EMO Ontario – Another Saturday and another beautiful day for racing at the Emo Speedway as Amsoil Dirt Track Racing Series action got underway for the fourth week in a row. A great crowd was on hand once again as the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds garnered two heats. In the first heat, Christopher Leek started on the pole and after an early lead by Ossachuk, Leek made the pass for his fourth heat win of the year. Veteran Dwayne Pihulak rounded out the top three. In the second heat, Brady Caul made it look easy by dominating the entire race, while Ken Perry claimed second and Matt DePiero finished third.
In the Street Stocks, Libby Wilson took her second win over the veteran Richard Visser in a tight race between four competitors. In the WISSOTA Modifieds, Gavin Paull came from an eighth place start to win his second heat race of the year.
The WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds started out their feature race with Matt DePiero and Ken Perry on the front row. The battle started out with the two front row drivers, but coming into turn one, Pihulak and Brian Nelson were involved in an accident that jammed the two cars into each other so tight that there was a twenty minute delay trying to separate the two cars. In the end, the cars needed their tires taken off in order to separate them from each other. Both cars continued after the accident. On the restart, Perry and DePiero fought for a couple laps until Caul made it three wide for the lead. Once he split the two cars, Caul was clear sailing for the next several laps.
Meanwhile, points leader Leek was also moving up the field from his starting position of seventh. After some laps fighting to get by the second and third place cars, Leek opened up to try and catch Caul. By lap ten, Caul was doing his best weaving in and out of lapped traffic to stay ahead of Leek. While Caul maintained the lead, it was slowly diminishing. However, the laps ran out for Leek, giving Caul his second feature win of the year in a race that went the full twenty laps without another caution.
In the Street Stocks, Kyle Godin and Visser started on the front row. As with the heat race, there was plenty of side by side racing, even though the car count was extremely low. Visser took the early lead but Libby Wilson was quickly approaching the leader. Wilson tried getting underneath Visser but just could not get enough grip to get by.
Coming to the finish line, Visser claimed his first feature win of 2012.
The WISSOTA Modifieds had an extremely fast paced feature race. On the pole were Steve Nordin and Gary Wilson. With the high line being very tacky, Nordin moved to the front and found the fast lane around the track. Meanwhile, Paull had to move his way up from the fifth position.
By halfway, Paull had moved into second spot but could not find a spot to get around Nordin. Just before the white flag came out, the caution came out for a spin just as Paull made a move for the lead. Having to go back to the last completed lap, Paull needed to be perfect in order to make the move again.
On the backstretch after the restart, Paull made another move to the inside. It was a very tight race, but Paull ended up on top for his sixth win of the year. It was another great race in the fastest class at the Emo Speedway.
Thank you once again to all the fans, volunteers, drivers, and sponsors for another great night of racing.
Racing action returns to the Emo Speedway this Saturday night with the Candy-man at intermission brought to you by Canada Safeway Ltd. in Fort Frances. Hot laps at 7pm and racing at 7:30pm. Remember, you can join us on Facebook or twitter! @EmoSpeedway!
Anthony Leek
SUMMARY
WISSOTA Modifieds
Feature – Gavin Paull, Steve Nordin, Denny Trimble, Dwayne Pelepetz, Ron Korpi, Gary Wilson, Glen Strachan, Tyler Brown, Lindsay Bourre
Heat – Paull, Nordin, Strachan, Trimble, Wilson, Pelepetz, Brown, Bourre, Korpi
WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds
Feature – Brady Caul, Christopher Leek, Matt DePiero, Cody Ossachuk, Don Scholler, Chuck Lambert, Anthony Visser, Brian Nelson, Ken Perry, Bill Reimer, Chad Bogacki, Brody Strachan, Dwayne Pihulak
Heat 1 – Leek, Ossachuk, Pihulak, Scholler, Lambert, Visser, Bogacki
Heat 2 – Caul, Perry, DePiero, Nelson, Reimer, Strachan
Street Stocks
Feature – Richard Visser, Libby Wilson, Kyle Godin, Chris Shine
Heat – Wilson, Shine, Visser, Godin