By Ben Deatherage
ESTEVAN, Sask. (Aug. 10, 2024) – Austin Daae had himself quite a night at Estevan Motor Speedway’s $1,000 to win IMCA Sunoco Stock Car, presented by The Floor Store, special.
The hometown hotshoe motored to his fifth win of the season, fourth of 2024 at Estevan and became B & B Racing Chassis All-Star Invitational qualifying eligible as well with the Saturday checkers.
Daae and Mike Hagen battled for the early lead in the 20-lpper. Daae, starting from the inside pole, quickly gained momentum while Hagen focused on keeping Troy Heupel at bay.
As the race developed and stayed green, Hagen reeled in Daae while still holding off Heupel.
Hagen put up a formal but unsuccessful challenge for the lead around midway. Chase Davidson launched a challenge of his own, contesting Heupel for third. His persistence paid off when he finally got around on lap 14.
Meanwhile, Daae pulled away to secure the win. Hagen was second, with Davidson completing the podium in third.
Three other Speedway Motors IMCA Weekly Racing divisions were part of the action with Les McLenehan winning in the Friesen Performance IMCA Modifieds, Cash Saxon in the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks and 10th starting Gabriel Deschamp in the Friesen Performance IMCA Northern SportMods.
To describe the Modified main event in a word, it was electric.
Starting fourth, McLenehan stormed into the race lead on the opening lap. Just as the hometown driver began to pull away, Marcus Tomlinson got around J.J. Barnstable to grab second.
The front runners set a quick pace and created some separation over the rest of the field. Aaron Turnbull, got into third the fourth time around the track.
With 10 laps remaining, the race took an exciting turn. Tomlinson caught up with McLenehan just as lapped traffic became a factor. Using the inside line, Tomlinson overtook the leader on the 16th circuit.
Tomlinson was not out of the woods, however, as he had to deal with a hefty amount of lapped traffic. He would be bottled behind some of the slower cars, allowing McLenehan to try to perform a pass.
That opportunity came on lap 21, with Tomlinson dedicated to the bottom and McLenehan challenging from the high side. McLenehan kept his foot on the gas, recovered the top spot and held on the rest of the distance to win his first race of the season in stunning fashion.
Tomlinson was second, followed by Turnbull in third.
Despite a pair of opening lap stoppages, the Hobby Stocks got off to a hot start with Kyle Satran taking control of the race lead.
While Satran drove away, a maelstrom ensued for second between Kaiden Tuchscherer, Kruz Wilson and Cash Saxon. While those three went three-wide for several laps, they were all be passed in one big swoop by Connor Hanson on the fourth circuit, just before the yellow came out.
When the green light was turned back on, it was a war for second between Hanson and Saxon. Saxon procured the position and then went to work around the race leader. Saxon executed a perfect pass to obtain the top spot on lap six.
As the race stayed green, the front three drivers pulled away from the rest of the competition and were equally spread out. Traffic came into the picture late, but it would not be an obstacle for the lead element of the field.
Despite a caution on the last lap, which ended up terminating the race, Saxon held on to win his first race in the Hobby Stock division. Satran was second while Hanson collected third.
Cash Saxon was money Saturday night at Estevan Motor Speedway, winning the IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stock main event. (Photo by Byron Fichter)
The Northern SportMod race kicked off with a bang, quite literally, as a multi-car crash occurred on the initial start.
Once the race officially began, a thrilling battle unfolded between Quentin Skjerdal and Rick Milewicz. Skjerdal managed to secure the top spot on the first lap and began to pull away.
The main event was slowed down by another caution with three down. A melee for second erupted on the restart when Stan Meyer, Ryder Raynard and Deschamp all went at it.
Deschamp edged out the other two racers for the runner-up spot on the fourth circuit just before another yellow flag waved. After the restart, he continued his march forward and got around Skjerdal on the inside of the first corner on lap five, with Raynard and Milewicz pouncing into second and third, respectively, shortly after the lead change.
Deschamp went on to dominate the balance of the distance to win by a healthy 6.418-second margin. Raynard was second while Skjerdal got back on the podium with a pass for third on lap 12
The event was broadcast by IMCA TV affiliate DARN TV.
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