This was one lead Jay Noteboom wasn't going to let go of.
Two nights after being overtaken with two laps to go in the Auto Value Fast 40, Noteboom grabbed the lead early, stayed near the front and held on for dear life to win the Estevan leg of the Dakota Classic Modified Tour.
Combined with his second place finish Sunday in Mandan, it was enough to put Noteboom in first overall entering Night 3 in Williston last night.
"That makes up for not winning there on Saturday. It was a good feeling. I love this track," said Noteboom, who is no stranger to success at Estevan.
"It's been a good week so far. We'll see if we can keep it going."
He said he raced on a similar track growing up, which helps to give him an advantage on the Canadian side of the border.
Estevan's Aaron Turnbull was second, taking advantage of a caution with 11 laps left in the 30-lap feature to move up from third, but he couldn't catch Noteboom on this night.
The Hinton, Ia., native had been running just behind Will Brack of Mead, Colo., before the caution. But he roared out of the restart and it was all but over.
"There are some of the best drivers in the country here (for the mod tour)," Noteboom said. "It was fun battling with Will Brack out there, I know he's one of the best in the business."
Brack and his brother Matt both finished in the top five, taking third and fifth respectively. Paul Donnelly of Great Falls, Mont., earned fourth.
A total of 51 mod drivers came to Estevan and 26 started the feature, including NASCAR legend Kenny Schrader, running only his third IMCA race of the year.
Schrader began the feature in sixth and worked his way up to second behind Noteboom before a mechanical problem took him out of the race.
The Estevan stop is part of a string of western dates for the Schrader crew. They're heading to Winnipeg next.
"We've really enjoyed it. We've met a lot of good people, had a lot of fun racing and seen some very nice racetracks," he said.
Schrader said he was impressed by the track's volunteers and the effort that is put in to ensure a good race experience.
"They were doing some extensive dirt work when we got here, and to look at the amount of equipment they got here and the different people from the community who had come out and donated time and equipment to work on the track is really refreshing.
"You can tell it's a pretty new facility and a lot of thought was put into it. They're doing stuff right."
Noteboom said the track felt better to him than it did in the Fast 40.
"They had it really smoothed out and packed in hard, compared to Saturday night when it was a little choppy."
Allen Kent of Minot led for a good chunk of the 25-lap street stock feature and hung on for the win, one night after taking seventh in Mandan.
Estevan's Dustin Byler earned the victory in the hobby feature.
The next night of racing at the Speedway is a regular race night next Wednesday. Races begin at 7:30 p.m.
