Doug Johner is someone who isn’t normally recognized for his dedication to making the Estevan Motor Speedway as great a racing facility as it is, but that changed on Saturday night.
Johner was presented with the Estevan Motor Speedway Volunteer of the Year Award at the race track’s 16th annual Awards Banquet and Volunteer Appreciation Night held at Beefeater Plaza.
“It means a lot to me, especially how it’s a really new award,” said Johner. “I’m the first one to receive it, so that’s pretty special.”
The award went to Johner for his dedication to helping better the track each season since it began operation in 2000. That first year he helped put the seeding in place, the posts in and poured cement along with many other tasks.
Since that time, the dedicated volunteer has made a habit of getting rid of any garbage that has blown in during the winter at the beginning of the season, picked rocks off the track during the summer and even spent over 300 hours one year scraping and painting the posts at the track.
“I’ve been a fan all my life and I love going to the race track and I love our facility,” he said. “For the painting, I was just looking at the place thinking ‘wow, this place is really starting to get run down. It could use a little paint here and here.’ So I asked if I could go get some paint and start doing it. I just like to help out.”
Also recognized at the Estevan Motor Speedway Awards Banquet were the top drivers of the year, including Gregg Mann who received the Clint Prette Memorial Award for his hard work, sportsmanship and great representation of the track on and off it. The 2015 Rookies of the Year were Jeffrey Ellis (IMCA Hobby Stock), Colin Hall (IMCA Stock Car), Justin Medler (IMCA Modified) and Devin Raynard (Wissota Late Model).
Winners of the Runner Up awards were Riley Raynard (IMCA Hobby Stock), Joren Boyce (IMCA Stock Car), Travis Hagen (IMCA Modified) and Tyson Turnbull (Wissota Late Model). Leevi Runge (IMCA Hobby Stock), Jordan Durward (IMCA Stock Car), Steven Pfeifer (IMCA Modified) and Aaron Turnbull (Wissota Late Model) won the Points Champions of 2015 awards.
“It means a lot to win that with my best friend,” said Riley Raynard in reference to taking the runner up award for the hobby stock class and Leevi Runge being declared the points champion. “It’s something that’s really important.”
“It’s pretty awesome,” added Runge. “We basically raced together. We’re friends on the track and off the track.”
IMCA Modified points champion Steven Pfeifer said the award recognizes the good speed he enjoyed and the great performance his car had each night. The Minot, North Dakota, resident said the Estevan Motor Speedway was a great track on the better part of each race night in 2015 and he enjoys coming here knowing the racing will be good heading in.
“We come up here because we enjoy coming here,” said Pfeifer. “The people are great. The racing is good. The racing is clean. We just come here to have a good time. I mean that’s what we’re supposed to be having at the race track and we feel like we accomplish that up here.”
Lynn Trobert, president of the Estevan Motor Speedway, said the Awards Banquet caps off a wonderful season for the speedway due to an increase in the number of fans and drivers at the track. She said the night helped show their appreciation for the volunteers and drivers' hard work in making the year so successful and the hope is that the next year is just as favourable.
“At the end of this month we’ll be in the planning stages for (next season),” said Trobert. “We’re entertaining a couple of different classes hopefully to get up for a few races.”
