New Mexico drivers took the spotlight at Aztec Speedway
AZTEC − Drivers from across the southwest found themselves in the winners circle this past weekend at Aztec Speedway as they prepare to wind down their 70th anniversary season of dirt racing.
Nearly 150 cars took to the course over the weekend, with Alamogordo's Lorne Wofford grabbing a pair of wins Saturday night, including the featured event highlighting 360 winged sprint cars.
For Wofford, Saturday's victory was his sixth of the year from 23 starts and his first time scoring a victory this year at Aztec Speedway. On top of that, he's also achieved 12 top-five performances and 18 top-10 efforts in 2022. Wofford's win was his first career POWRi feature victory.
Jesse Baker, from Grants, finished second in the Saturday feature, with Las Cruces native Rick Ziehl finishing third.
On Friday, the POWRi feature was claimed by El Paso's Don Grable, who raced wire-to-wire, beating Ziehl and Baker.
Grable, who earned his third featured win of the year and first in 2022 at Aztec Speedway, has 13 top-five performances from 22 races this year. He most recently won a featured event at Sandia Speedway in Albuquerque earlier this month.
Bloomfield's Rex Higgins and Farmington's Joey Klemish each scored wins during the weekend as well, racing International Motor Contest Association (IMCA) Northern Sportmods. Higgins has four wins from 12 starts in 2022 and is currently ranked eighth in the state of New Mexico among top drivers in the category. Klemish, who won the points title representing the state of New Mexico last year, also earned his fourth win of the year and his third victory at Aztec Speedway during the season.
In the IMCA Stock Car features over the weekend, Dove Creek, Colorado's Aaron Spangler earned his sixth win from 23 starts this year, taking the Friday featured race. Spangler, one of the top stock car drivers on the regional IMCA circuit, also has a pair of wins this year at Cortez, as well as victories in 2021 at Canyon Speedway Park and Cocopah Speedway in Arizona.
On Saturday, Bloomfield's Steffan Carey picked up his first win of the year, taking the IMCA Stock Car feature ahead of Spangler, with Farmington's Mark Rogers finishing third.
Robert Cody from Bloomfield and Mylee Joann from Farmington also took home top prizes over the weekend, winning their respective features in IMCA Sport Compact racing.
Cody defeated seven drivers, including runner-up Katie Barthel and third-place finisher Tess Greenwood to win the Friday featured race. For Cody, the victory puts him among the top 15 drivers in the state at that category. Barthel, currently the leading points earner in the division in the state of Colorado, also ranks second in the state of New Mexico.
On Saturday, Joann added another victory to an already impressive campaign, defeating eight drivers to win her 13th race of the year. The 14-year-old freshman at Farmington High School leads the state of New Mexico in the sport compact standings and is fifth overall in the category, among nearly 100 drivers across America.
For more information about the Friday and Saturday racing programs at Aztec Speedway, check out the official results pages at MyRacePass.com.
The final weekend of racing at Aztec Speedway is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, Sept. 9 and 10, featuring drivers and cars from the New Mexico Motor Racing Association as well as the IMCA.
This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: New Mexico drivers shine bright under lights at Aztec Speedway
