HAGERSVILLE, Ontario (September 30, 2020)— Running inside the top-10 throughout the event, A.J. Emms scored a top-10 finish on Saturday at Jukasa Motor Speedway.
“Overall, it was very similar to our first race here,” Emms said. “We had hoped to sort out some of our issues with this race track, but unfortunately, we just didn’t have the speed in the racecar that we wanted. We were able to drive up closer to the front of the field tonight, and we showed a lot of speed. The driver made some errors out there on the race track, which caused us to fall back.
“But overall I feel as though we learned something and as we move forward to next season, I feel we’re more prepared and hopefully we’ll learn from our mistakes and be better next year.”
With a lap of 19.605 seconds, Emms would qualify ninth for the 40-lap feature. He would move up to eighth in the early stages, remaining there till the event’s first caution at Lap 16. Restarting on the fourth row, he’d make his way forward, battling for fourth when there’d be contact up ahead between the leaders, with Emms managing to escape without any contact.
Restarting on the second row, he’s dropped back to fourth, though remaining in touch with the leaders. He’d look to make a move on third, when he’d get into turn three a little too hard, sliding up the track, brushing the outside wall, but able to get it straightened back out and keep going. The contact, though, saw him lose some ground in falling back to sixth.
In speaking about the close calls after the event, Emms credits getting through both moments to instincts.
“I’m fortunate to have raced in a lot of races, and I’m also very fortunate to have watched a lot of races,” he commented. “Pretty much at that moment, you’re just really what you’re doing what you can to pull it all together and I feel that experience aids me in making the right decisions. Again, I don’t always make the right decisions, but I was fortunate tonight the car is in one piece and I made some great calls.”
From there, he was unable to close back down on the top-five before the checkered flag waved, crossing the finish line in sixth. In total, Emms has scored two podiums and four top-10’s in four trips to Canada’s Crown Jewel.
“I think we just need to go over all the little details on the racecar because that’s what I feel gets racecars to move better – little details,” he commented. “We’re going to go over everything and try to learn from our mistakes and I believe we’ll be better in the years to come.”
With the shortened schedule due to COVID-19, this will mark the last event of 2020 for the No. 14 Modified. It’s been a successful year, with a win, two podiums and three top-10 finishes across four races.
Emms Racing is proud to receive sponsorship support from BAE Environmental, TL Tire, Speedy Glass Orillia, Peter Built Racecars, Westwood’s Speed Shop, FMR Scrap Buyers, and AM Marketing.
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/.
By: Ashley McCubbin
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