Anthony Leek
Racing resumed at the Emo Speedway on Saturday after a week of wet weather, including the cancellation of the Emo Fall Fair races the previous Saturday night and the Sunday rain date.
Beautiful sunny weather greeted fans and drivers alike for the Keith McNally Memorial—an evening dedicated to Keith McNally, who was killed while racing at the Emo Speedway back in September, 1993.
The WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds saw a large car count again. Twenty-one cars, including first-time attendee for this season, Jeff Marshall, started out in three heats.
In the first heat, Ken Anderson was unable to catch up to Marshall for the win while Brady Caul finished third.
Tridell Champlin outran Gary Labine of Murillo and Dwayne Pihulak in the second heat while Chuck Lambert had an exciting race in the third one, beating Danny Rea and Jeff Davis to the finish line.
The Street Stocks had a solid field, with a total of 14 cars on hand.
Split into two heats of seven, Don Bowman was able to outmuscle Tylar Wilson and Richard Visser for the win in the first one.
Ron Westover and Jeff Wickstrom were unable to tame Scott Messner, who took another victory in the second heat.
The WISSOTA Modifieds also had two heats, with Greg Ferris making a dashing move to beat Glen Strachan and Chad Jonson for the first one.
In the second heat, Jason Anderson outpaced Bill Witherspoon and Pihulak.
The features were quite exciting, with plenty of thrills and spills and close racing in the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds.
Starting on the front row were Anderson and Labine. The green flag waved and after just over a lap in, Rick Bourre spun out around mid-pack, leaving Christopher Leek and Anthony Visser nowhere to go.
Leek hit the brakes to minimize the damage but the hard hit from Visser, who was unable to react as quickly, caused Leek to go over the top of Bourre’s car.
Visser was finished for the night while Leek was unable to get out of the changing area in time. Bourre continued the race, but was forced to pull to the infield at the halfway point due to mechanical issues.
The race was competitive throughout much of the field, although the fight for first was short-lived as Marshall got around Anderson early on.
The only challenger after that was a fast Brady Caul, who started in the seventh position and managed to get alongside Marshall a couple of times, but was unable to maintain it in the corners.
It was clear sailing as the laps wound down for Marshall, who took the McNally Memorial win.
Right after the finish, Caul got sideways and then was nudged by another driver, causing him to roll.
Fortunately, Caul was okay after the incident.
The Street Stock feature also was very exciting as Wes Morriseau and Daniel Hettinga started on the front row.
The race was packed at the front, with anyone having a shot at winning the bonus money for the McNally Memorial.
Richard Visser, Tylar Wilson, and Jeff Wickstrom found themselves battling for the lead while points leader Scott Messner tried to find the holes to break to the front.
As the field went almost four wide, Messner moved down a bit to avoid the outside car. What he didn’t realize was Wickstrom was below and the left rear panel of Messner touched the front of Wickstrom.
Messner got loose and had to drive in the infield to catch the car from spinning out. He slowed to a crawl and headed back onto the track.
At the same time, coming out of turn four, the leader Hettinga broke the steering and lost control, moving in front of Visser and Wickstrom.
Hettinga was done for the night, needing to be towed away, but heavy front-end damage didn’t stop Visser from continuing and finishing fourth.
Meanwhile, it was a lucky restart for Messner, who was able to get back in line in third and get past Wickstrom and Wilson for the win.
Bowman finished third by a late pass on Wilson, with Visser and Bosma rounding out the top five.
Finally, the WISSOTA Modifieds finished off the evening with a dominating Glen Strachan. As Greg “Flying” Ferris had to battle through the field after starting seventh, Strachan was able to pull a sizable lead.
But in turn three, about halfway through the race, Denny Trimble lost control and spun out, gathering Brad Loveday and Matt DePiero.
Both Trimble and Loveday were finished for the night, but DePiero continued on.
Strachan pulled the lead again while Marshall, Jason Anderson, and Ferris fought to catch up. Another two cautions came about later in the race, and it seemed Strachan had run out of steam.
Losing some control in turns three and four, Strachan was passed by Ferris and Marshall.
The battle was drawing to a close but Marshall was unable to maintain a continued challenge to Ferris.
After the race, a surprised Ferris said he was certain Strachan was going to win the race if it was not for the cautions.
This coming Saturday (Aug. 29) at the Emo Speedway is the season championships, with car rides during intermission!
Hot laps at 7 p.m. and racing at 7:30 (weather permitting).
Check out www.borderlandracing.com for more information throughout the week!
