Lucas Punkari
As another racing season was drawing to a close at the Emo Speedway on Saturday evening, most drivers were already looking forward to getting things ready for the 2012 campaign.
Though in the case of Street Stock driver Ron Westover, this season was coming to a close quicker than he would of liked.
“This year is ending way too early for me,” Westover smiled.
“I’m so excited about next year already as I have a new chassis and a new engine program and I’m hoping to also hit up a few more specials down state as well.
“I’ll be stepping up the program for sure for my 20th anniversary season,” Westover said.
The longtime runner at the track was sort of a driver for hire at the start of the season, as Westover split time in cars normally driven by Libby Wilson and Wes Morrisseau, until he got behind the wheel of a machine that he picked up from Nick Leininger.
“At first the car was a handful, but after three or four nights things started to turn around,” Westover, who won two features this season at the track, explained.
“I think we were second behind (track champion) Don Bowman that night and after that we got a little better each time out and started contending more and more for the win,” he added.
The Street Stock class ended up having many close battles during the course of the season, which led to a number of different drivers having a chance to run up at the front of the field.
“Everyone was pretty close all year long and you didn’t know who was going to win each night,” Carlee Bosma, who won her first career feature in July, noted.
“On the night that I won I was able to start up fairly close to the front and got a good jump on everyone, and I just got lucky to finish up there,” Bosma reasoned.
The tightest and most competitive class at the track in 2011 though was easily the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, as seven different drivers captured checkered flags in feature events throughout the season.
“I would say it’s the most competitive class here for sure,” Cody Ossachuk, who finished third in the standings in his first full season at the track, enthused.
“Everyone here is basically equal with one another, so it’s really just about trying to gain an edge and out driving the other guys,” Ossachuk reasoned.
“When I started running these cars with Ron Westover in 2004, there was only two or three cars here and now there’s about 15 on an average night,” Anthony Visser added.
“To watch guys that are six or 10 years younger than pass by you is hard to swallow for me some times, but that’s just part of the sport,” Visser smiled.
The WISSOTA Modified class ended up being the Gavin Paull show in 2011, as the Fort Frances driver captured 10 feature victories on his way to his third track championship.
But while it may appear on paper that Paull had a stranglehold on his fellow competitors, by the second half of the season the rest of the field had begun to reel him in and make the races quite interesting.
“Early on Gavin was pretty tough to catch, but as the year went on, I think everyone was really starting to pick up the pace,” 2010 Modified champion Glen Strachan said.
One of those drivers that steadily improved during the course of the season was second year pilot Tyler Brown, who ended up finishing in third place in the final point standings.
“As I started to run more and more out there I felt that my driving was getting better and I had more of a feel for what was going on out there,” Brown explained.
“I was starting to get more and more consistent and now I feel that I’m getting better out there all the time,” he added.
As for this past Saturday’s racing action, the final features of the season went to Dwayne Pelepetz (WISSOTA Modifieds), John Hettinga (WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds) and Jeff Wickstrom (Street Stocks).
