Friday night, January 30th the IMCA Winter Nationals continued with round seven of the series at the Central Arizona Raceway in Casa Grande. Things started out a little bit slower than had been the norm for this series with more yellows, more crashes and even a bit of controversy between drivers and drivers and track officials in the early going that seemed to bog things down.
However, whatever had slogged things down early was gone by feature time as the drivers presented four excellent main events with both open wheel classes determining their winners with last corner exciting passes that had the crowd excited.
The car count remained strong for the Friday night session here during week two with one hundred and ninety three teams signing in to race in just four classes with eight new teams making their first appearances of the Winter Nationals.
The format for the events remained the same as it has with only the Hobby Stocks not needing a B Feature while the other three classes needed multiple ones to determine the twenty six starters for feature racing action. It would seem that some drivers felt a strong need to get into the features as more aggressive driving seemed to be the order across the board with several instances of drivers upset with each other due to some perhaps overly hard racing moves. However, in the end the only driver to visit victory lane that hadn't been there previously this week was Stock Car driver Shelby Williams.
The Modified feature was one of the two events to produce a last lap pass for the win. With Dylan Thornton starting on the outside pole, many assumed that he would again add to his feature win total of the week and while he did take the initial lead, it was not to be for the Belle Plaine Iowa driver on this night. Chaz Baca Jr started right behind Thornton and quickly moved to the second place with Bryson Yeager, Brandon Beckendorf and Troy Morris III next in line.
Baca Jr began to pressure for the lead and on lap six he drove to the cushion and powered past Thornton to take over the top spot. The second yellow of the race flew with eight laps complete and Beckendorf had moved up to third at this point. Before another lap could be completed, a grinding crash in turn one sent several cars to the pits with damage and yet another yellow for a spin topped off the first ten laps of racing.
Finally everyone settled down and the last half of the race would produce much drama. Baca Jr. continued to lead with Beckendorf moving past Thornton into second and beginning to close on the leader. They got side by side and fought it out for a couple laps before Beckendorf drove past on the outside to take over the top spot.
Brandon would pull away for several laps after grabbing the lead but Baca Jr refused to yield and began to mount a charge of his own to catch back up. As the laps ran down, he got closer and closer as Beckendorf pushed as hard as he could be he seemed to have lost just a bit of grip running the top side of the track.
As the white flag waved, the lead was down to a car length and the pro Arizona crowd was cheering on the efforts of Baca Jr. They came out of the final corner side by side but Baca Jr had the momentum and he crossed the line the winner by a car length as Beckendorf's efforts for a feature win were again short cutted.
Thornton drove a steady race for third with Kollin Hibdon and Troy Morris III completing the top five in a race that saw about a third of the starters in the infield before it was completed.
Bud Martini led nineteen and three quarter laps of the Sport Mod feature but unfortunately for the Minnesota driver, twenty laps was the racing distance on Friday night and Trevor Noonan made an exciting last corner pass to take the win.
Martini had gotten the jump on Tyler Johnson to start the race and he led early with Cole Suckow and Danny Wagner chasing. After an early yellow for a lap three spin, there was a long period of green flag racing and Martini was flying as he opened up almost a half straightaway lead over the pack. Noonan, who had started fourth but had fallen back out of the top five, had fought his way back to fourth at the halfway point of the race with Eric Winemiller next in line.
Martini's big lead, however, was lost after a lap thirteen spin and pack style racing was the order of the day for the rest of the event. Martini had Johnson trying to pass him in every corner with Tyler looking to his inside. Meanwhile, Noonan was picking up the pace in fourth as he race Suckow hard for that spot and all four were closely bunched.
The white flag saw the top four still tight together with Johnson working the low side and Martini trying to seal him off but this opened the top lane for Noonan. With the top four still tight together on the final tour, Johnson tried again to get inside Martin but this gave Noonan an open lane on the top side and he drove very hard into turn three where he got traction. As Martini slid up off the final corner, there was just a lane open on the top and Noonan blasted off the final corner and edged past Martini to win an exciting race. Johnson was a very close third with Suckow and Bubba Stafford Jr completing the top five.
Shelby Williams finally got off the snide in the Stock Cars as he won his first feature of the series but had to fight off another driver also looking for win number one. Braden Richards used the outside pole to take the early lead over Bo Partain. Partain, however, would fight back and drive under Richards on lap three to take the top spot. Some great racing took place between the two over the next few laps as they raced side by side and swapped the top spot back and forth three times at the line.
With a lap six pass by Partain, he finally secured the top spot which he would hold for a number of laps. Williams started seventh on the grid and slowly worked his way to the front, moving to second at the halfway point of the race, only to have to fight to hold off Richards for that position.
However, Williams really started to pick up the pace at this point as he pressured Partain for the point, finally taking over the lead on lap fifteen as the top six drivers continued to run in a tight pack. One last yellow with seventeen laps complete when Partain and Angel Munoz got together which enraged Partain, led to a short sprint to the finish.
Williams was up to the task and he fought off Richards to take the win. Curt Lund, who spun on lap two and had to go tail back, worked his way back up to third at the finish with Dillon Richards and Munoz completing the top five.
Austin Jahnz led from start to finish to win the Hobby Stock feature, his second win of the series. It ws tough duty though, as he had a group of drivers riding his rear bumper for the entire race and one slip up would have cost him. Jahnz made a great move on the opening lap as he got under Joel Magee and was able to edge past him to take over the lead as the pack lined up single file and rode the outside wall, a pattern that the Hobby Stocks have found over the series is best for them come feature time.
Momentum is huge and the best way is to line up behind each other and then dive down a lane to try and made a pass. Tyler Thompson was having his best run of the series so far as he moved into second spot and rode the bumper of Jahnz while Magee, Morgan Olmstead and Zach Bierman jockeyed for position behind those two.
Jahnz never made the mistake that might have cost him and he drove home for the win. Last lap maneuvering found Magee taking second over Thompson, Bierman and Olmstead.
The final evening of the IMCA TV Winter Nationals will be held on Saturday night with all four classes again racing a full show with point titles also on the line.
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