There was a moment Saturday evening where the rain dripped on the Estevan either and Estevan Motor Speedway organizers were likely thinking ‘not again’.
Rain has cancelled two programs this year and was looking like it may have done so again Saturday but organizers looked at the radar, realized that the rain was moving out and said the races will go on.
And for once the sun shone on the speedway for two non-weather interrupted evenings of the Border City Dirt Wars. The Dirt Wars, which are set up for hobby stock drivers to collect points on the two nights of the weekend, were won by Riese Dignan of Kenmare, N.D. with two second place finishes.
On the first night, Estevan’s Gregg Mann won the street stocks feature race, Minot, N.D.’s Robby Rosselli won the sport modifieds feature, David Rieks of Webster City, Iowa won the hobby stocks feature and Weyburn’s Tyler Wagner won the A-modifieds.
It would have been difficult to find a more dominant driver on the weekend than Rosselli, who won the sports mods feature race both nights.
“It’s kind of tough on the track, once it gets rain on it,” said Rosselli Saturday. “The track doesn’t really seal over and it develops a cushion. Nothing against Estevan but when it develops a cushion it kind of turns into a one lane track.”
There was a caution in the Saturday feature race for the sport mods and Rosselli caught up to then-leader Brady Bjella, took the lead and never looked back.
Mann, meanwhile, was the street stocks champion in 2017 and has emerged from a semi retirement in recent weeks to come back and race well.
“We planned on starting our season at about the Dakota (modifieds) tour time and we tried hitting the doubleheader here before that just to shake the car out and found out we had a lot of work to do with the car,” said Mann. “The six days in a row on that tour, we really figured it out in the end. We came back to Estevan and we plan on racing the rest of the year. The kids are out of school and done their sports. I have a little bit more time to mess around with the car.”
Mann likely won’t have the kind of time needed to catch up on the points side of things but will focus on driving as well as he can in the three home dates left.
“Getting the Ws is on my list this year,” Mann said. “Racing hard and having a good time with these guys. I wanted to take the whole points thing, not worry about it and get back to enjoying it.”
On the second night, Sunday, Rosselli again won the sport modifieds race, Zach Lutz from Burlington, N.D. won the hobby stocks, Les McLenehan of Estevan won the A modifieds and Minot’s Joren Boyce won the street stocks.
Rieks looked like he would claim a second straight feature race until Lampman’s Diezel Raynard flipped over near turn 2 with only four laps to go. In the red flag caution, it was discovered Rieks had a flat tire. He was able to go to the pits and get it changed before the race re-started, but Rieks had to go to the back of the pack after the tire change and couldn’t make up the spots.
“I felt like I was starting to reel him in a little bit,” said Lutz, who was running second at the time. “I was starting to catch up to him and the car was coming in good. (But) I don’t know if I had enough to get by him though. The fact that he had a flat definitely gave us the win.”
The affable Boyce, meanwhile, won his first event of the year at EMS and his sixth race of the year, counting North Dakota racing.
“It was a different race than (Saturday),” he said Sunday. “The track crew does a second to nobody job… with the weather it just didn’t firm up like we wanted it too until late in the night…
“Today the wind was blowing in the other direction and things were able to dry out.”
Boyce stayed near the bottom of the track and made the other drivers try to use the higher line to try to work around him, and no one was able to quite catch up to him.
“It’s hard for me to find victory circle in Estevan but I found it.”
The next race night at EMS is Aug. 3 for the late model special.
