Family Fun Night deemed roaring success

If you were looking for a quiet place to relax and recover from all the action on Canada Day, Emo was not the place to be last Friday night.
On the other hand, if you just couldn’t get enough noise and smoke on Thursday, the Emo Fairgrounds offered a chance to indulge all over again.
Unlike most communities in the district, Emo opted to postpone its Canada Day activities and, in conjunction with the Borderland Racing Association, held a special Family Fun Night on Friday instead.
The evening began with go-kart races, which were divided into two classes.
In the beginners’ class, Dakotah Sutherland of Devlin took the checkered flag in the feature race, followed by Jessica Rae in second and Jake Rea third.
In the gas division, Carlee Bosma of Emo emerged as queen of the track, with Andrew Trimble coming in second. Jeff Davis finished third, followed by Riley Caul, Allen Mutz, Matthew Mutz, and Cody Drennan.
Between races, local stock car drivers Steve Arpin and Joe Galloway decided to relive their childhood by engaging in a little one-on-one go-kart duel.
The intense rivalry they exhibit in the big cars was evident here, too, as neither driver gave an inch. But when the checkered flag fell, Galloway was ahead.
When asked afterwards if he missed his go-kart days, Arpin replied, “Yeah. I really love these things.”
Then it was time for the big boys to come out and play.
The Borderland Racing Association had invited drivers who compete in the regular season to come out and put on a show for the fans. Although this was strictly an exhibition event, with no points or prize money at stake, you would not have known it by the way they went at it.
In addition to the street stocks and modifieds one usually sees roaring around the Emo Speedway on Saturday nights, there also were vintage cars on hand.
And once again, Arpin got into a duel—only this time against his dad, Chuck.
This match-up probably was the highlight of the night as the fierce rivalry between father and son resulted in some hair-raising encounters in the corners.
After splitting their first two duels, the pair came back for the rubber race—this time driving each other’s cars. And this time, Steve took his dad by a fairly comfortable margin after falling behind in the early going.
After the cars were put away, the evening’s finale began around 9:45 p.m. when fireworks lit up the sky for almost 30 minutes.
Even a downpour that was, at times, torrential failed to put a damper on the show, which was judged by some present to be superior to the one the previous night in Fort Frances.
In fact, those who left early saw cars pulled over along Highway 11/71 as far as five miles from Emo to watch the display.
Throughout the evening, members of Emo council were giving away birthday cake to any and all until the rains came.
Even so, that did little to dampen the spirits of those who turned out to say “Happy Birthday, Canada”—Emo-style.