QUEEN CREEK, Ariz. – Collecting $7,500 on Saturday night, Pennsylvania’s Brock Zearfoss dropped jaws after surviving a near-disastrous moment in traffic to win the final race at Arizona Speedway without a nose wing.
The win is Zearfoss’ first ASCS-sanctioned victory.
Zearfoss rolled the top in first two turns to take the lead in a three-wide battle with Sam Hafertepe Jr. and Dylan Harris.
Keeping just less than a second gap on Hafertepe through the opening laps, traffic eventually allowed Hafertepe to close the gap and take the lead by lap six. However, bad luck struck Hafertepe on lap seven when a slower car spun in front of him, resulting in Hafertepe spinning in turn two.
That gave the lead back to Zearfoss for the restart. The caution waved before the field got through turn one when Harris bunny hopped his No. 14h and went skyward. He was unharmed. The red flag waved again a few laps later when Wes Wofford found himself on top of the wall in turn three.
When racing resumed Zearfoss began to put some distance on the field as he stuck to the preferred top line. Able to close on Zearfoss in traffic, Justin Sanders tried to go three-wide for the lead on lap 17 but Zearfoss denied his advances. Sanders gave it another shot a few laps later, but could not get the job done.
As the battle continued to wage, disaster nearly struck for Zearfoss when Charles Davis Jr. slowed in front of the leaders. Zearfoss had nowhere to go and slammed into the rear of Davis’ car. A quick ball of fire followed as the nose wing on Zearfoss’ car was ripped off and chaos ensued, with Sanders and Robbie Price making contact as they tried to avoid the incident.
Zearfoss somehow escaped with the race lead and Price now in second for the restart. Despite lacking the nose wing on the car, Zearfoss remained unphased and gapped the field by 2.453 seconds to claim the victory in the Copper Classic.
Price was second, with Max Mittry third. J.J. Hickle and Jake Helsel completed the top-five.
The finish:
1. 7-Brock Zearfoss[2]; 2. 39-Robbie Price[4]; 3. 2XM-Max Mittry[6]; 4. 63-JJ Hickle[11]; 5. 44X-Jake Helsel[20]; 6. 2L-Logan Forler[12]; 7. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[3]; 8. 46JR-Joel Myers Jr[18]; 9. 17-Cam Smith[8]; 10. 27B-Jake Bubak[14]; 11. 2JR-Kelly Miller[15]; 12. 19-Colby Thornhill[19]; 13. 34-Sterling Cling[23]; 14. 12J-Josh Grady[25]; 15. 6C-Logan Calderwood[21]; 16. 71H-Nick Aiuto[16]; 17. 25B-Blaine Baxter[22]; 18. 45-Monty Ferriera[13]; 19. (DNF) 01-Skylar Gee[17]; 20. (DNF) 2X-Justin Sanders[5]; 21. (DNF) 47-Charles Davis Jr[10]; 22. (DNF) 44-Eric Wilkins[7]; 23. (DNF) 9-Dustin Freitas[24]; 24. (DNF) 14H-Dylan Harris[1]; 25. (DNF) 19W-Wes Wofford[9]