Rea Memorial weekend a wild one at Speedway

A dry, sun-baked track—and the extra adrenaline of racing in front of a packed house—made for some wild and entertaining racing at the Emo Speedway this weekend in conjunction with the annual fall fair.
A field of 58 cars created heavy traffic, more spins than at the neighbouring midway, and numerous caution flags. But when the dust had settled, a pair of out-of-town cars had snapped up some overall points wins—with one local driver joining them in Victory Lane.
Thunder Bay’s Kevin Monteith placed first in the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds feature race on Friday night, then followed that up with a second-place finish during Saturday’s race.
Meanwhile, Bemidji, Mn. resident Scott Messner took home the overall points in the Street Stocks division with a win Friday night and a third-place finish Saturday.
Finally, Jason Anderson of Fort Frances won the WISSOTA Modifieds two-day trophy thanks to a runner-up finish on Friday night, followed by a first-place run Saturday.
“I got a lot of friends around here so I love coming back,” Monteith said after Friday night’s race. “Everybody told me it had been tacky here all year but then I get here and it’s bone dry, but I guess it worked out all right anyway.”
This was only Monteith’s fifth race of the season as he has to travel outside Thunder Bay to compete, but the experienced driver was able to hold off a number of racers during Friday’s feature to take the checkered flag.
“I got the lead twice after the first two restarts and once we got going, I was getting a little nervous there when we started to get a lot of traffic,” Monteith recalled.
“Then once we got a yellow there and they lined us up, I thought that might not be a good thing, either, because then the fast guys were right behind me, but we managed to last her out to the end,” he added.
Messner certainly is no stranger to the Emo Speedway, where he’s currently in sixth place in the Street Stocks points race with 421—despite not being able to race here every weekend due to work commitments.
“I enjoy coming up here,” Messner enthused. “There’s nice people to be racing with and a nice track to race on.”
The young Minnesotan was surprised with his result—especially since his car had been giving him some problems right up until race time.
“I was having problems with the car, parts were falling apart, but that’s a race car, I guess,” Messner said with a laugh. “But we finally got it together and hoped it would go out and work, and it held together.”
Messner had to pass several drivers to win Friday’s race, but quickly brought himself to the front of the pack after making a quick move early on.
“I started second row outside, and everything kind of fell into place there and I got the lead a couple laps later,” Messner recalled. “I saw him challenge for the pass one time, but that was about the last time I saw him, and [then I] just hoped she held together the rest of the way.
“I like a no-caution race,” he smiled.
In the WISSOTA Modifieds, Anderson stole the show with two strong performances. He nearly held on for a win during Friday night’s feature race before being clipped by Greg Ferris, but then followed up that runner-up showing with a victory Saturday—beating out Emo’s Joey Galloway for the win and the two-day points trophy.
Anderson currently is 11th overall on the Modifieds points leaderboard going into this Saturday’s Keith McNally Memorial and season championship, which begins with hot laps at 7 p.m. at the Emo Speedway.