It took a lot of work and some good timing, but the Estevan Motor Speedway was able to get its track championship program in on Saturday night, and crown its season champions in all five classes.
The status of the program was in doubt on Saturday morning, after two thunderstorms rumbled through the Estevan area; the latter was the stronger of the two, with sustained heavy rains for more than 30 minutes.
But in a post on its Facebook page before noon, the track said it was going ahead with the program, and they were able to start on time at 7 p.m., thanks to the hard work of its track preparation team.
And since the race program only had a handful of cautions, they were able to complete the races before a severe thunderstorm hit the area at around 10 p.m. Once the storm hit during the post-race interviews, fans, drivers and volunteers scattered to their vehicles or for cover.
Two of this year’s track champions won their features on Saturday night: Travis Hagen of Williston, N.D., in the modifieds and Ryder Raynard of Estevan in the slingshots. Hagen finished atop the modified standings with 310 points, four more than Estevan’s Kody Scholpp.
Ed Turnbull of Estevan was third in the overall standings with 289 points.
As for Saturday’s feature race, Hagen passed John Flory with a few laps remaining.
“It was fun racing wheel-to-wheel with John. I grew up watching John and Dad (Mike Hagen) race side by side, so it’s always fun racing with John,” said Travis Hagen.
He credited the track preparation crew for making Saturday’s feature race happen.
“I didn’t think we’d get this race in,” he said. “But there wasn’t a hole in the track. They do a good job every time we come here to Estevan.”
Scholpp was in the hunt throughout the feature, but couldn’t get past Flory and settled for third.
Hagen and Scholpp narrowly avoided a wreck coming out of turn 4 on the opening lap that knocked four drivers out of the race.
Raynard was the class of the slingshots throughout the year, as he finished with 318 points, 30 more than Estevan’s Jace Emmel. Out of the eight slingshot features at the track this season, Raynard won six.
The last one might have been the most impressive of all, as he defeated Estevan’s Jace Emmel by about eight seconds. Ty Saxon finished third.
Lampman’s Leevi Runge was the other track champion from the southeast region, as he won the hobby stock division for the fourth time in five years with 269 points, 11 more than his brother Landon.
As they were announcing that Leevi Runge was the track champion, a loud blast of thunder echoed overhead.
Leevi Runge noted it was pretty special to finish 1-2 with his brother.
“We’re both working on each other’s stuff, so we’re pretty sane. As long as one of us is winning, we’re happy.”
But there is a little bit of bragging rights in beating his brother for the championship.
Leevi Runge believes all the time they dedicated to working on the car paid off.
“We also had a lot of track time this year, so we travelled to Minot and Williston.”
Riese Dignan of Kenmare, N.D. won Saturday’s feature, with Scott Curtis of Estevan in second and Leevi Runge in third.
Minot’s Joren Boyce, who has been racing regularly in Estevan since the track opened in 2000, won the stock car class with 297 points, 23 more than Estevan’s Chris Hortness.
Boyce believes this is track championship No. 44 in his racing career, He previously won the modified title in Estevan on multiple occasions.
“We were lucky enough to win the opener here this year. The 20-year celebration has been an important thing for me here. I think I’ve made it to every points race except one (in 20 years), we had a truck problem on a points championship night and we weren’t able to make it.”
He loves the track, the people and the community, and finds Estevan welcoming to the out of town drivers.
Mike Hagen of Williston won the feature, barely edging out Austin Daae for second. Gregg Mann of Estevan was third.
Darren Medler of Minot won the sports mods class with 227 points, one more than fellow Minot driver Robby Rosselli.
Blake Penna of Estevan was the top local driver in the overall standings, as he finished third with 203 points.
Medler won only one once this year, but was in the top five throughout the year.
Makenzie Hagen of McGregor, N.D., won the feature, while Robby Rosselli was second and Medler was third. The sport mod feature had a wild finish, as Rosselli passed Hagen for the lead coming out of the fourth turn. But an incident in turn four just before the end of the race brought out the caution, negated the pass and handed Hagen the win, and Medler the championship.
