After having a significant lead waylaid by a caution with four laps to go, Hank Berry held off challenger Steve Arpin to win the Estevan stop on the Dakota Classic Modified Tour on Tuesday at Estevan Motor Speedway.
Berry, from Sidney, Mont., was already the points leader after two nights and is now sitting pretty atop the tour standings with 116 points entering tonight's leg in Williston.
Berry had led the 26-car field virtually from the start when the yellow flag came out on lap 26, giving trailers Ed Turnbull (second at the time) and Arpin (third) a better shot at him. Arpin did pass him temporarily, but Berry quickly regained the edge. Arpin, who is from Cornellius, N.C., earned second.
"It was tough because it was winding down, here I am kind of cruising, and then all of a sudden, 'man, they're coming, now they're going to be all over me,'" Berry said.
"I'd ran my race. I kind of committed to that line. I thought that was the best line for me with the way my car was working. So it was all about focusing, getting my best run at my line no matter what I heard or what I saw beside me or under me. So I just focused on what I thought I needed to do."
Aaron Turnbull made a big move up the ladder after the caution, finishing third after barely making it into the feature and starting 16th. Jeff Taylor, who won Monday's feature in Minot, was fourth.
In the stock car class, which is also part of the Dakota tour, Minot's Steven Pfeifer took over the lead early and survived a couple of cautions to earn the win.
The hobby stock feature took more than 45 minutes to complete, partly due to a 20-minute delay when a fan required medical attention from the on-site ambulance.
Eric Sinness of Williston won the race. Brad King, who won the feature at EMS on Saturday, led for a large portion of the race, hanging on despite a plethora of cautions. But Sinness passed him on the second-last lap of the race.
For more coverage on the mod tour stop, see Friday's edition of the Southeast Trader Express.
