Lucas Punkari
Second-year WISSOTA Modified driver Steve Nordin spoke for many of those who made their way to the Emo Speedway on Saturday for its annual open practice session in preparation for the 2013 racing season.
“We are pretty much knocking the cobwebs out of the car today, along with knocking the cobwebs out of myself to get back going again,” Nordin said.
“The track conditions aren’t the best today because of the weather,” he noted.
“But overall, the track has been maintained very well here and we should see a good opener here next week.”
While Saturday’s inclement conditions meant only a handful of cars ventured onto the 3/8th-mile oval, those who did went about shaking things out on their car to make sure everything is in tip-top shape before the season-opening races this coming weekend.
“In the [WISSOTA] Midwest Modified class, everyone is so close together and the class is so competitive that you want to make sure you have everything fine-tuned before the year begins,” Cody Ossachuk explained.
“We went out there for a few laps today and the car was pretty good overall, so we’re just going to make a few slight adjustments before we come back here for the opener,” he remarked.
One of the those using the pre-season test session to see if his off-season adjustments were correct was Midwest Modified driver Kenny Perry.
He had encountered some overheating issues during his appearances at the track late last year.
“That was my main concern over the winter, and that is something we hope that we have rectified over the off-season,” Perry noted.
“Other than that issue last year, things went far beyond my expectations when I came out with this car, and I’m hoping that we can build off of that this season,” he added.
For the most part, though, the number of changes on many of the cars were rather small as many drivers elected to keep things the same.
“We just had some graphic changes and we added some new tin on the car, but that’s about it,” said reigning Midwest Modified champ Christopher Leek.
“Last year went really well for us, so we didn’t really have to make any changes at all heading into this year,” he added.
Weather permitting, the 2013 season is scheduled to get underway this Saturday (May 25).
Hot laps get underway at 7 p.m., with the first heat of the night going a half-hour later.
