After a successful campaign in 2022 with a series-record nine straight podium finishes, A.J. Emms and Emms Racing are ready to get back to the track for the year ahead.
“Going into the 2023 season, we are excited to get back on the race track, some of our favourite tracks in the province,” he commented. “We’re just going to roll with it. We did our homework in the off-season, kept up with the maintaince like we usually do, and we’re just going to roll the dice and see how they play out this season with the hopes we run up front, well near the front, not only for our crew but for our sponsors. Well we know all the divisions across the province are strong and competitive, we’re hopefully going in the fold when it comes to the checkered flag.”
The season will kick off on May 27 at Flamboro Speedway, a track that has treated him well in the past with five podiums in his last six appearances, including a trip to victory lane.
“Flamboro is another one of those places that I’ve been able to spend a lot of time there, race a lot there, so I have some confidence going into that speedway with the car that we have,” he explained. “I’m hoping we can hit the nail on the head with the set-up and have some speed there. Flamboro is one of those places that can be very situational, depending where you put yourself so hopefully I can put myself in a good position to be there at the end. Flamboro is also another one of those tracks with a lot of history and I really enjoy going there for that reason. I think the nostalgia of the speedway is pretty incredible.”
Beyond this coming weekend, the summer will see the team hit a variety of tracks, including returning back to Full Throttle Motor Speedway. Emms knows his way around the bullring, as evident by being successful in a variety of divisions including the Hurricane Midgets, T.Q. Can-Am Midgets, and Pro 4 Modifieds. His last appearance there saw him pick up the victory in the 2019 Rick Woolner Memorial.
“It’s a fun track to race,” he said. “I haven’t been back there in awhile, but I am excited to get back there and see how our OSCAAR modified handles around that place. I’m excited for that, but I’m also excited for the other tracks in the province. They’ve done a great job in stepping up their facilities and making them nicer so I don’t think you can go wrong with any of the places that we go to on the schedule.”
The past season saw a lot of success for the team with nine straight podium finishes, but that has not stopped the drive to keep improving. For Ems, he says it’s all about improving the raciness, whether that’s restarts and long run speed.
“Those are things that we have to just be smarter around and make some better decisions and just keep doing small adjustments to hopefully show on the stopwatch,” he said. “Racing is one of those games of inches so we just got to get working on the wrenches game, and we cross our Ts and dot our Is and be there at the end.”
Emms went on to add that although the tagline of Mr. Consistency has stuck with pacing the record books in the form of the top-10 and career starts, the team is driven to win.
“At the same time, with a family-run modified operation, I do try to very much conserve equipment – knock on wood we’ve been able to do that,” he explained. “We are driven to win. I was taught growing up that you’re only as good as your last race. We always want to make sure that we get into victory lane so that’s the goal in the end. I don’t think that will change my driving at all. You have to be there at the end at the front to be able to do that.
“We just need to have a couple things slightly different, or have things go our way. Like I said, we have a lot of good strong competitors in the modified division and hats off to them, but we’re really pushing to get back to victory lane.”
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