During the summer, drivers and their pit crews at the Estevan Motor Speedway sweated for points and a picture with a trophy.
Saturday night, it was all about the trophies and the stories.
The drivers and top runners up accepted their trophies for the year at their 18th annual awards banquet at the Beefeater Plaza.
“Overall it was just a really good year,” said Zach Lutz of Burlington, North Dakota, who won the hobby stocks. “Three features wins, you can't complain. It was a really good year. I enjoyed it.”
Lutz, who won the stocks by 11 points over Lampman's Landon Runge, is planning on returning next year to the track even though he'll be going to school at North Dakota State University.
“I'm going to stay in the hobby stock and I might stay in the sport mods a few times. Once I'm out of school, I'll probably jump up to a stock car.”
Gregg Mann of Estevan won the stock car competition over fellow Estevanian Austin Daae by a mere seven points.
“It's always a good achievement to come out on top,” Mann said. “You work hard all season to put a championship at the end of it. That's something to be proud of.”
Mann, his uncles Richard and Bill and his father Geoff have been racing for a long time.
“I was five when they had the old racetrack here in Estevan,” Mann said. “Richard kept going with it... and then my brother and cousin went down to Minot because we didn't have a track here then. Then it wasn't until they started bringing out rumours of having a track here that I really knew I was going to get into racing...
“I was 19 years old, we built a car and I've been doing it ever since.”
He took a couple of years off for school but racing has been an 'addiction' for him.
Also, Joey Galloway of Manor won the IMCA Modifieds season title by nine points over Riley Emmel, while Jesse Gibson won the season title by 33 points over Keenan Glasser.
The rookie of the year trophy was won by Cash Saxon in the slingshots, Devon Gonas in the hobby stocks and Troy Threinen in the street stocks.
Ken Murray won the volunteer of the year award and the Clint Prette Memorial Award was given to Lynn Trobert. Both have been dedicated volunteers over the years.
