Leek nabs first feature win at home track

Lucas Punkari

A five-year quest finally was fulfilled for Christopher Leek at the Emo Speedway on Saturday night as he captured his first career feature victory in the WISSOTA Midwest Modified division.
“It feels pretty good,” Leek said afterwards.
“I’m a little disappointed that it wasn’t against a bigger field, as you always like to win against more cars and more competition, but a win is still a win,” he reasoned.
Although Saturday’s triumph was his first at his home track, it wasn’t the first time Leek collected a feature victory. He took home the checkered flag at the Grand Rapids Speedway in Minnesota back in May.
“There’s a lot of good competition in Grand Rapids, and to win there you have to be at the top of your game,” Leek noted.
“But to win at my home track is pretty important, as this is my fifth year and this is my first-ever feature win.”
After getting into a fender-rubbing battle for the lead early on with Matt DePiero, Leek pulled away from the rest of the field—building a commanding lead over Cody Ossachuk, who had won the first heat earlier in the evening, and defending division champ Brady Caul when the 20-lap race reached the finish line.
“Was it that big?” Leek asked about his margin of victory.
“I wasn’t 100 percent sure as to how far I was out in front because you are always looking around thinking, ‘Is someone catching up to me?’
“That’s the thing with dirt track racing. You can never tell and you can just never know how far ahead you really are,” added Leek, who now leads Tylar Wilson by 17 points in the standings.
But the hottest action on a balmy night at the 3/8-mile oval occurred in the Street Stock feature as Don Bowman, Ron Westover, and Lindsay Bourre staged an epic battle for the lead.
All three drivers tried two different lines all the way around the track as they jockeyed for top spot, which eventually went to Bowman as the Bemidji, Mn. driver captured his third feature of the season.
“I understand it was heck of a feature race and I’m just really sorry that I didn’t get a chance to see some of it,” Bowman smiled.
“They don’t allow rearview mirrors in these cars, so I had to go by sound and use that sixth sense just a little bit, but I knew I had some really good competition,” added Bowman, who has a 32-point lead on Bourre in the standings.
While Bowman couldn’t see what was happening behind him, both Bourre and Westover were battling back-and-forth for the runner-up spot throughout the 15-lap affair, with Westover finally getting the upper hand.
“That was one of the most fun races I have had in a long time,” noted Westover, who also won one of the two heats earlier in the evening.
“Lindsay’s been getting faster all year, and I was trying high and low to fend her off, and I hope that was a really good show for the fans,” he added.
As for Bourre, coming off of her first-ever feature win on the previous Saturday, she enjoyed the challenge in trying to decided where and when to pass Bowman and Westover.
“It really all kind of depends on a few things,” she explained.
“Sometimes you just have to follow the other person in front and see what they are doing, or you can just go high or low and try to take advantage of their mistakes,” she reasoned.
The other heat in the Street Stock class was won by Libby Wilson, who is just two points behind Bourre for second place in the standings.
Finally, in the WISSOTA Modifieds, Gavin Paull earned his sixth-consecutive feature win of the season—but this latest triumph might have been his toughest.
Paull, who had won the heat in convincing fashion earlier in the night, spun out in Turn 4 during the opening laps of the main event and nearly looped his #16 modified around again in Turn 2 a few laps later.
“We changed our rear gear from [the] heat race to a deeper gear, and it just loosened me up too much,” Paull explained.
“I was revving up too much coming off of the corners and, as a result, we were breaking the tires loose on the car.
“I should have just settled down and stayed patient there at the start of the race because it was still early,” he admitted.
Late in the race, though, Paull was given a second chance to take the lead. A spin by rookie driver Derek Brown allowed Paull to close on Denny Trimble, who had pulled out to a sizable advantage.
However, on the race’s final re-start, Trimble immediately went off of the track in Turn 1 due to a rear gear failure, which allowed Paull to take the checkered flag.
“I knew that the rear gear was going at the beginning of the race,” Trimble noted.
“We had just changed them and they were howling, but I was hoping they were going to last at least five more laps.
“I didn’t want to see that caution [flag] at the end as I had a good lead and the car was working good, but it just wasn’t in the cards for me,” Trimble sighed.
Paull, who holds a sizable 57-point lead over Tyler Brown, was followed to the finish line by Dwayne Pelepetz and Gary Wilson.
Regular racing action is set to resume at the Emo Speedway this Saturday night (July 23), which also will include a kids’ race during intermission.
The green flag is set to drop at 7:30 p.m. (weather permitting).