RANDY HOEFT – SPECIALIZED CONTENT  EDITOR

It’s roughly two months away from the time North Dakota farmer Marlyn Seidler  will begin planting seeds for new pinto bean, wheat and sunflower  crops.

Until then he’s on vacation, traveling through the sunny  Southwest. But Seidler is no snowbird. Not hardly. When Seidler isn’t on his  tractor he’s behind the wheel of an IMCA Modified Division race car, which he  tows from track to track in the winter months until it’s time to get back to  farming.

Saturday night Seidler dropped in for a first-ever visit at  Cocopah Speedway, and he made it a memorable one, winning the 24-car feature  event.

“I’m on vacation,” said Seidler with a wide grin in victory lane. “Now I gotta go back home and see when it’s time to seed.”

But not right  away. Seidler said he’ll be back in three weeks for the Cocopah Speedway IMCA  Modified Winter Nationals presented by Sun Graphics.

“We will be back,” said Seidler. “This track is awesome. I love it, love it. You guys do a great  job here.”

In other racing action in the 2011-2012 Cocopah Speedway  Racing Series, Joseph Altig, from Imperial Beach, Calif., won the Pro-Stock  Division feature event; Yuma’s Adolfo Noriega took home his fourth straight  Street Stock Division feature event win; and Yuma’s Jimmy Davy won his second  straight Factory Stock Division feature event.

Seidler opened the night’s  Modified action by winning the fourth of four heat races.

He then lined  up inside the sixth row of the 24-car, 25-lap feature event, managed to avoid  being caught up in a handful of early caution flags, made his way to the front  where he took the lead away from Brawley’s Steven Daffern, and then ran  unchallenged the rest of the way to the checkered flag.

Imperial’s Duane  Rogers mounted a brief run on a late re-start but Seidler refused to blink and  motored away.

“I’ve come down here every winter for the last number of  years,” said Seidler. “I’ve been racing at Canyon (Speedway in Peoria) and won  some of those winter series races. Last year we were in Las Vegas for some  spring races and we came down to Bullhead City.

“We like racing out here.  It’s fun.”

Seidler is also right at home in his Modified at his home  track, Nodak Speedway, in Minot, N.D., where he won a record seventh IMCA  Modified Division driving championship in 2011.

Finishing second behind  Seidler on Saturday was Rogers, with Kingman’s Steve Simpson Jr. in third,  Phoenix’s Ryan Roath in fourth and Daffern in fifth.

The nine-car  Pro-Stock feature event saw El Centro’s Travis Dove lead the race early before  Yuma’s Brett Simala took it away from Dove. But a collision with the wall at the  exit of Turn 2 ended Simala’s bid for the win.

Dove, Altig, Steve  Worstell, from Imperial Beach, Calif., Flagstaff’s Mitch Mohler and Yuma’s  Frankie Rascon then wrestled for the lead before Altig broke loose, leaving the  others to dice it out for second place.

“The car was hooked up, running  fast,” said Altig, fresh off winning the PASSCAR Super Stock Division  championship at Perris Auto Speedway in 2011.

“It’s a fresh year, a fresh  start, foot to floor, and let’s do some racing,” said Altig.

Second place  Saturday night went to Mohler, with Dove settling for third, Bruce Hartsuyker,  from Lakeside, Calif., finishing fourth and Rascon fifth.

In the Street  Stock finale, Noriega found himself in a position he dislikes — near the rear of  the starting grid.

“These guys made me earn it tonight,” Noriega said. “They started me way back. I still don’t understand where in the world these  lineups come from, but we still went forward, still got ahead there without  getting into trouble, which is my biggest fear with starting last or toward the  back.”

In trademark fashion, the defending division champion weaved his  way through traffic, sidestepping crashes ahead of him to move from his starting  position inside the sixth row of the 14-car field to take the lead near the  midway point.

“You have to get through that traffic without getting  damage,” said Noriega, “and it worked out for us.

“Once we got out front,  that’s where we want to be. Once we get out front we pick our own line, we don’t  compromise where we’re going to enter, brake, get on the throttle.”

Along  with the win being Noriega’s fourth straight, it was also his seventh in 10  starts in the 2011-2012 season.

Second place Saturday night went to  Brawley’s Joey Teague, followed by Brawley’s Sean Callens in third, Yuma’s James  Dupre in fourth and Yuma’s Bill Grosskreutz in fifth.

On the Factory  Stock level, Davy said the race to the checkered flag was “the funnest race I’ve  ever been in.”

That was after he stalked the early leader, Steve Anthony,  of Yuma, lap after lap, trying to get inside of Anthony to take the lead but not  getting the job done.

“So I decided to ride the wall around him to see if  it would work,” said Davy, “and it paid off. It was just awesome. To get him  with two (laps) to go, you can’t beat that unless it’s at the flag.”

The  win was the fourth of the season for the current division point  leader.

Anthony finished second, Alpine, Calif., driver Wayne Rebello was  third, Yuma’s Rick Hibbard was fourth and Yuma’s Miles Morris was  fifth.