Staff
If it’s happened before, nobody for the moment can seem to remember it.
Jamie Davis of Devlin won the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds and WISSOTA Modifieds feature races Saturday night at the Emo Speedway to unofficially became the first driver in Borderland Racing Association history to capture two features in two different divisions on the same night.
“You get lucky once in a while,” Davis chuckled.
Neither of his twin achievements came with him starting the race from the front of the pack–in the first one, he actually had to come from the very back.
Heading into Turn #3 on the first lap of what would be a wild 17-car Midwest Modifieds final, James Lambert had a fellow Fort Frances driver slide into his path down on the inside.
The contact sent Lambert for one revolution in the air, landing on his wheels, although remarkably he was able to finish the race.
In pulling up just short of the collision, Davis and his No. 85 car were drilled from behind by Anthony Visser of Emo and forced to head to the pit area for a tire change.
Visser, meanwhile, himself was smacked into by Scott McKinnon of Thunder Bay.
The numerous vehicles involved in the mishap caused an extended delay in returning to action, which gave Davis the necessary time to get his repairs completed.
When he got back on the track, Davis clawed his way through the field with a mix of good driving and some caution flags that helped bring the leaders back to the pack for the required restarts.
Late in the race, Davis was up to third when he almost got caught up in more havoc in front of him.
Race leader Jake Rea of Devlin had second-place Dayton Brady of Thunder Bay bump him from behind on the back straightaway, causing Rea to spin out.
But Brady’s lead was extremely short-lived as Davis, coming up quick from the rear, tapped him from behind just moments later and sent him out of the race, as well.
The next restart found Davis at the head of the pack, and he was able to hold off Cody Ossachuk of Pinewood the rest of the way to win by two seconds.
In the 11-car Modifieds final, Davis again was nimble enough to avoid disaster unfolding in front of him.
Driving the No. 4D car, he just made it to high ground in time when Matt DePiero of Fort Frances and Tyler Brown of Rainy River came together just out of Turn #2 early in the race, with DePiero spinning out.
Davis was granted the lead off the restart and had to contend with Gavin Paull of Fort Frances hot on his heels on that restart and two more that followed quickly.
Paull came close several times to grabbing the lead, but couldn’t close the gap entirely before Davis took the checkered flag.
The wins put Davis fifth place in the Midwest Modifieds standings with 223 points and seventh in the Modifieds with 196.
Ossachuk still leads the Midwest Mods division with 252, followed by Rea in second (234) and Devlin’s Mike Wilson in third (233).
Brody Strachan of Emo currently tops the Modifieds division with 253 points, with DePiero in second (230) and Fort Frances veteran Ron Korpi holding down third (217).
More intrigue came in the Street Stock division Saturday night, with Stratton native Kendal Gamsby (now living in Atikokan) powering his way to his second feature win of the season.
Gamsby, who won the overall division title in 2014, was fourth in the five-car field early in the feature.
But he gradually reeled in each car in front of him, including 2015 division winner Tylar Wilson from Fort Frances, who went into Saturday having won three features so far this year.
Jake Froemke (International Falls) was third–good enough to boost him into first place overall with 198 points.
Kevin Desserre (Dryden) is now second (191) after finishing fourth in the feature while Wilson slipped back to third (174).
Racing action resumes this Saturday, with hot laps at 7 p.m. and the first race at 7:30 (weather permitting).
