Lucas Punkari
As the laps wound down on the WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature race Saturday night at the Emo Speedway, it looked liked John Hettinga would have to settle for a third-place finish at best as he was locked in a tight battle with Brady Caul.
But when Chuck Lambert suffered mechanical issues coming to the white flag, Hettinga rocketed up into the lead and captured his first feature win of the season in dramatic fashion.
“I’ve never won a feature like that before,” Hettinga smiled.
“Something happened to Chuck’s car on the frontstretch and the other guys were all piled up behind him real close, and I was far enough back to drive around them on the bottom,” he recalled.
“I was just lucky to be in the right spot at the right time.”
Lambert had the field covered and looked to be well on his way to collecting his fourth feature win of the season—until he blew an radiator hose coming out of the final corner with the white flag in sight.
“Quite honestly, I thought I had blown the engine,” Lambert admitted.
“I didn’t know what was going on when it happened, but I got squirrely and had to slow the car down on the frontstretch there.
“When I looked down at my gauges, though, and saw that the everything was still running, I got back on the throttle and finished in fifth place,” he noted.
“It’s a tough way to finish up, but that’s just the way she goes sometimes.”
As Lambert was slowing down on the frontstretch, second-place driver Cody Ossachuk had to jam on the brakes dramatically to avoid running into the back of the leader.
Caul and Hettinga, meanwhile, both split the stricken machine, with Hettinga grabbing the lead for good.
“The only problem with winning now, though, is that I have a high point average now and will have to start at the back for the [Emo] Fair weekend,” joked Hettinga, who only has run a couple of races this year.
“The car was pretty good tonight overall, and the track itself was a lot of fun to race on, so it all worked out,” he added.
Another benefactor from the last-lap chaos was defending track champ Christopher Leek. The current division points leader moved up from sixth place to the runner-up spot in the final running order.
Ossachuk settled for third.
In the WISSOTA Modifieds, Gavin Paull returned to Victory Lane after a week’s absence, capturing his eighth feature win of the season over Glen Strachan and points leader Denny Trimble.
Strachan had opened up a comfortable lead early on, but Paull began to close in steadily after working his way through the pack.
Strachan then ran into trouble negotiating his way through lapped traffic near the halfway point of the race, allowing Paull to take advantage.
“I was trying to be careful and trying not to crash off of the start there because we were in pretty tight quarters,” noted Paull, who was coming off a seventh-place finish in the Al Delaine Memorial at the Red River Co-Op Speedway in Winnipeg last Thursday.
“I was a little worried about Glen there as he had opened a full straightaway lead on me, but I was able to get to him when he got into the lapped traffic,” he explained.
“Once he got close to Lindsay [Bourre] there, he checked up a few times and was kind of conservative to make sure he didn’t run into her.
“That’s how I closed in and I wasn’t about to back off,” Paull smiled.
And in the Street Stocks, Chris Shine captured his second feature win of the campaign in dominating fashion.
After taking the lead from Kyle Godin on the first lap, Shine steadily pulled away from the rest of the field, with second-place driver Wes Morriseau and third-place finisher Libby Wilson both well back.
“I was waiting for someone to come up alongside of me there, but nobody was coming so I was starting to get a little nervous,” Shine remarked.
“I haven’t made any changes to the car since I won my first feature with it [on July 28] and it’s still running good,” he added.
“I just hope to finish the rest of the races without any issues.”
This coming weekend will see the two biggest nights of the season at the Emo Speedway, with action taking place both Friday and Saturday in conjunction with the annual fall fair.
Racing also will get started at an earlier time each night, with hot laps set for 6 p.m. and the first heats starting around 6:30.
