Locals have hot weekend at Cocopah Speedway

Cordova, Sage sweep division wins

Yuma-area drivers came back from their summer vacation with guns-a-blazin’ during the two-night Labor Day Weekend Celebration presented by Yuma Auto & RV Center at Cocopah Speedway.

Somerton’s Joshua Cordova drove off with two feature event wins in the IMCA Hobby Stock Division, Yuma’s Darren Sage swept both nights’ IMCA Sport Compact feature events, and Yuma’s Bobby Horton won the Friday night IMCA Modified feature event before settling for second place on Saturday night.

The only division not dominated by a local driver was the IMCA Sport Modified Division, where Michael Johnson, from Bakersfield, Calif., won both feature events.

A field of approximately 63 cars from five different states, including Texas and New Mexico, was on hand for the event, which marked the start of the 2020 fall racing season at the Somerton oval. The last race at the track was on June 12-13.

On Friday night, Horton made up 10 positions to beat Mesa’s Chaz Baca to the checkered flag in the 24car, showcase IMCA Modified feature event, which paid $1,000 to win. Horton started 11th on the grid and Baca was equally as impressive going to the front after starting alongside Horton in the 12th spot.

On Saturday night, Baca started eighth and beat Horton, who started fourth, to the finish line and that night’s $1,000 check.

In the IMCA Hobby Stock Division, Cordova cruised to his back-to-back wins, after starting No. 3 on Friday and on the pole Saturday night.

And in the IMCA Sport Compact Division, Sage won from the pole on Friday and had to come from fifth on the grid on Saturday to take the win.

In IMCA Sport Modified action, Cocopah Speedway regular Chris Toth ran second behind Johnson on Friday night. Toth started 11th on the grid. And Yuma’s Miles Morris got a hard-earned third place finish on Saturday after he too started 11th on the grid.

Also on Saturday night, Hudson Morris, from Yuma, drove off with the feature event win the Mini Dwarf Masters feature event, and Eastyn Figueroa, from Yuma, won the Mini Dwarf Sportsman feature event.

The next event on the Cocopah Speedway schedule is the inaugural Mike Corning Memorial presented by Kactus Kush on Sept. 25 and 26.