SOMERTON, Ariz. — The third of eight nights at Cocopah Speedway for the IMCA TV Winternationals drew an event record car count with 254 entrants for the five divisions.
Wednesday’s opening night had 250 cars and had the record for 48 hours.
Heat winners plus additional higher point cars to total 14 go directly to the A main as passing/finishing points from the heat races determine A and B main assignments.
Main events are straight up by points.Â
Modifieds had Jeremy Mills on the pole after winning his heat from seventh starting. Mills had a decent lead until Thursday night winner Ethan Braaksma caught the leader.
The last dozen laps had a furious dual between the pair with traffic adding more drama. Mills barely edged Braaksma at the line several times and added a few feet the final laps to protect his lead and win.
Braaksma and Chaz Baca Jr. we’re second and third in the entertaining battle.Â
Stock cars saw Shelby Williams earn the pole with a second-place finish in his heat from eighth starting. Williams immediately took the lead. Bo Partain and Dylan Thornton provided the pressure.Â
With six laps remaining Thornton ran the top out of turn four and edged Williams at the line and then pulled away over the remaining laps to win. Partain and Williams were next to finish.Â
The hobby stock main was led by Ryan Gilland for five laps until Jaeden Strandberg made the outside line work in turn four and took over. Â
A restart with two laps remaining didn’t cause problems for Strandberg and the Worthington Minnesota driver collected the win over Gilland and Nathan Deragon.
Tyler Bannister led the Northern sport mods finale for 23 of 25 laps before dropping out with mechanical issues.
That elevated Miles Morris to the lead and two laps later he took the checkers. Nathan Speten and Jason Bannister completed the top three.Â
Sport compacts winner was Oliver Monson with Kaytee DeVries and Jacob Cordova following.Â
The remainder of the Winternationals can be seen on SPEED SPORT affiliate IMCA.tv.