Lucas Punkari
Having her seen her dad Tylar carry the checkered flag around the track after three feature races this season, Street Stock driver Libby Wilson was anxious to achieve the same feat at the Emo Speedway.
Wilson, who is in her third season of racing, achieved that goal on Saturday night at the 3/8 mile oval, as she swept both the heat and the feature to pick up her first career main event triumph.
“It was pretty exciting, and the feeling of winning a feature was better than I imagined,” Wilson enthused.
Having started the feature in fourth position, Wilson battled it out with Kyle Godin for third position for a couple of laps before making her way to the bottom of the track and eventually taking the lead from Richard Visser.
“The inside of the track was tacky, so the set up on the car was perfect for that,” she explained.
“The car ran smoothly right around the track, and I didn’t have to get off of the throttle at all,” Wilson added.
In the final few laps of the race, Wilson felt a bit of pressure from behind from last week’s feature winner Chris Shine, but she was able to hold onto the lead and cross the finish line in first place.
“I was waiting forever for the race to finish,” she joked.
“I didn’t know that Chris was right behind me until the end there, but I was just trying to push myself a little bit harder in the final laps,” Wilson added.
Shine and Visser would follow Wilson to the line to round out the top three.
Meanwhile, in the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, Christopher Leek continued his strong performances as of late in the feature races, as he made a couple of late race passes to capture his third main event triumph of the season.
“It was a really good race to win,” Leek smiled.
“It was really hard to pass out there though, and I was just playing a patient game at the start of the race and waiting things out.
“I wasn’t planning to go right for the win, but the chance was there and I was able to get up to the front,” he reasoned.
Running in the third position for most of the race, Leek was finally able to get by heat race number one winner Dwayne Pihulak for the runner-up position late in the race, and then made his way by leader Matt Depiero in turn four with a handful of laps to go.
Depiero wouldn’t let Leek take the lead away quite that easy however, as he tried to slip back underneath him heading into turn one on the following lap, but he suffered damage on the pass attempt and was forced to call it a night.
“I’m not really to sure what all happened with that,” Leek recalled.
“I was pretty sure that I didn’t hit him in turn four, and I thought that I had made a clean pass,” he reasoned.
Heat race number two John Hettinga would finish the feature in second with Ken Perry coming home in third.
Finally in the WISSOTA Modifieds, Bemidji, Mn. driver Justin Jones made a successful debut appearance in Emo on Saturday night, as he captured both the heat and the feature race in convincing fashion.
“We went out for hot laps and the car felt really good, and it just stayed that way,” Jones, who typically races in Brainerd, said.
“This was is a fun track to race on, and I hope to be back here again this year, but it’s hard to say what the schedule will be like for us.
“There are some days where I don’t even know where we will be racing next,” he joked.
In the feature, Jones ran behind Gavin Paull early on, but when Paull stumbled slightly out of turn two, he was able to take advantage and take over the lead for good.
“I knew coming into the race that Gavin would be the toughest guy out here,” he explained.
“When I caught up to him, I was able to see what line he was running and I saw that he was running a little bit tight.
“I just waited for him to push up a little bit, and I was able to sneak up to him,” Jones added.
Paull would cross the finish line behind Jones, while third place in the feature went to Gary Wilson.
Racing action is set to resume on Saturday evening, weather permitting, with the green flag dropping for the heat races at 7:30 p.m.
