Lucas Punkari
Saturday night’s action at the Emo Speedway marked the final night that points were up for grabs in the race for division championships in all three classes, but in actuality, two of the three title fights had been decided a weekend prior during the Rainy River Valley Agricultural Society’s annual fall fair.
WISSOTA Modified pilot Gavin Paull and Street Stock competitor Don Bowman had already captured up their respective championship trophies during the two days of racing at the fall fair, leaving the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds to be the only title that was left up for grabs on Saturday.
That battle though would be wrapped up following the first heat race of the evening, as Emo’s Christopher Leek picked up the checkered flag and clinched his first ever championship in five years of racing.
“This feels pretty good,” Leek smiled following the night of racing.
“I wish we would of had a little bit of a better car for the feature event (where he finished in eighth place), but we just needed to keep the car on track all night, and we won the title,” Leek added.
Leek, who captured the championship by 12 points over Tylar Wilson and 18 points over Cody Ossachuk, was one of the most consistent runners during the course of the season in the tightly contested Midwest Modified class, and was also able to capture two feature victories during the campaign.
“Every year that I’ve been racing, my goal is to just try and get better and better, and that’s what our team ended up doing,” Leek, who plans to return and defend his title next season, explained.
“This was the first year for the different rear suspension set up (a three-link suspension instead of a four-link suspension) in our class, which we were able to get on board with right away.
“That gave us a boost at the start of the year and that allowed us to run near the front,” Leek reasoned.
Out of his two feature wins, the one that Leek is most fond of came on Friday, Aug. 19, during the first night of racing at the fall fair.
“I didn’t think we had the car at the start of the race,” Leek, who also finished in fifth place in the final point standings at the Grand Rapids Speedway in Minnesota, recalled.
“The car managed to stay the same during the race, and we managed to get out front and stay there, so that was a really good night,” Leek added.
Joining Leek as a first time division champion was Bowman in the Street Stocks, as the 62-year-old driver from Bemidji took the title over Lindsay Bourre by 62 points and Carlee Bosma by 69 points.
“It’s really cool to be the champion, and I really like this feeling,” Bowman smiled.
“As I said earlier this season, we came here to have fun firstly and to also be consistent in our performances, and during the season we didn’t have any mechanical or crashed up body problems.
“I don’t know anybody that got more second place finishes this year than I did, and I was happy to be there I might add,” Bowman joked.
Bowman was able to take three feature wins during the course of the campaign, which tied him with former track champion Scott Messner for the most in the class, and was a contender for the checkered flag on nearly every race night, sometimes against drivers that were half his age or younger.
“These young people are really starting to mature in these cars,” Bowman, who is planning to return next season though his schedule has yet to be determined, noted.
“That makes for a little less wrecked equipment for everybody and it certainly makes for more exciting racing, and I love to compete against a field like that.
“Nobody wants to come here and win by half-a-lap,” Bowman reasoned.
As for Paull, who cruised to the WISSOTA Modified championship by 112 points over Glen Strachan and 130 points over Tyler Brown, this season’s title was his third in the class during his career, with his previous titles coming in 2002 and 2007.
“I would say that we probably have better equipment now than I did in the other two seasons,” Paull explained.
“This year I really put a lot of effort into the car, which was a new car for me a season ago, and it’s been very fast and consistent unlike my other cars in the past.
“Some nights I would be up front and then on other nights I would end up being in tenth place, and now I’m staying right at the front.
“I’ve also probably improved personally as well, just by having a couple of kids and settling down a little bit, as I used to be a little bit of a hot head,” Paull added.
The Fort Frances driver was far and away the most dominant driver at the track this season, as he hauled in ten feature victories during 13 nights of racing, and also picked up nine straight checkered flags from June 4 until August 13.
“We were lucky to get nine wins in a row to start the year because those type of things usually don’t happen,” Paull, who plans to travel to a few more out-of-town tracks in 2012, noted.
“(After seeing his streak snapped by Ward Imrie on Aug. 13) I knew going into the fair nights that it was going to be tough to get a win with that field, and we might of finished a little better by starting up near the front, but it is what it is.
“We had fun though and finished in the top five on both nights, and we were able to keep our point lead intact to take the title,” Paull added.
