Stock car racing got underway once again at the Emo Speedway after a long afternoon of working the track in during off and on rain showers from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. Saturday.
However, with hard work and dedication from all the volunteers and drivers, the races started only twenty minutes behind normal scheduled time.
First up in Amsoil Dirt Track Racing Series action were the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, who were split into two heats with ten cars entering the class. In the first heat, veteran Dwayne Pihulak held onto the lead, with a hard charging Christopher Leek in second. Lambert rounded out third. In the second heat, John Hettinga, returning to the track for the first time in 2012 started mid pack, but moved to the lead for a win. Ken Perry and Anthony Visser were the second and third place finishers. The top three in each heat would move into a Dash for Cash sponsored by Bolsa Engines and Performance at the end of the night.
Next up were the Street Stocks heat race. Libby Wilson started fourth, but she moved her way past three cars to take the lead for her second heat race win of the year. The WISSOTA Modifieds were reduced to one heat, but top ten WISSOTA National Points driver, Justin Jones was on hand for the first time in four years. Jones started fifth, but made his way through the cars to take the win over Gavin Paull and Gary Wilson. It was an excited race as they went three wide on a couple of occasions.
The WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature put rookie Chad Bogacki and Pihulak on the front row. After some jostling, Matt DePiero moved into the lead over Pihulak. The front three stayed about the same while fourth on back had plenty of shuffling. Perry moved into third and Hettinga into fourth. Meanwhile, Leek had started eighth and was moving up to fourth. The top three stayed the same as Leek moved past Hettinga for fourth. The race continued as DePiero, Pihulak and Perry strung out. Leek then moved past Perry for third. Pihulak and Leek fought for second for several laps until Pihulak gave room on the bottom frontstretch for Leek to get underneath. Leek was now on DePiero’s back bumper. A fight for the lead took place until Leek was able to get under the leader on the backstretch, but Depiero did a cross over in turn two. Coming out of the corner, Depiero made contact with the left rear panel of Leek and was unable to finish the race. Hettinga finished second with Perry rounding out the top three.
