Seven January dates for IMCA.TV Winter Nationals at Cocopah

SOMERTON, Ariz. (Jan. 9) – His return to his home state put $1,000 in Ricky Thornton Jr.’s bank account Thursday night. Thornton led every lap in winning the IMCA Modified feature on opening night of Winter Nationals at Cocopah Speedway. The victory came in the first sanctioned Modified event of the 2020 IMCA Speedway Motors Weekly Racing Season. Piloting Kollin Hibdon’s backup car, Thornton had started outside the front row. He walked away from the rest of the field following a lap 13 restart. Runner-up was Jeff Taylor and Jake O’Neil challenged before finishing third. “B” feature winner Tom Berry Jr. started 16th and finished fourth while Hibdon completed the top five. Already on the Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational ballot, Iowa transplant Thornton won for the 148th time in his IMCA Modified career.  Other winners in the lidlifter at Somerton were Iowan Troy Jervetz in the IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars, Shelby Frye in the Karl Kustoms Northern SportMods and defending track champion Joshua Cordova in the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks. Jerovetz led start to finish in [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]

By Jackson Braun SOMERTON, Ariz. (Nov. 8-9) – After being on hiatus since 2012, the Wes Hurst Memorial returned in a big fashion over the weekend with the IMCA Modifieds at the Cocopah Speedway. The IMCA Modifieds had a highly competitive field both nights of action. 35 IMCA Modifieds checked in on Friday night, while 31 filled the pits on Saturday. Jason Beaulieu led the field to green on Friday night and got the jump on the field. The 30-lap main event was a contest from start to finish, as no racer ran away from the field. Beaulieu faced pressure from Jake O’Neil and Hunter Marriott in the early portion of the race. O’Neil did end up passing Beaulieu, but a broken left front combined with a caution slowing down the field spelled the end of the race for O’Neil. Marriott inherited the lead but Jesse Sobbing got a run and found himself in contention for the win. Marriott analyzed Sobbing’s run around the race track and used the weaknesses to his advantage, getting back [Read More]