Baca, Hibdon both win at ‘home’
Mesa, nevada drivers shine in Wild West modified Tour at cocopah Speedway
Define “home track.”
It’s rather difficult to do when you consider Chaz Baca, from Mesa, and Kollin Hibdon, from Pahrump, Nev., both consider Cocopah Speedway in Somerton to be their “home track.”
Maybe that’s why each of the two drove off with wins during the first two nights of the 2021 Wild West Modified Tour, using their “home field advantage” to pocket the $1,000-to-win paychecks in the BSB Manufacturing IMCA Modified Division.
Baca, who has become a regular at The Diamond in the Desert, having already won two feature events at the track in 2021 after winning nine features in 2020, bested the 24-car main event field on Friday night.
And the 17-year-old Hibdon, who won an IMCA Modified feature event in 2020 at the Somerton oval, won the Saturday night feature.
“It was definitely a good way to start the tour,” said Baca. “It was nice to pick up a tour win at one of my home tracks with my sponsors there to watch. I haven’t won a tour title before. It would be cool to get this one.”
“I’ve been racing at Cocopah since I started racing a Sport Mod,” said Hibdon. “I won one there in a Modified (on the second night of the 2020 Mike Corning Memorial in September) last year,” said Hibdon. “To win a Wild West Tour race is like icing on the cake.”
Another interesting note about two drivers is that when Hibdon got his win in September, Baca won on that Friday night too.
In other 11th annual Wild West Modified Tour racing action, Michael Johnson, from Bakersfield, Calif., swept both nights’ wins in the Hooked Up Designs IMCA Sport Modified Division, and Zane DeVilbiss, from Farmington, N.M., won both nights in the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car Division.
Also, in a Wild West Tour undercard event, Nick Posey, from Coolidge, won the Friday night IMCA Hobby Stock feature and Joe Peterson, from Chandler, won the Saturday night feature.
The tour now moves on to Aztec Speedway in Aztec, N.M., on April 16 and 17, then is at Winnemucca Regional Raceway in Winnemucca, Nev., in May 21 and 22, followed by Sweetwater Speedway in Rock Springs, Wyo., on June 18 and 19; Desert Thunder Raceway in Price, Utah, on July 16 and 17; Blue Valor Speedway in Emmitt, Idaho, on Aug. 20 and 21; and wraps up back at Desert Thunder Raceway on Sept. 17 and 18.
All of that is followed by the Wild West Modified Tour Top 20 Showdown, scheduled Nov. 6 at Cocopah Speedway.
The highest finishing other “locals” Friday and Saturday night at Cocopah Speedway were Imperial’s Steven McCollough, third, Steven Daffern, from Brawley, fourth, and Yuma’s Bill Miller, 10th, in the Friday night IMCA Modified feature; and Yuma’s James Dupre, seventh, and Daffern, 10th, in the Saturday night feature.
On the IMCA Sport Modified level, Somerton’s Ty Rogers was second on Friday night while Holtville’s Chris Toth ran third and Yuma’s Miles Morris was fourth. On Saturday night, Rogers ran second, again, Toth was fifth, Morris sixth and Yuma’s Jimmy Davy was eighth.
There were no local entries in the IMCA Stock Car Division.
In Hobby Stock action, Somerton’s Joshua Cordova ran sixth on Friday, with Morris in seventh, Yuma’s Jim Robinson in eighth, Yuma’s Scott Tenney in ninth and Yuma’s Shawn Rico in 10th.
On Saturday, Brawley’s Brycen Daffern was fourth, Cordova sixth, Tenney seventh, and Yuma’s Brian Johnson was 10th.