BROCKVILLE-Jessica Zemken continues to put her mark on the history book at Brockville Ontario Speedway. She was the first woman to win a Sportsman race at the Beast of the East. Last year, the young lady became the first female to win a Sprint Car race at the fast quarter mile oval. Last night, in her first ever start at Brockville in a 358 Modified she did it again, grabbing the win in the 30 lap Season Opener at the reconfigured clay oval. Now, shes the only driver in Brockville track history to win a race in the Sportsman, Modified and Sprint Cars.A heavy rain shower around 6:15 pm had officials wondering if they could even get the race card in. But mother nature co-operated the rest of the night resulting in a fast tacky track. Brian McDonald who was turning laps in the mid 14 second race during the night got past John Mulder in the early going to take the top spot in the Modified finale. As usual at Brockville, Danny O Brien was a factor, the defending track champ came flying through the field and wrestled the lead away from McDonald with Zemken not far behind. Zemken driving the LaSalle Motorsports entry that McDonald piloted a year ago, made a beautiful inside move going into turn one to take second. That proved to be the winning move, as O Brien’s car started to smoke with 6 laps remaining. Zemken survived three late restarts including one on the final lap for her first Modified win. McDonald was second followed by Adam Moore, Mike Adderley and Lance Willix.

There was another teenager in victory lane after the 25 lap Sportsman feature. Shane Pecore showed patience beyond his years as he used lapped traffic to his advantage. Pecore split a opening between 3 cars coming through turn 3 to blast past leader Mike Mainse and went on to an impressive opening night win. Another youngster, Matt Billings made nifty late moves of his own to claim third in front of a fast closing Adam Turner and returning veteran Randy Gaudet.

Steve Billings led from start to finish taking a relatively easy triumph in the 20 lap Street Stock event. Billy Code, Dana Aikens, Danny Mocibob and Jack Code were second through fifth respectively. Josh Kane fought through an early battle with Steve Barber and pulled away for the checkered flag in the 16 lap Rookie race. Chris Bakker came across the line behind Barber in third, followed by Dwight Feltham and Josh Kirkland.

Brockville Ontario Speedway returns to action next Saturday night, May 24th with a regular program plus the first of many runs this season by the Vintage Cars. The green flag drops at 7pm.

358 Modifieds 30 laps: Jessica Zemken, Brian McDonald, Adam Moore, Mike Adderley, Lance Willix, Kyle Dingwall, Bryan Rogers, Stephane LaFrance, Steve Bilow, Mark Hitchcock, Bobby Herrington, Todd Stewart, Jeff Ciglich, John Mulder, Chris King, Andy Lloyd, Skip McKenzie, Danny O Brien, Joe Banks, Kurtis Lee, Jason Riddell, Paul Pekkonen, Ryan Poole