Generation Fast
Anyone remember NASCAR’s original “Young Guns,” from back in the early 2000s?
Cocopah Speedway has its own version.
There is a crop of teenagers who are cruising around the Somerton oval on Saturday nights, going to bumper to bumper and door to door with drivers twice and sometimes three or four times their age, and showing them the way to the checkered flag.
Such was the case Saturday night.
During the second annual Mike Corning Memorial, in the IMCA Sport Compact feature event, 14-year-old Hudson Morris started ninth on the 16-car grid, made his way through the traffic and notched his fourth win in a row.
In doing so, among the cars he passed was Mesa’s D.J. Werkmeister, a 29-year-old veteran who started fourth, and among his accomplishments was being crowned the 2007 UMP 4-Cylinder National Champion.
But that’s not all.
In the same 44-lap race Saturday night – all of the feature events except for the Mini Dwarfs on Saturday were 44 laps in honor of Corning whose number was 44 – Enzo Deckers, 16, went from starting sixth to finish third; Ryan Brooks, 15, drove from 10th on the grid to fifth place; and 14-year-old Maleigha Estrada, making her first career start in the division, started 17th, and crossed the finish line in 10th place.