Anthony Leek
Another weekend of racing at the Emo Speedway on Saturday night brought excitement to the track with the addition of the Winnipeg Super Trucks.
The WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, WISSOTA Modifieds, and Street Stocks also put on a great show for the Amsoil Dirt Track Racing Series action.
The crowd was so large, in fact, that racing was delayed five minutes to allow the remaining people to make their way through the gate to enjoy the four classes that put on some of the best racing of the season.
The WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds started off their first heat of the night with Tylar Wilson coming from a third-place start to hold off a late charge by Christopher Leek to take the win.
Anthony Visser finished third.
In the second heat, Brad Caul drove from fourth place to take the checkered flag. Matt DePiero finished where he started—in second—while Kendal Gamsby placed third.
The Street Stocks had three heats for the first time in several years as Shawn Teunis and Jesse Peterson of Winnipeg brought their race cars with the Super Trucks to try a turn or two on Emo’s high-banked oval.
In the first heat, Peterson started on the pole and finished where he started while Daniel Hettinga was forced to settle for second.
Lindsay Bourre finished third.
In the second heat, Darien Trimble won his heat after starting third, with Carlee Bosma in second and Terry Martin next.
And in the third heat, Scott Messner scooped the field from fourth to grab the win while Don Bowman and Ron Westover finished second and third, respectively.
The Winnipeg Super Trucks were split into two heats.
There was plenty of three-wide racing as Ward Imrie guided his truck from last place to first at the checkered flag.
Lynn Lucken took second, with Wayne Grosky taking third.
In the second heat, Jerome Guyot passed his brother, Eric, and Murray Kozie to steal the win.
And in the WISSOTA Modifieds, two heats were the order of the night.
In the opener, Glen Strachan started and finished in first over newcomer to the track, Ward Imrie. Brad Loveday finished third.
In the second heat, Bill Witherspoon came from fourth place to take the win, with Gary Wilson and Ron Korpi rounding out the top three.
The start of the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds feature had Tylar Wilson and Gamsby on the front row.
As usual, the cars were close and competitive, but there was a caution flag within the first few laps.
On the restart, Caul started to move up and was able to get by other fast cars such as Hettinga and the front-row sitters to take a bit of a lead.
DePiero and Mike Wilson had a fairly good night by starting seventh and 11th, respectively, yet finishing in the upper pack.
Overall, it was a great race for the packed crowd. Caul now has regained the points lead over Gamsby by only two points.
The Street Stocks had a wild feature race. The total of 15 cars, with the fastest ones in the back, made for some of the best excitement of the night.
Messner took advantage of the high line to get by many of his fellow competitors in less than a lap, but with an early caution, the restart line-up had the cars back in their original positions.
On the ensuing restart, there was a lot of passing and side-by-side action. But trouble was brewing as Libby Wilson made it three wide in turns three and four.
As the cars battled for position, Dan Hettinga lost control of his car directly in front of the other three, causing everyone to check up and pile into the green car of Hettinga.
The carnage left Peterson with no steering, Teunis with front-end damage, and sent Hettinga to the pits for an early retirement.
The race was restarted again and that is when the real action began. Messner once again took the high side and was to the front within a couple of laps.
The race remained under green and it looked as though Messner would walk away with the glory. Ron Westover and Don Bowman finally had made their way to second and third, but it looked like it was over for the hunters of Messner.
Luck was on their side, however, as Messner, after passing a lapped car coming into turn three, went a bit too high through the corner and slipped up and over the top of the track.
Westover promptly grabbed the lead, with Bowman in second, as Messner frantically tried to pull himself back on the track.
Luckily for him, the caution flag came out one more time as a battle ensued between Wilson and Leininger, causing Wilson to lose control of her car.
They restarted in single file and you knew Westover, Bowman, and Messner were going to duke it out in a five-lap dogfight. They were three wide, high, low, and everywhere.
Bowman got by Westover coming to the white flag while Messner tried to slide into second. Coming out of turn four, Messner had a great run going but it was not quite enough as Bowman took the win in dramatic fashion by finishing in the lead by a bumper!
The WISSOTA Modifieds also had a great feature as Rick Bourre and Bill Witherspoon started on the front row.
There was a quick restart after Gary Wilson spun, leaving Witherspoon having to avoid the car with just a nudge but both were able to continue the chase.
