Lucas Punkari
Despite having not raced full-time for years, Thunder Bay driver Rick Simpson is showing very little rust behind the wheel of his WISSOTA Super Stock.
Making his first appearance at the Emo Speedway since 2008, Simpson was the class of the 13-car field that made its way to the 3/8th-mile dirt oval on Saturday, taking the checkered flag in the 20-lap main event.
“This feels really good right now,” smiled Simpson, who also has run at tracks in Superior, Wis., and Proctor and Hibbing, Mn., during the summer.
“Part of the reason why I’m so happy to win here tonight is because of how many different guys from different locations were running here,” he remarked.
“It’s such a tight class and anyone could have won.”
Having started the night with a third-place showing in the opening heat, Simpson stayed down on the bottom side of the track once the green flag waved for the feature—and was able to take the top spot away from Gary Nelson Jr., winner of the second heat, after a couple of laps.
“There was no traction whatsoever compared to the heat race, so I made sure that I wanted to get to the bottom of the track and just stay there for the entire race,” Simpson stressed.
Just past the halfway point of the race, Simpson was under a bit of pressure from Shawn Polonoski for top spot, but he was able to drive away from him to cruise to the win.
“Once I was able to keep that low line, all I wanted to do was to stay out in front,” Simpson noted.
“You never know if another car will be faster than you, especially with a class that is tight to begin with and one that has a lot of great drivers,” he reasoned.
It was a Lakehead sweep of the top three spots in the feature. Dan Tocheri, winner of the opening heat, worked his way past Polonoski over the final laps to capture the runner-up position.
Prior to the Super Stock showcase, the three regular weekly classes at the Emo Speedway competed in their feature races, with the WISSOTA Midwest Modified main event proving to be a wild and woolly affair.
With a season-high car count of 19 vying for Victory Lane, there were more caution flags than usual as a number of spin-outs and fender-benders occurred due to the tighter racing quarters.
But once the dust settled, Winnipeg driver Paul Veert captured the checkered flag, holding off a hard-charging Christopher Leek at the finish line.
“It was just a matter of keeping your composure between the yellows and all of that,” noted Veert, who also drove to a seventh-place finish in the Super Stock feature.
“This track is notorious for some really tight action, and when you have as many cars as we did tonight, it can sometimes get a little out of control and the driver can get a little overzealous,” he conceded.
“But it was still a great race, and I was really happy to win it.”
Like Simpson did in the Super Stock feature, Veert stayed glued to the low side of the track and looked to have things well in hand.
Still, Veert rant into some trouble negotiating lapped traffic with two laps to go. He narrowly avoided colliding with the spinning Mike Wilson in Turn 2, which allowed Leek to close in.
“They were criss-crossing all over the place in front of us, so you had to mind your p’s and q’s there,” stressed Veert, who also won one of the three heats on the night.
“But we were able to work through it with no damage, and you can bet that we will be back here for the fair,” he pledged.
Brady Caul passed Scott Bruce for third on the final lap of the feature while Cody Ossachuk and Matt DePiero snagged heat wins along with Veert.
In the WISSOTA Modifieds, Gavin Paull returned to the Emo oval after competing in Alexandria, Mn. last weekend—and picked up right where he left off.
He cruised to the feature race win over Tyler Brown and Heat #1 winner Darian Boyce.
Paull laid back early on as a three-wide battle for the lead broke out between Brown, Gary Wilson, and Ron Korpi, but soon made his way to the high side to wrestle top spot away from Brown.
“I started the race on the outside so I was hung out there for a little bit,” Paull explained.
“I tried to get down to the bottom a couple of times, but I couldn’t get down there because of the traffic. But once I got clear, I figured I could get around the leaders up high.
“After I was able to do that, I was able to get down to the bottom to protect,” he added.
Dustin Wahl won the other heat in the class, but only could muster a sixth-place finish in the feature.
And in the Street Stocks, Tylar Wilson returned to Victory Lane for the third time this season, using the inside line to get past Garrett Gamsby for the lead and proceed to sail away from the pack.
“I was just waiting for him to make a mistake but he never did,” noted Wilson, who also won the heat.
“I forced the issue there a little bit, and I was able to get around him on the inside there in Turns 1 and 2,” he added.
Gamsby crossed the line in second place, with Jeff Wickstrom taking third.
Regular racing action is slated to resume at the Emo Speedway this Saturday (weather permitting), with hot laps at 7 p.m. and the first race at 7:30.
