Gregg Mann's day at the feature Street Stock race at the Estevan Motor Speedway Saturday included a stall, a flat tire and a trip to the pit.
It also included a win as he came from behind to win the 25-lap race Canada Day in front of his enthusiastic hometown crowd. The evening was part of the Tougher Than Dirt Tour with the Hobby Stocks as the final feature race.
“I got a buddy down in Iowa who actually built the car,” said Mann. “He's got a car similar to this and we were trying different stuff tonight. He's racing down there and I said, 'You try it and I'll try it and we'll compare notes to see how it works.'
“It's funny because he texted me tonight and he said 'I hated it and I fought for fifth.' and I was 'I loved it. I started from the back and come back and won.”
Mann's attempts to tinker with the vehicle pre-race were almost for naught as a collision gave him a flat tire and made him stall. As the points leader at the track's Street Stocks, he stood to lose a lot by sitting the feature out but the tire got fixed within a caution flag and he was out by the time the green flag flew again, albeit at the back of the pack.
“Thanks to my pit guys,” Mann said. “They did a hell of a job getting it fixed and back out.”
Mann was also helped when six laps in, the top four got into a crash between turn one and turn two, shelving Lee Schaff for the rest of the race, while the rest raced with not insignificant damage. Austin Daae, Robert Pickering and Chris Hortness continued with sheet metal damage.
“The car was underneath me all night and it felt great. Just had to wait for my opportunities with those guys and make it happen.”
The track itself was a little wet down at the bottom, Mann said, so it was tough to drop down low to make a pass.
“If you got too low, you'd just spin the tires and it would slide out from underneath you,” he said. “You just tried to work within inches... you try to show him your nose and pressure him. Make him take a line higher and then you make your move where you want to make your move.”
Mann held off a late surge from Minot's Joren Boyce to claim the checkered flag.
Not as dramatically, Travis Hagen, from Williston N.D., took an early lead in the Modifieds and held on in a fairly clean race.
“Early on, I was just trying to find the quickest way around,” Hagen said. “Once I got the lead, I was just wanting to hit the marks and not push over the berm and not get too high and bring it forward, and just keep it rolling.”
After a caution ten laps in, Hagen was able to take the lead at 15 laps and go to the victory. Earlier, Jett Big Eagle was not able to finish after going too high in a corner.
In the Hobby Stocks, Riley Raynard held onto the lead by the slimmest of margins, as he and eventually disqualified Vance Tomlinson battled near the end.
“It definitely keeps you on your toes,” Raynard said of the close race. “You definitely got to be fast and keep hitting your marks, and just be faster than him.”
The Street Stocks points race is still led by Mann, with 196 points on the season. He's opened a 10-point lead on Jeremy Swanson and 16 on Daae. Zach Lutz leads the Hobby Stocks with 156 points, up seven points on Devon Gonas. Joey Galloway leads the IMCA Modifieds by a single point over Kody Scholpp.
The next race is July 10, when the Kupper Chevrolet Dakota Classic Modified Tour hits Estevan, one of six stops on that tour. Other stops are Jamestown, Minot, Dickenson, Williston and Mandan.
It's part of a lot of racing in the next while.
“It is getting to be crunch time,” Mann said. “I'm messing around with stuff because you're going to be doing six nights of racing on the tour. And it's six different tracks. You have to be able to judge your ca and kind of know what to mess around with for different tracks and different track conditions. Typically, what I was working with was trying to make it drive better on a dry, slick track.”