Loveday moved quickly through the six cars in front of him and took the lead by a long shot. But coming up on lapped traffic in turn three, Loveday slide into Bourre’s car, causing the leader to spin out.
With the restart, Strachan and Imrie had some great racing as one took the low line and the other the high line. They, too, caught up to two lapping cars and somehow split both of them while racing each other.
It was a definite reason to cheer as the four cars took up the whole track with no room to spare.
Imrie’s car started getting better on the long runs but he ran out of laps, giving Strachan his second win of the season and a more comfortable lead in the points standings.
Finally, the Super Trucks had a doozy of a feature to cap off the night.
Tayvia Dorge and Lynn Lucken started on the front row. Early in the race, however, Jerome Guyot took the lead after starting third.
He pulled away from the field but Imrie was moving closer to the front, as well.
Imrie had to get by Lucken and Dorge first but after working a couple of track lines, he was able to get them both and started the long trek to catch up to Guyot.
In the meantime, Lee McRae had started in 10th and already was in third after a battle between Dorge and Lucken left Dorge with a flat tire.
Imrie finally caught up to Guyot and they raced together for a bit, with Imrie eventually taking the lead.
Following the waving of the white flag, Imrie and the other trucks were racing to the checkered flag when Groksy had his right rear tire rip through and fly off the truck, causing him to barrel roll on the track.
Coming to rest on his side, he was hit by Lucken, which shot him back onto his wheels.
It was a couple of heart-pounding moments before it was known the drivers were okay, which may not be said for their wrinkled machines.
A big congratulations goes out to all the winners, as well as a big thank you to everyone who came out to enjoy such an exciting night of racing at the Emo Speedway.
Racing action resumes at the Emo Speedway this Saturday (Aug. 14), with car rides featured during intermission.
Visit www.borderlandracing.com for more information.
SUMMARY
WISSOTA
Modifieds
•Feature–1. Glen Strachan 2. Ward Imrie 3. Gary Wilson 4. Bill Witherspoon 5. Tyler Brown 6. Rick Bourre 7. Denny Trimble 8. Brad Loveday 9. Dwayne Pelepetz
•Heat #1—1. Strachan 2. Imrie 3. Loveday 4. Pelepetz 5. Brown
•Heat #2–1. Witherspoon 2. Wilson 3. Korpi 4. Bourre 5. Trimble
WISSOTA
Midwest
Modifieds
•Feature–1. Brady Caul 2. Kendal Gamsby 3. John Hettinga 4. Tylar Wilson 5. Matt DePiero 6. Mike Wilson 7. Christopher Leek 8. Ken Perry 9. Cody Ossachuk 10. Glen Godin 11. Steve Nordin 12. Anthony Visser
•Heat #1–1. T. Wilson 2. Leek 3. Visser 4. Ossachuk 5. Nordin 6. M. Wilson
•Heat #2–1. Caul 2. DePiero 3. Gamsby 4. Hettinga 5. Perry 6. Godin
Street Stocks
•Feature–1. Don Bowman 2. Scott Messner 3. Ron Westover 4. Richard Visser 5. Terry Martin 6. Charlene Nicolson 7. Lindsay Bourre 8. Nick Leininger 9. Carlee Bosma 10. Libby Wilson 11. Darien Trimble 12. Shawn Teunis 13. Jesse Peterson 14. Daniel Hettinga 15. Tyler Wickstrom
•Heat #1–1. Peterson 2. Hettinga 3. Bourre 4. Nicolson 5. Wilson
•Heat #2–1. Trimble 2. Bosma 3. Martin 4. Wickstrom 5. Leininger
•Heat #3–1. Messner 2. Bowman 3. Westover 4. Teunis 5. Visser
Super Trucks
•Feature–1. Ward Imrie 2. Lee McRae 3. Jerome Guyot 4. Lynn Lucken 5. Eric Guyot 6. Murray Kozie 7. Dustin Enns 8. Dan Klim 9. Wayne Grosky 10. Tayvia Dorge
•Heat #1–1. Imrie 2. Lucken 3. Grosky 4. Klim 5. Enns
•Heat #2–1. J. Guyot 2. E. Guyot 3. Dorge 4. Kozie 5. McRae
