ESCANABA — Saturday night racing at the Upper Peninsula International Raceway in Escanaba brought yet another week of unpredictable and exciting racing.

Mechanical issues or driver errors wreaked havoc in several of the track’s divisions throughout the night.

One driver who capitalized on both was Austin Berg (Bark River,) who won the 600 Micro Sprint Feature race.

As the laps wound down, Logan Getzloff (Wilson), Kyle Mayville (Escanaba) and Robbie Buttry (Escanaba) all had mechanical issues from the top half of the field. Getzloff and Mayville returned to the track while it was night over for Buttry.

As the white flag flew, Paul Hosking (Bark River) showed the way. Suddenly he slowed on the backstretch, and Berg took the lead.

As it turned out, Hosking — similar to a mistake Mark Martin made in a NASCAR race at Bristol Motor Speedway in 1994 — mistook the white flag for the checkered flag and backed out of the throttle a lap early.

Even Berg has made the same error in the past.

“It’s unfortunate that that happened to Paul, but I know exactly how he is feeling because a couple years ago that exact same thing happened to me, and I learned my lesson,” Berg said. “So, now I keep going until I see the caution lights come on in the corners or the yellow flag comes out.”

When the green flag dropped, Berg had doubts about his chances to take the win.

“Starting in the middle of the pack, I never thought I would have a chance to win the race with how competitive the class is,” he said. “A couple laps into the race, when I found myself in second place because of the cars in front of me started having issues, I thought to myself I have a chance to win.

“Overall it was a great night, and I couldn’t have asked for a better car to drive.”

Berg — a part-time driver this year — thanked his sponsors and supporters for backing him this season, especially as a part-timer.

Rick Ness (Escanaba) helped his situation in the point standings with a third-place finish. Getzloff, his closest rival in the points, recovered for a fourth-place finish.

Other races that saw leaders with issues were the Riverside Auto Group Youth Micro Sprint feature and the Sportsman Micro Sprint feature.

In the youth division, Griffin Iverson (Escanaba) had a healthy lead when his car came to a stop at the entrance to turn three.

Carson Artley (Escanaba) went on to take the win to increase his lead in the points standings. Karl Warm (Escanaba) and Walker Clarkson (Manitowoc, Wis.) finished second and third.

Parker Ives (Davidson, N.C.) — son of Bark River native and NASCAR crew chief Greg Ives — made his debut at UPIR, finishing in the fourth spot.

In the Sportsman main event, Brett Labre dropped out from second with an apparent mechanical issue, allowing Drake Degnan (Escanaba) and Brennan Swanson (Menominee) to fill out the podium spots.

Tyler Demars (Green Bay, Wis.) led flag to flag to take the win.

One of the best battles all night was for the Street Stock feature win between Tyler Winling (Escanaba) and Nick Leisner (Escanaba).

After multiple circuits shadowing Winling, Leisner made the pass for the win.

As the winner put it, “It wasn’t easy at all.”

“I kinda rode behind him for a few laps, seeing where I was better than him and deciding when I wanted to make my move,” Leisner said. “I think he got a little loose off of (turn four) one lap, and I was able to get to his rear tire and decided it was go time.

“He drove an awesome race, and it was really fun to have some good clean battling.”

Neil Aaberg (Escanaba) crossed the line third.

Zach Gazda (Vulcan), Tom Waselesky (Harvey) and Ryan Mathieson (Escanaba) were the top three in the Island Resort Sport Compact feature but the story in that race was Trever Cronick’s (Faithorn) wild ride.

In the opening laps, Cronick hopped another car’s tire, launching his car airborne. Cronick’s car tumbled once, then lept into the air and into the backstretch catchfencing roof first.

Thankfully, the catchfencing did its job and held Cronick within the track’s confines. After slamming back to the track’s surface, Croncik clambered out from the upside-down vehicle unhurt.

Matt Valiquette (Menominee) recovered from last week’s woes to take the Bink’s Coca-Cola Sport Modified feature in dominant fashion with Jamie Iverson (Escanaba) and Lonnie Dalgord (Escanaba) following.

Scott Degnan (Escanaba) won the Super Vintage Modified feature ahead of Jesse Denome (Escanaba) and Matt Valiquette.

Herb Iverson (Gladstone) led Charles Peterson (Rapid River) over the line with Garry Anderson (Menominee) in third in the Vintage Modified feature.

Next week, UPIR celebrates the life and legacy of one of the all-time greats with the Bob Iverson Memorial Saturday at 6 p.m. EST.