With his brother out of the picture thanks to a bump-and-run incident with some other drivers on the front stretch, Aaron Turnbull managed to find a bit of space around his next greatest rival, Steve Pfeifer, to score a big win in the late model feature race at the Estevan Motor Speedway, Saturday night.
“I was just able to pick them off one at a time I guess,” said Turnbull, noting that his No. 21 car was “set up pretty good and I found a good line,” which he used to near perfection to claim the early lead in the season points race over his brother and Pfeifer.
The late model feature saw two caution delays due to the corner collisions that eliminated two cars, but not the excitement as Turnbull took the lead from Pfeifer on the seventh lap and managed to hang on for the win.
A 22-car field in the hobby stock feature resulted in four caution delays with one of them involving a four-vehicle mash up that took care of a couple of front runners. Leevi Runge who had been running well within the leading pack, managed to dodge the debris to claim first spot after early leader Mike Wilson was sent to the sidelines with a mashed grill as a result of the multi-car mix-up.
Runge found his preferred track groove and rode that rail to a successful conclusion.
Dalton Flory claimed the IMCA stock feature title on Saturday with an exciting race to the finish line with Austin Daae. Flory in his 20F entry was also able to claim the points lead with the impressive driving performance that saw him avoid a lot of potential trouble in the 20-lap feature that required the leaders of the pack to dodge the slower vehicles as they lapped them midway through the run.
Pfeifer latched on to the modified win, moving from fifth place in the points race to the top of the heap with a skillful performance that also included a 22 car field. The early going saw Joe Flory take a temporary lead as did Kody Scholpp before Pfeifer was able to establish his authority by moving into the front position on Lap 22 which is where he stayed while beating back a late challenge from Scholpp.
Runge was donating dollars for the fight against muscular dystrophy. For every lap he led on Saturday he was making a dollar donation. He noted after that he had held onto 11 lap leads during the course of the evening’s runs and would make his contribution accordingly.
Flory said his victory didn’t come easily. “There are a lot of pretty good drivers out there, it’s not easy,” he said.
A few hundred faithful fans were on hand to brave the cool temperatures and high winds. Pretty well all of them stayed to the end, in spite of the numerous caution flags, since they were anxious to see the results unfold. They weren’t disappointed as the feature finishes were closely contested and a couple of them undecided until the last split seconds of the final lap.
“They better not water down the track any more,” said one observant pit crew member who was watching results unfold on a track that saw a few swirls of dust crop up as the cars sped past the grandstand. “If they do, these guys will be driving on ice,” he joked, commenting on the cool temperatures that invaded the track near the end of the evening’s program.
The next race date at EMS is June 13, with the traditional racing features of IMCA hobby stock, IMCA stocks, IMCA modifieds and Wissota late models running for the trophies and cash. The action gets underway at 7 p.m. It is also expected that weather conditions will be much more agreeable for the faithful fans, as well as the drivers.
