It was a busy but winning day at the track for a couple of Estevan drivers who took advantage of their programs on the Tougher Than Dirt Tour at the Estevan Motor Speedway Saturday night.
The Tougher Than Dirt Tour hit the speedway with sport modified car and hobby stocks as the fourth night in the five-track tour. Minot, North Dakota’s Brock Beeter won the hobby stocks and then jumped into his sport mod for that race but he was pushed over the edge of the track in turn two and blew his engine. That race was won by Elsworth, Iowa’s Rocky Caudle.
Aaron Turnbull won the modifieds race and Jeremy Swanson won the street stocks. Both have been racing at the EMS for several years.
Caudle, who would get enough points Sunday in Minot to claim the title, won a slose race with Erik Laudenschlager, Brady Bjella and Robby Rosselli close by.
“The last couple of laps, we got that caution there and I thought these guys are running pretty hard, three wide up here, so I’m just going to be patient,” said Caudle. “The 49 (Laudenschlager), the 0 (Rosselli), 99 (Bjella), all great racers. And then it looked like the one car got a little tight … and I had the right angle on the corner and I cut across the racetrack and the rest is history. Right place at the right time.”
Bjealla took the lead with a couple of laps to go but it was Caudle claiming the checkered flag.
Beeter, meanwhile, is no stranger to the Estevan track and was able to gut out a win in the event and in the tour.
Drivers had to do a beanbag toss challenge to determine pole position, which is sometimes crucial at the EMS. Adam Goff, who was leading in points heading into the race, rolled his car going into turn one with 11 laps to go while in fourth place.
“The biggest thing was finally I got to go on that beanbag toss and I got on the outside,” said Beeter. “I’ve been struggling with that all week. But with Adam rolling over, I don’t wish that upon nobody but I knew if I could get through lapped traffic faster than Leevi (Runge), I was good.”
Beeter said that he knew that if he was smooth enough and he stayed out front, they weren’t going to be able to pass me.
“I was going to have to screw up,” he said. “The car was too good… I was pretty confident I was going to keep momentum up on the high side. I lost one (Friday) night on the last lap in Williston (North Dakota). Finally I got it.”
Turnbull had finished second in the only other race of the year in the modifieds but got a lead fairly early and was able to keep it in a fairly clean race.
“I knew I had to be on the bottom so I got there as quick as I could,” Turnbull said. “I kind of made some changes to my car so it would run a little better. I’ve been struggling with that the last couple of weeks and it was definitely better. I stayed under those guys and got up to the lead and I figured once I got there they’d have a tough time getting around me.”
Turnbull was able to hold off challenges from Travis Hagen and Riley Emmel. Kody Scholpp was unable to compete as his transponder wasn’t working so he had to go to the pits before the race started.
“He would have been pretty tough but my car felt really good,” said Turnbull. “I was more worried about Travis Hagen than I was worried about Kody. Travis was been winning everywhere he goes. When Kody got sent off, that brought Travis up beside me. I was kind of more worried about that.”
Jeremy Swanson won a tight battle with Minot’s Joren Boyce through the last half of their race. Boyce tried to find a couple of different ways around Swanson but wasn’t quite able to get through.
“I knew he was there,” Swanson smiled. “He’s good, he’s a veteran ad he’s one of the best in the business. I saw where he was and that kind of keyed me to get down to that spot.”
Ryder Raynard won the junior slingshots feature race.
The next scheduled race is June 9 for a regular race program.
