Odds are Riley Raynard will never forget what happened Saturday night.
The 16-year-old has overcome challenges in order to race a hobby stock at Estevan Motor Speedway, and on Saturday he got his first feature win.
Raynard, a Lampman native, has muscular dystrophy, but with a couple of car modifications and some help getting into the vehicle, he races with the best of them.
"It feels amazing," he said of his first victory, after holding off a few challengers.
"I just stuck to the high line and I just found some groove there."
It took some time for Raynard to get comfortable on the race track, though. It has been a learning process for him.
"I've been racing for three years here. I've been doing really good lately. The first year, I ended up getting lapped like three times every race. Eventually I got better and started getting some top 10 finishes, and I just kept progressing," he said.
Meanwhile, Aaron Turnbull was a double feature winner on Saturday, taking the checkered flag in the modified and late model classes.
In the mod A-main, Turnbull pulled off the remarkable feat of going from last to first. By the time the race was half over, he had come seemingly out of nowhere to sit in second place.
"Starting last, you gotta keep your eyes open and make sure you don't get caught up in any wrecks, and there were a few at the start. I stayed out of those. I had a good line on the bottom there and I passed everybody pretty clean. It just worked out," Turnbull said.
With about 15 laps left, Turnbull had a brief battle with Mason Big Eagle before taking the lead and winning the race by a few car lengths.
"He was running a little higher. It looked like he was spinning his tires a little bit," Turnbull said.
"I was able to hug the tires and there was some pretty good grip down there, so I could put the pedal right down, hugging those tires, and he had to kinda pedal it, running up a little higher. I think once I got by him, I kinda showed him the line, but luckily I found it before he did."
About 15 minutes later, Turnbull was on the track again with the late model. He started on the front row and led virtually start to finish.
"I knew I had a good chance, starting on the outside front row, but you gotta have a fast race car too. I didn't know how close they were, I was just holding my line and driving as hard as I could, and hoped they were a ways behind me," he said.
Winning two features in one night doesn't happen very often. Turnbull said everything worked out for him.
"It's interesting, I guess. It doesn't really get much better than that. I had two really good cars and a little bit of luck, and perfect track conditions."
Jordan Durward captured the checkered flag in the stock car feature. He had some of the class's best drivers behind him, as Rocky
Alexander challenged for most of the race and Gregg Mann made a late push on the top.
However, Durward hung on for the victory, with Alexander finishing second.
The next action at the Speedway goes July 28, when the Blaine Brothers Late Model Challenge Series comes to town. There will be three more points nights after that, wrapping up with championship night on Aug. 23.
