IMCA Modifieds, Northern SportMods on Cocopah’s Turkey Classic cards

SOMERTON, Ariz. (Jan. 13, 2024) – Chaz Baca has to wait until last October to officially celebrate his 2023 championships. He celebrated his first of 2024 on Saturday night. The Mesa hotshoe wrapped up the IMCA.TV Winter Nationals crown with his second Friesen Performance IMCA Modified victory of the series, after passing Tim Ward for the lead with just two laps left in the series finale at Cocopah Speedway. “It feels good. It’s awesome to start this year the way we finished last season,” said Baca, an IMCA national, regional, state and four track champion in 2023. “Winter Nationals was very good to us.” Ward had come into the night a single point behind Baca in his bid to repeat as series champion. A restart set the stage for that late-race drama. Baca cleared Ward for the front spot coming out of turn two, then held off Ward, Dylan Thornton and Troy Morris III to the checkers. Ethan Braaksma started 15th and finished fifth. “We made one extreme setup change for the Tuesday practice. It was [Read More]

By Ben Deatherage   SOMERTON, Ariz. (Jan 13) – The Ethan Dotson Express rolled on, while Shelby Alves, Dallon Murty, Brian Brown and Riley Clem raced to IMCA.TV Winter Nationals presented by Yuma Insurance feature wins of their own Thursday night at Cocopah Speedway.  Dotson dominated the entire 25-lap IMCA Modified main event, hitting lapped traffic by the 10th circuit and outrunning Tripp Gaylord in what proved to be a caution-free contest en route to a fourth consecutive $1,000 victory.  Tim Ward settled into third. Tanner Black and night one winner Kollin Hibdon completed the top five.  The 25-lap IMCA Northern SportMod feature was also a non-stop event. Alves and night four winner Shane Paris duked it out early with Alves in front on lap four.  She paced the field with Andrew Peckham giving chase into lapped traffic before becoming the fifth different $750 winner in as many nights at Somerton. Izac Mallicoat was third. Cody Johnson and Josh Most battled at the front of the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car feature field before making brief contact and [Read More]

By Ben Deatherage  SOMERTON, Ariz. (Jan. 4, 2023) – Wednesday was opening night of the 2023 IMCA.TV Winter Nationals at Cocopah Speedway and the 3/8-mile oval, known as the Diamond In The Desert, attracted over 230 race teams from across North America to compete in the winter extravaganza.  Arizona native Tim Ward won the Friesen Performance IMCA Modified feature and $1,000 while Minnesotan Jim Horejsi topped the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car feature and pocketed $750. Defending Winter Nationals king Shane Paris took the $750 Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMod checkers, Thomas Daffern scored the $500 IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock victory and Kevin Reuter raced to the $250 Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compact win. In Modified action, the 25-lap feature started with Brandon Beckendorf flexing his guns early and dominating before a lap eight caution bunched the field up.  When the green flag was redisplayed, Ward put a power move on Brandon for the lead. Despite a couple of cautions, Ward tamed the rest of the pack for his first career IMCA.TV Winter Nationals triumph along with Fast Shafts [Read More]