Bryan Hulbert
QUEEN CREEK, Ariz. (November 27, 2021) Collecting $7,500 on Saturday night, Pennsylvania’s Brock Zearfoss dropped jaws after surviving a near-disastrous moment in traffic to win the final race at Arizona Speedway without a Nose Wing. The win is the first time Brock has topped the ASCS Southwest Region and is his first ASCS sanctioned victory.
Three wide for the lead in the first two turns, Zearfoss rolled the top of the Arizona Speedway for the point over Sam Hafertepe, Jr. and Dylan Harris. Keeping just under a second on the No. 15h through the opening laps, traffic like the night before was there to deliver the No. 15h into the race lead on Lap 6; however, a spinning slower machine spelled disaster for Hafertepe, who ended up going around in turn two on Lap 7.
Giving the lead back to the No. 7, the restart made the first turn when El Paso’s Dylan Harris bunny hopped his No. 14h and went skyward. He was unharmed. Red again a couple of laps later, 2021 ASCS Southwest Regional Champion, Wes Wofford, found himself atop the wall in turn three.
Back to green with Zearfoss putting distance on the field, the top was the preferred line as the tail of the field came into view. Able to close to under a second, Justin Sanders tried three-wide for the lead on Lap 17 but would be denied. Keeping pace, Sanders gave it another shot a few laps later but again could not get the advance.
Side by side for the lead again, things went from close to crazy as Charles Davis, Jr. slowed in front of the leaders.
No room to run, Zearfoss slammed into the tail of the No. 47. A quick ball of fire in the process, the nose wing was stripped from the No. 7, and through the chaos of drivers scrambling to avoid the scene, Justin Sanders and Robbie Price made contact with Price over Sander’s left front.
Never stopping until the red lights were displayed, Brock Zearfoss paced the field back to green, sans nose wing, with Robbie Price able to continue in second with seven laps to run. Carefully into the cushion on the restart, Zearfoss was unphased despite the missing airfoil and proceeded to gap the field by 2.453-seconds for the Copper Classic victory.
Robbie Price crossed second with Max Mittry third. Starting 11th, J.J. Hickle made it to fourth, with Jake Helsel clawing from 20th to complete the top five.
Logan Forler advanced six spots to finish sixth, followed Sam Hafertepe, Jr., with a massive rebound from the tail to finish seventh. Joel Myers, Jr. was eighth from 18th, followed by Cam Smith and Jake Bubak to make up the top ten.
With the 2021 season coming to a close for the American Sprint Car Series, we would like to thank Jonah Trussel and the entire Arizona Speedway staff for their dedication to dirt track racing and support of Sprint Cars in the southwest. Thank you for giving us a place to race.
Details on the 2022 season with the ASCS Southwest Region will be posted once they are finalized.
The 2021 season marks the 30th year of competition for the American Sprint Car Series. Spearheaded by the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network, the ASCS Nation also includes 11 Regional Tours that encompass both wing and non-wing competition.
For other news, notes, and information on any of the tours under the ASCS banner, log onto http://www.ascsracing.com, follow on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (@LucasOilASCS).
Race Results:
ASCS Southwest Region
Arizona Speedway (Queen Creek, Ariz.)
6th annual Copper Classic
Saturday, November 27, 2021
Car Count: 42
Group Qualifying:
Qualifying 1: 1. 41-Colton Hardy, 13.402[2]; 2. 14X-Corey Day, 13.570[4]; 3. 44-Eric Wilkins, 13.767[5]; 4. 2XM-Max Mittry, 13.779[3]; 5. 17C-Chris Bullock, 13.782[1]; 6. 63-JJ Hickle, 13.825[8]; 7. 6C-Logan Calderwood, 14.061[9]; 8. 12J-Josh Grady, 14.124[7]; 9. 5H-Gary Costa, 15.603[6]
