Riley Emmel knew one of the best was chasing him down, but he didn't panic.
Emmel held off Ed Turnbull down the stretch for his first career victory in the modified feature on Saturday at Estevan Motor Speedway.
"To get the first win is unreal, especially in a modified at my home track, it feels good to finally get one at my home track. I've been trying for two years now. It's about time I've got it," said Emmel, who took the lead early in the feature and never let it go.
Turnbull would finish second, followed by Les McLenehan, Joren Boyce and Tyler Wagner.
"I heard Ed coming, I knew he was coming. I just couldn't see him, so I said, 'I'm still good, keep going, keep going,' and I pulled it off. It feels good," said Emmel.
"I was relieved, especially having Fast Eddie behind me, that gets you a little scared. I was looking up (at his number) on the leaderboard and I didn't see (his car) at all, so I just kept driving my line, didn't change anything. The car was excellent and it went really good."
Mike Hagen, who didn't finish the race, was the early leader before being overtaken by Emmel. There were no yellow flags for the first 19 laps of the feature.
Chris Hortness pushed as high as third before falling back to a sixth-place finish.
"I wanted to get out front as quick as I could so I wasn't hanging back, trying to wait for other guys to pass. I knew this track was going to stay how it is and I knew my car was going to be perfect. I just drove the crap out of it as hard as I could and tried to stay out front," said Emmel.
He added that Speedway volunteers did a good job preparing the track, considering how much rain fell last week.
The program featured a special sport modified feature. The track has considered adopting sport mods as a regular class for the last two years.
There were only eight cars, seven of which began the feature.
Justin Medler of Minot won the feature, leading from start to finish. Only four cars finished the race, with Jordan Huettl taking second, followed by Darren Medler and Rick Hanson.
Medler, who is in his second year of driving a sport mod, said he was hoping for a bigger field.
"It kinda stinks because you don't get much bragging rights for beating seven cars. They're still good competitors there. I wish Estevan would just take them on full-time and you'd see the car count go way up. We get 27 in Minot and 15-20 in Williston. It's a pretty good class. I like it and it's not too expensive. It's easy to run," said Medler, who won the points championship in Minot last year.
Medler, who has driven a hobby stock at EMS in the past, said the move has taken some adjusting.
"This has been a lot tougher of a car to get used to. It's a lot more tight under power, you can't just swing it around wherever you want. We're getting it figured out," he said.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Swanson of Corning, Iowa, won his second straight stock car feature, having also taken the checkered flag on May 17.
Swanson battled Austin Daae in the early going before Daae was forced to withdraw with 11 laps left.
Joe Flory then challenged Swanson for the lead, grabbing it at one point, but Swanson regained top spot with four laps left.
Flory came second, followed by Dustin Byler, Nathan Burke and Tanner Matthewson.
In the hobby feature, the Beeter brothers racked up another win at EMS, as Brandon Beeter earned his second win this year at Estevan.
His brother Brock won the May 17 feature and Brandon took the season opener May 4.
Cody Kravanya was the early leader in that race before giving way to Blaine Durward. Beeter got past Durward with five laps to go and hung on for the win.
Keith Mattox finished second, followed by Dana Brandt, Brad King and Dylan Crozier.
The next Speedway action comes next weekend with a doubleheader on Friday and Saturday.
