SOMERTON, Ariz. — A total of 240 teams were in the multi-level pit area at Cocopah Speedway on Friday for night three of the Winter Nationals.
IMCA stock cars were led by Curt Lund at the start of the 25-lap main, until Dylan Thornton drove the upper line through turn four two laps later to take the lead. After 10 laps, Thornton suddenly stopped in turn two, reportedly a right front failure. Zachary Madrid was chasing Thornton and became the leader on the restart.
Numerous laps featured Madrid running the top and Jim Horejsi on the bottom in a side-by-side battle.
Horejsi closed in one lap at a time, and when both drivers took the white flag, Madrid’s lead was only about two feet. As Horejsi was getting off the bottom of turn four, he made a hard charge to the checkered flag and claimed the win by .022 second over Madrid. Shelby Williams was third.
Modified racing was another superb main with Tim Ward leading Chaz Baca for 22 laps with a 21-lap nonstop stretch. Ward handled traffic smoothly, putting a car or two between them before Baca would catch up and eliminate the distance. A late yellow opened the door for Cody Laney and he took second on the restart. Ultimately, Baca settled for third as Ward claimed his second win in three nights.
Northern sport mods followed Andrew Peckham the entire distance in his flag-to-flag win to stop the Shane Paris winning streak. Paris was closing at the end, but ran out of laps and finished second. Tyler Bannister was third.
Each night at Cocopah seems to be the same tale with the hobby stocks — a bunch of cars race for the win, with as many as seven in the lead pack. Zack Tate eventually broke away to post the win over Eric Knutson and Scott Tenney.
The sport compact winner was David Jones while Kevin Reuter and Jacob Cordova filled the podium.