Qualifying 2: 1. 2X-Justin Sanders, 13.332[5]; 2. 2L-Logan Forler, 13.400[2]; 3. 46JR-Joel Myers Jr, 13.523[6]; 4. 17-Cam Smith, 13.566[1]; 5. 01-Skylar Gee, 13.753[3]; 6. 2-Alex Pettas, 14.098[8]; 7. 17X-Ryan Walter, 14.429[7]; 8. 5K-Patrick Krob, 14.651[9]; 9. 86-Jim Maroney, 14.943[4]
Qualifying 3: 1. 91G-Chase Goetz, 13.466[8]; 2. 34-Sterling Cling, 13.531[6]; 3. 39-Robbie Price, 13.571[5]; 4. 7BG-Rick Ziehl, 13.595[7]; 5. 19W-Wes Wofford, 13.642[1]; 6. 33S-Lance Sargent, 13.657[3]; 7. 25B-Blaine Baxter, 13.775[2]; 8. 45-Monty Ferriera, 13.898[4]
Qualifying 4: 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr, 13.209[6]; 2. 19-Colby Thornhill, 13.316[7]; 3. 27B-Jake Bubak, 13.437[3]; 4. 7-Brock Zearfoss, 13.474[1]; 5. 88-Travis Reber, 13.496[4]; 6. 44X-Jake Helsel, 13.660[2]; 7. 4-Tuesday Calderwood, 13.908[8]; 8. 50S-Rocky Silva, 14.771[5]
Qualifying 5: 1. 88W-Austin McCarl, 13.269[3]; 2. 2JR-Kelly Miller, 13.478[1]; 3. 71H-Nick Aiuto, 13.780[2]; 4. 14H-Dylan Harris, 13.792[6]; 5. 9X-Jayme Barnes, 13.795[8]; 6. 9-Dustin Freitas, 13.814[4]; 7. 47-Charles Davis Jr, 13.841[7]; 8. 14B-Bailey Sucich, 14.068[5]
Heat Races:
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 2XM-Max Mittry[1]; 2. 44-Eric Wilkins[2]; 3. 63-JJ Hickle[6]; 4. 14X-Corey Day[3]; 5. 12J-Josh Grady[8]; 6. 17C-Chris Bullock[5]; 7. 6C-Logan Calderwood[7]; 8. 5H-Gary Costa[9]; 9. (DNF) 41-Colton Hardy[4]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2X-Justin Sanders[4]; 2. 17-Cam Smith[1]; 3. 2L-Logan Forler[3]; 4. 01-Skylar Gee[5]; 5. 2-Alex Pettas[6]; 6. 5K-Patrick Krob[8]; 7. 86-Jim Maroney[9]; 8. (DNF) 17X-Ryan Walter[7]; 9. (DNF) 46JR-Joel Myers Jr[2]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 39-Robbie Price[2]; 2. 19W-Wes Wofford[5]; 3. 45-Monty Ferriera[8]; 4. 33S-Lance Sargent[6]; 5. 34-Sterling Cling[3]; 6. 25B-Blaine Baxter[7]; 7. (DNF) 7BG-Rick Ziehl[1]; 8. (DNF) 91G-Chase Goetz[4]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 7-Brock Zearfoss[1]; 2. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[4]; 3. 27B-Jake Bubak[2]; 4. 19-Colby Thornhill[3]; 5. 44X-Jake Helsel[6]; 6. 88-Travis Reber[5]; 7. 4-Tuesday Calderwood[7]; 8. (DNS) 50S-Rocky Silva
Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 14H-Dylan Harris[1]; 2. 47-Charles Davis Jr[7]; 3. 2JR-Kelly Miller[3]; 4. 71H-Nick Aiuto[2]; 5. 9X-Jayme Barnes[5]; 6. 9-Dustin Freitas[6]; 7. 14B-Bailey Sucich[8]; 8. (DNF) 88W-Austin McCarl[4]
B-Features:
B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 71H-Nick Aiuto[3]; 2. 46JR-Joel Myers Jr[14]; 3. 44X-Jake Helsel[5]; 4. 25B-Blaine Baxter[7]; 5. 9-Dustin Freitas[8]; 6. 91G-Chase Goetz[12]; 7. 17C-Chris Bullock[6]; 8. 4-Tuesday Calderwood[10]; 9. 5H-Gary Costa[11]; 10. (DNF) 33S-Lance Sargent[2]; 11. (DNF) 14X-Corey Day[1]; 12. (DNF) 86-Jim Maroney[9]; 13. (DNF) 2-Alex Pettas[4]; 14. (DNS) 88W-Austin McCarl
B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 01-Skylar Gee[1]; 2. 19-Colby Thornhill[2]; 3. 6C-Logan Calderwood[8]; 4. 34-Sterling Cling[4]; 5. 12J-Josh Grady[3]; 6. 14B-Bailey Sucich[10]; 7. 88-Travis Reber[7]; 8. 50S-Rocky Silva[12]; 9. 17X-Ryan Walter[11]; 10. (DNF) 5K-Patrick Krob[6]; 11. (DNF) 9X-Jayme Barnes[5]; 12. (DNS) 7BG-Rick Ziehl; 13. (DNS) 41-Colton Hardy
A-Feature:
A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 7-Brock Zearfoss[2]; 2. 39-Robbie Price[4]; 3. 2XM-Max Mittry[6]; 4. 63-JJ Hickle[11]; 5. 44X-Jake Helsel[20]; 6. 2L-Logan Forler[12]; 7. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[3]; 8. 46JR-Joel Myers Jr[18]; 9. 17-Cam Smith[8]; 10. 27B-Jake Bubak[14]; 11. 2JR-Kelly Miller[15]; 12. 19-Colby Thornhill[19]; 13. 34-Sterling Cling[23]; 14. 12J-Josh Grady[25]; 15. 6C-Logan Calderwood[21]; 16. 71H-Nick Aiuto[16]; 17. 25B-Blaine Baxter[22]; 18. 45-Monty Ferriera[13]; 19. (DNF) 01-Skylar Gee[17]; 20. (DNF) 2X-Justin Sanders[5]; 21. (DNF) 47-Charles Davis Jr[10]; 22. (DNF) 44-Eric Wilkins[7]; 23. (DNF) 9-Dustin Freitas[24]; 24. (DNF) 14H-Dylan Harris[1]; 25. (DNF) 19W-Wes Wofford[9]