These two side-by-side battles raged for some time while Jensen built up his margin, running around the very outer perimeter of the red-clay oval. In fact, Jensen pushed the limit of the outer berm in turns 3 and 4 on one circuit, scraping the guardrail at the top of the track with the right-rear fender of his car. This allowed Uotinen to eliminate Jensen’s advantage by mid-race.

            This was also about the time that Miller fell back into a dogfight for third with Estey, Yrjanainen and Jeff Spacek. But just as Yrjanainen was about to make a move for the position a flat right-front tire caused him to slow coming out of turn 4 and coast the length of the front straightaway, bringing out the caution flag.

            Rick Rivord’s spin a lap after the restart again put the field at Jensen’s rear bumper, but it was Estey who made the biggest play for the win. The defending Series champion first ran outside to pass Uotinen for second, and then he dropped to the inside to challenge Jensen for the lead on lap 25. But Jensen adjusted his line and took the bottom groove away from Estey, thus building up a six car-length lead by the time the checkered flag fell.

            Jensen, who also turned the fast lap of the event at 17.178 seconds, told the crowd from the Como Oil Victory Lane, “I knew when I saw the 37 behind me on the scoreboard that I had to go to the bottom, because the top wasn’t working for me anymore in (turns) 3 and 4.

            “This (Como Mod Series) is one of the best series around. I want to thank Joe Stariha (and his staff) for doing this for us.”

            Estey took over the tour’s points lead with his second-place run, combined with a tough night for previous points leader Ryan Aho, who had to drop from the event during the lap 23 caution to change a flat tire. Aho recovered to finish 14th.

            Uotinen had Spacek bearing down on his rear bumper as he came across the line in third, while Robby Bunkelman completed the top five. Shawn Kreyer came home sixth, ahead of Miller and Don Copp. Jody Bellefeuille, who started 22nd, took ninth just in front of Rivord.

            Gondik Law Office heat race winners included Kreyer, Yrjanainen, Spacek and Miller, while Duane Dale and Bellefeuille won the two Mirror Images Day Spa B-features.

            Over the next 13 non-stop laps Chesley used a smooth, steady line around the three-eighths-mile oval to pull away again from Stuart, who had beaten Monteith to second after the restart. By the halfway point of the run Chesley and Stuart had a full straightaway on the side-by-side dual between Monteith and a resurgent Mickey Nosser.

            The pace slowed when rookie Travis Nye spun in turn 4, but Stuart still could not put up much of a challenge for Chesley, who again drew away to his third feature win here this year while posting the fastest lap of the race at 17.488 seconds. Monteith held off Nosser for third, and Rob Weber came home a close fifth.

            A strong field of 70 cars came to race Thursday night, split nearly evenly between the 36 mods and 34 Mid-mods.