1994 Winchester 400

The silver-anniversary Featherlite Trailers Winchester 400 was held under All-Pro Series sanction on October 2, 1994, at the Winchester Speedway.

For the second consecutive year, Mike Cope was the winner of the “Featherlite Trailers Winchester 400,” this time passing young Toby Porter with three laps remaining in the race. Cope became the third driver to win back-to-back 400’s and the first since Mark Martin performed the feat in 1986 and 1986.

Toby Porter, in his Greased Lightning sponsored machine was the fastest among the 31 cars that took a lap in qualifying. Starting alongside Porter on the front row, Cope cruised to the lead for the first 91 laps. Scot Walters, Hal Goodson, Porter, Jody Ridley, Brian Rievley, and Bobby Gill would all take turns trading the lead with Cope over the first 300 of the 400 laps.

Cope elected to stop for tires prior to the final restart of the race, as Porter gambled and hoped to hold off all challengers on old tires. On the restart with 23 laps remaining, Cope had a scare heading into the first corner. A lapped car pushed up the racetrack and into Cope nearly sending both cars into the outside wall. Rebounding from the contact, Cope passed Rievley for third with 14 laps to go, he blew by Walters for second and set his sights on the race leader. With three laps remaining, Cope zipped past Porter for the lead. Trying to fight back, Porter lost control and spun in the fourth turn, narrowly missing the outside wall. With series rules dictating a green-flag finish, the race distance was extended for the first time in history. Cope was never challenged on the restart, crossing the finish line on lap 403, two lengths ahead of Walters in second, with Rievley third, and Porter settling for fourth, all on the lead lap. Ron Young was fifth, two laps behind the leaders. Cope collected $13,350 for winning the 25th annual running of the “400.”

External links

* [http://www.winchesterspeedway.com/ Winchester Speedway website]
* [http://www.craracing.net/ Official CRA Website]