Racing season wraps up at Emo

As the 2012 season at the Emo Speedway came to a close Saturday night, Borderland Racing Association president Anthony Leek was pleased with how the year went as a whole.
“Overall, I would say that this season was a very good one as we had some really exciting racing here once again,” he noted.

“I can’t speak for the kind of close racing myself as I’m not there in the car, but these guys put on some really good shows this year and that’s what matters at the end of the day.
“While [WISSOTA Modified champion] Gavin Paull won a lot of races, one person really didn’t dominate the season and as a result, we had some really tight battles in each of the classes,” Leek added.
While the car counts were down compared to the last couple of years (something Leek attributes to a number of factors, such as economics and other commitments drivers may have), the numbers as a whole were good when compared to some other tracks.
“Proctor had four Modifieds a few weeks ago, so us having eight-10 Modifieds is pretty good compared to some places that had 15-20 Modifieds in the past,” he reasoned.
“We can’t control the car counts but we are holding our own, which is good.”
Although no points up were for grabs during Saturday’s season-finale, those on hand saw some of the tightest racing of the season as drivers battled it out for bragging rights heading into the winter.
In the WISSOTA Modifieds, long-time veteran Gary Wilson had a stellar night with first-place finishes in both the heat and the feature, holding off Denny Trimble and Ron Korpi in the main event.
“It’s always nice when you win, but I’ve been running for so long that I’m happy whether I win, lose, or draw,” he smiled.
“It’s been a while since we’ve had a feature win, and to get a clean sweep to go along with it was a nice feeling.”
Wilson led most of the 20-lap main event but lost the top spot to Trimble coming out of Turn #2 on the final lap, which set the stage for some late heroics.
“Denny’s a hard runner and I like racing with him when we are both running hard like that,” Wilson said.
“He kind of pushed up and took my line away from me as we came out of Turn 2, so I knew that I had no other choice but to go down low in the final corner.
“And I was able to do just that and win it by the skin of my teeth.”
The Street Stock feature produced an equally close finish as Tylar Wilson edged Jeff Wickstrom at the line to earn the checkered flag.
Chris Shine held off a pack of cars to round out the podium.
“Jeff had the line where the grip was, and I had to search around to try and find some myself,” recalled Wilson, who also had won the heat earlier in the night.
“I was doing everything that I could to try and get up there for the win, and I honestly wasn’t sure who had won the race when we got to the finish line,” he added.
And in the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, Christopher Leek put the finishing touches on his second-straight division title by capturing his fourth feature win of the year over heat winner Cody Ossachuk and Anthony Visser.
“The car isn’t the best on a dry-slick track like tonight [Saturday] but we are working on that, especially with the WISSOTA 100 coming up this week,” Leek said afterwards.
“The heat race was a little scary as the rear brakes were acting funny, and that’s what led me to sliding off of the track early in the feature.
“But we got a caution [flag] and I just gave it all that I had on the re-start to take the lead back,” he noted.
The Borderland Racing Association tentatively has scheduled its season-ending awards banquet for Saturday, Oct. 20.
Its annual general meeting currently is set for Sunday, Nov. 25.