ESCANABA — The U.P. State Fair Race at the Upper Peninsula International Raceway Sunday brought a long day for drivers and fans with tricky track conditions to boot.

With events at the fairgrounds all week leaving little time for track prep, crews were left chasing the track conditions throughout the afternoon.

Despite the efforts of track crews, however, the clay surface quickly dried, throwing up large amounts of dust and hindering vision for spectators and competitors.

During the Street Stock feature, Paul Wagner (Gladstone) spun in turn one and was t-boned by an unsighted Kenny Stevens in the cloud of dust.

Wagner climbed from his machine and limped to the ambulance to be checked out. His brother, Dan, finished the race. Stevens was uninjured in the accident.

The race ended under caution, with Tyler Winling (Escanaba) taking the win.

“The race itself was difficult with dust and slick conditions,” Winling said. “It was really a one-lane track, and once I got out front, I knew I had to hold onto the bottom lane.

“Trying to hold off a field of cars who are all capable of winning at any time is a hard challenge, but I knew I had a good car.”

Winling — who made his return to full-time racing this year — has been a championship favorite since the start of the season. Winling said his crew is a large part of that success.

“It’s definitely been a good year,” he said. “My crew has worked hard to keep the car running with motor issues a couple times throughout the year. But we just kept pushing forward and put some good runs together.”

Jason Piron (Escanaba) and Elliot Reid (Faithorn) finished second and third.

Another driver who has fought through recent adversity to reach victory lane again is Sportsman Micro Sprint driver Brett Labre (Escanaba).

Week upon week, it seemed, Labre would fall out of contention while running at the top end of the field.

Not this week, though, as he swept both his heat and the feature.

“The win feels great,” said Labre. “Yeah, we had some bad luck the last couple of weeks, but we worked hard and got back out there and ended up with a win. Also, having a heat and feature win in the same night is unreal, although starting in the front both races is a lot easier than starting from the back knowing you don’t have to work as hard from the back.”

Like Winling, Labre also mentioned the hard work others do away from the track to help him get to the front on the track.

“I’d like to give a huge thanks to Al Williams for all the work he has done to my car to make sure I get back out there and get rid of the bad luck,” he said.

Brennan Swanson (Menominee) and Jeffrey Latsch (Escanaba) followed Labre across the line. The third place was Latsch’s best result thus far for 2021.

In the Riverside Auto Group Youth Micro Sprints, a new driver found their way to victory lane as Bentley Richer (Escanaba) held off Karl Warm (Escanaba) and Griffin Iverson (Escanaba) on a late-race restart to cop his first win.

Rick Ness (Escanaba) also notched his first feature win in the 600 Micro Sprint division ahead of Kevin Warm (Escanaba) and Cole Stella (Minoqua, Wis.).

While Charles Peterson (Rapid River) led the final lap on the track in the Vintage Modified feature, Allan Yelle (Sands) was declared the winner after Peterson was disqualified (inspection). The change up top promoted Kevin Lustila (Germfask) to second and Don Beoit (Escanaba) to third.

For the Super Vintage Modifieds, Matt Valiquette (Rapid River) was victorious over a hard-charging Jesse Denome (Escanaba) in second and Scott Degnan (Escanaba) in third.

Valiquette raced again later in the night, finishing second in the Bink’s Coca-Cola Sport Modified feature.

Taking the win in that race was Jamie Iverson (Escanaba), who started outside pole.

Rick Gustavson (Norway) finished in the third spot.

Zach Gazda (Vulcan) took home the Island Resort Sport Compact feature win to close the night ahead of Dean Bellmore (Hermansville) and Garrett Greenfield (Escanaba).

The championship season comes to a close Saturday at UPIR, with racing starting at 6 p.m. eastern time. Increased payouts and trophies from the Christian Groleau Memorial race will be awarded to the night’s feature winner.