The event featured two races in a single day and marked Sopwith's first road race since Iowa Speedway in June.
Sopwith driver Stephen Cox claimed the 14th victory of his career by winning the day's first event in Production A class, but he downplayed the result. This was really a relaxed weekend. We raced our old project car just for fun. We haven't had this car out for a long time so we didn't take it too serious, Cox said after qualifying second and leading every lap of the day's first race.
Nevertheless, the win was a benchmark for Sopwith's otherwise difficult 2010 campaign. Cox continued, I was just glad to get a win in anything this year. All of our major events have turned out pretty lousy. We blew a motor 35 miles into the Parker 425. We had a mechanical DNF at the Silver State 300. We're usually more reliable than that.
Sopwith won the pole for the day's second race, which was scheduled to cover a longer distance. Cox's Nissan finished in second position, 12 seconds behind Denny Beitler's Mazda. Cox led the first lap, then traded the overall lead with Brad Henderson four times before his brakes began to fade.
We knew the brakes were the car's weak point, Cox said. So if we were going to win a race this weekend, it had to be the first event. There was no way the brakes were going to last til the end of the second race. No way. The car was a handful and I'm actually surprised I was able to hang on to second.
Still, the Sopwith car set fast lap for the event, led the entire field early in the race and eventually finished 2nd of 14 cars in Production A class and 5th overall.
Cox's next event is the 43rd annual Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 on the Mexican peninsula in mid-November. The most prestigious off-road race in North America will close out Sopwith's 2010 racing season.
About Sopwith Motorsports:
Sopwith Motorsports Limited is a television production company specializing in motor racing, as well as an Indianapolis-based racing team competing on road courses, desert courses and off-road racing. Sopwith creates television programming for Fox Sports, Outdoor Channel, America One Sports and MavTV, and is the exclusive provider of Best in the Desert television coverage. Our race teams have won two championships and over a dozen events while competing in nearly every division of auto racing, including world-famous high banked asphalt ovals, road courses, and open desert racing.
