each other, they also had to deal with much lapped traffic as there were still twenty four drivers on the track at the finish of the event.
They were both running the high side of the speedway and as they approached the corners, lap after lap, Beckendorf would try to nose under Thornton, several times leaving the corners side by side but each time Thornton managed to hold of the Minnesota driver. Thornton was scored the leader of all laps, but that statistic would be a bit misleading as they spent much time side by side.
Jeremy Mills was third at the halfway point but he was soon overtaken by Troy Morris III who seemed to be the fastest car on the track during the last half of the race. With the leaders hung up badly in heavy traffic during the last few laps, Morris III moved right in on them to produce a three car battle with Morris III looking to steal the win.
The move of the race was produced by Thornton as the leaders saw the white flag when he somehow managed to slip past Spencer Wilson and Brady Bjella, both slower cars, quicker than Beckendorf was able to and that gave him just enough of an edge to take the checkers with both Beckendorf and Morris III close behind. Mills would settle for fourth and Kollin Hibson scooted past Ethan Braaksma on the final lap for fifth.
The point champions for the series included Braaksma in the Modifieds, Williams in the Stock Cars, Dustin White in the Sport Mods and Richards in the Hobby Stocks.
The final night seemed to produce more crashes than perhaps the rest of the week combined and "The Hook" wrecker crew, led by "The Cowboy", was very busy with two double hooks required on this night. Perhaps the most spectacular crash on the night involved Brandyn Johnson as the Sport Mod driver jumped the inside berm on the back chute, slamming into a ute tire protecting a light pole so hard he knocked several of the lights off the pole, badly damaging his race car.
Among the other bad luck victims on Saturday was Elijah Zevenbergen who after fixing his badly damaged Stock Car after a roll over earlier in the week, managed to blow the guts out of his motor during racing action on Saturday. And even though it was the finale of a long eight race mini series, there were a dozen drivers on Saturday that made their first runs of the week.
This mini series, which moved to Central Arizona Raceway this year under the direction of Brad Whitfield after Cocopah Speedway in Yuma, where it was previously held, was closed, seemed to have a very successful run for the last two weeks. Car counts seemed very comparable to what was presented at Cocopah and the crowds, at least from my perspective, seemed much larger than any produced at Yuma. I believe the proximity of this track to the Phoenix and Tucson metro areas certainly has something to do with that.
Obviously Whitfield must have been happy with the results here, as dates for next year's event were already announced on Saturday. The IMCA TV Winter Nationals in 2026 will be held on Jan. 6-17.
Thanks go out to Whitfield and his entire crew for their help and hard work during this grueling two weeks of racing. But their work is only half done. Many are excited for the return of the Late Models to CAR and they will take center stage for the next two weeks, with six races scheduled for the Ernie Mincy Early Thaw on Jan 22-25 and Jan 29-Feb. 1. Along with the Late Models, IMCA Modifieds, Stock Cars and Sport Mods with race along with the B Mods and WISSOTA Super Stocks as many drivers that were not in action for the last two weeks will invade Arizona from their Midwestern bases.
Check Central Arizona Raceway face book page for more information.
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