Aaron Turnbull has racked up a lot of wins in his career, and his name appears a few times in the Estevan Motor Speedway record book.
But what he did Monday night was a first.
Turnbull started on the outside of the first row and never gave up the lead, earning his first career win on the Dakota Classic Modified Tour during the Estevan stop.
"I've been trying for a long time to win a tour race and I think I've finished second in Estevan a couple of times on the tour," said Turnbull, who has now won three straight programs at the Speedway.
"It's just so tough to win against that field. There are guys that have won national championships and it's some of the toughest competition we ever run against. It means a lot to be able to hold them off."
Turnbull said his car was working well early on, but that didn't last.
"About 12 laps in, I think we had a caution and after that, the car didn't really feel the same. The line I was running got a little dirty or something and the car was just kinda skating around. I saw some guys getting underneath me a bit and I pulled away.
"We had another caution and the car didn't feel good at all. Steven Pfeifer nearly got by me a couple of times, so I moved down and it seemed like there was a little more grip on the bottom. I think if the race was any longer, I might've had some trouble my car was fading as the race went on."
Allen Kent finished second and remained atop the mod tour standings entering the fourth stop last night in Williston.
"On those cautions, they give us the lineup and I kept hearing his number get closer and closer to the front," Turnbull said of the Minot driver. "I was hoping to gain more points on him (on Monday), but I didn't really gain much."
Turnbull is in second place on the tour, nine points behind Kent and two ahead of Travis Hagen.
"I wish I was a little closer to Allen. He's got a pretty good lead now. It's tough to make up points when the positions are only one point apart. It's awesome to be in second and I'm going try to run as good as I can the last three nights."
Meanwhile, Rocky Alexander broke through for his first victory of the season in the stock car feature, which is also part of the mod tour.
Alexander started on the pole and led wire-to-wire, holding off fellow Estevanite Austin Daae, who took second.
"We've had nothing but grief with the car, a new car, trying to set it up and everything. We decided (Monday) wasn't a points night, so we'd go back to what we know. We changed things and went back to what we used to run," said Alexander, the three-time defending season champion at EMS.
"The cushion kept pushing harder and harder on the corners there, and I kept riding it out and kept going to the top with every pass, and I kept getting faster and faster."
Alexander said he was much more comfortable with the vehicle on Monday.
"I'm getting used to it. After (the tour stop win), it actually felt like my old car. We did do some changes to go back to what we know for the (June 28) race (where he finished second), and that put us further to the front again. (On Monday), we said we have nothing to lose, so we went back to it, to see if (the new setup) was the problem, and it turned out it was the problem."
Minot's Brock Beeter won the hobby stock feature, edging brother Brandon. That class counted for points in the season standings on Monday.
Despite the region receiving some rainfall on Friday and Saturday, plus a small sprinkling during the program, Turnbull said the track was still in great shape.
"The track was awesome. It slicked off in the feature and it seemed like we could run all over it from top to bottom. You can't really ask for more than that. They did an excellent job."
