A.J. Emms Scores Podium Finish at Frostoberfest
HAMILTON, Ontario -- Keeping out of trouble throughout the 50-lap Frostoberfest feature paid off for A.J. Emms en route to a podium finish.
Emm showed speed in qualifying, finishing second in the first heat, followed by a third in the second qualifier.
Starting sixth for the feature, he remained there through the first five laps, despite a pair of cautions. He'd there until Lap 41, when he'd avoid an incident between two cars to move up to fourth. Restarting inside the top-five with 10 laps to go. he'd battle side-by-side with Jason Keen until the event's fourth caution on Lap 44. He'd move into fourth solidly on the restart, getting alongside Keen for third with five laps to go. He would complete the pass a lap later, crossing the line in third-place.
"Overall, the night went pretty well," Emms said afterwards. "We found some stuff at the start of the night that really helped us out in terms of handling. We really struggled last weekend at the Velocity weekend, but I think we definitely have the car together; at least we had some thing to work with tonight and some consistency. Overall, looking for a little bit more speed, but still very happy with a third-place finish. Pretty much just went out there - I knew it was 50 laps, so just found a pocket because I knew at the end of the season in these big races, guys tend to get aggressive. So if I can find a pocket and hang out there for awhile, and then see what we can do at the end, that seemed to work pretty well. So overall, a great night. The car is in one piece, which is a positive, and we're looking forward to Autumn Colours next weekend."
While noting he was fighting a tick tight condition through the feature, he feels missing a little bit of straightline speed kept him from chasing down the top-two.
"Overall, it's just getting that little bit of extra speed," he commented. "The car didn't handle terrible or anything like that - but kind of one of those things that stump you because we just didn't quite have the speed that we needed to in the feature. Throughout the heats we were pretty good, but just lacking that in the feature with the cooler temperatures."
The next modified event for Emms Racing will be the Autumn Colours Classic at Peterborough Speedway, which Emms will enter confidence following a runner-up finish there in August.
"We're ecstatic to go to Peterborough," he said. "Peterborough is a place we love. There's going to be a lot of cars out there so it's definitely going to be different racing than tonight, and the whole atmosphere of the weekend is so different. We're just happy to be apart of it. We'll go back this week and do our homework, and hopefully be able to rock and have something for them just like we did tonight - but hopefully two spots better."
Emms Racing is proud to be supported by BAE Environmental, FMR Scrap Buyers, Artech Promotional Products, Klotz Canada, WIX Filters, Peter Built Racecars, TSS Top Shops, and Creecher’s Design for 2018.
Fans are encouraged to stay tuned to the Emms Racing website at
http://www.ajemms.com, as well as the team’s facebook page via
https://www.facebook.com/ajemmsracing/.
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