Moore is too much for opening night Arizona IMCA Mod Tour foes

YUMA, Ariz. (Feb. 10) – Bob Moore scored the opening night Arizona IMCA Modified Tour win after a couple spirited battles with Shawn Strand and Hunter Marriott.

The first annual tour commenced Friday night at Cocopah Speedway with an outstanding field of 85 Modifieds in attendance. Moore’s victory paid $1,250 and put him on the ballot for the upcoming Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational.

After taking the lead away from polesitter Strand, on lap two, Moore opened up a sizeable lead and checked out from the field. As the race advanced, however, Strand’s machine got faster and he was able to reel in and pass Moore to reclaim the lead.

The race was slowed at halfway as seven cars tangled in turn one to bring out the caution. When the race resumed, Moore went to the low side of turns one and two to grab the lead away from Strand. Marriott followed suit and rode in Moore’s tire tracks to take the second spot.

In the closing laps, lapped traffic allowed Marriott to close the gap between himself and Moore, with only three car lengths separating them at the white flag. Moore carefully maneuvered his way around the slower cars and held off Marriott to secure the win.

“I didn’t even know [Marriott] was there,” Moore said after the race, when asked if he felt any pressure from Hunter. “I knew the top was the place to be and I kept inching my way up there throughout the race. You had to be way up there to be fast.”

Jason Rogers, who started outside of the front row, took the win in the 20-lap IMCA Sunoco Stock Car main event. Kyle Frederick came home second, followed by polesitter Andrew Altenburg.

Mike Tanner found victory lane in the Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMods. The Missouri driver started on the pole and topped hometown driver Cory Hemphill.

Cory Tharp collected the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock checkers, ahead of Craig Ebers.

Feature Results

Modifieds – 1. Bob Moore; 2. Hunter Marriott; 3. Shawn Strand; 4. Lance Mari; 5. Ryan Gaylord; 6. Cody Laney; 7. 
Sean Jerovetz; 8. Lucas Schott; 9. Jimmy Gustin; 10. Jesse Sobbing; 11. Spencer Wilson; 12. Tyler Peterson; 3. Tripp Gaylord; 14. Jeff James; 15. Jacob Hobscheidt; 16. Jesse Williamson; 17. Ryan McDaniel; 18. Jason Wolla
; 19. Chase Allen; 20. Josh McGaha; 21. Collen Winebarger; 22. Austin Kuehl; 23. Troy Gemmill; 24. Bricen James; 25. Jeff Taylor
; 26. Justin Zeitner; 27. 
Nick Decarlo; 28. Bobby Horton; 29. Jeremy Thornton.

Stock Cars – 1. Jason Rogers
; 2. Kyle Frederick; 3. Andrew Altenburg; 4. Jody York; 5. 
Race Fisher
; 6. Tony Hill
; 7. Brendon LaBatte; 8. Steven Kihle; 9. George Fronsman; 10. Thomas Daffern; 11. Larry Brigner; 12.  Micheal Mabbitt; 13. Jake Smith
; 14. Joe Haines
; 15. Elijah Zevenbergen; 16. Joe O’Bryan; 17. Manny Baldiviez; 18. Aaron Spangler; 19. Jimmy Davy.

Northern SportMods – 1. Mike Tanner; 2. Corey Hemphill; 3. Nick Spainhoward; 4. Kyle Smith; 5. 
Brady Bjella; 6. Corey Clayton; 7. Miles Morris; 8. Joshua Cordova; 9. Clint Clausen; 10. Dennis Gates; 11. Chris Toth
; 12. Kenny Wyman Jr.; 13. James Dupre; 14. Tyler Mecl
; 15. Allen Webb; 16. 
Dale Kunz; 17. Dwayne Melvin; 18. Tate Johnson; 19. Austin Kiefer; 20. Adolfo Noriega; 21. Brandyn Johnson; 22. Brian Roode; 23. Jason George; 24. Mark Madrid; 25. Ron Pegues.

Hobby Stocks – 1. Cory Tharp; 2. Craig Ebers; 3. Jason Beshears; 4. Joshua Cordova; 5. Scott Shaw
; 6. Jim Robinson; 7. Tim Clayton; 8. Harvey Quinn.