The John Seitz Memorial wrapped up on Saturday night with a 92-lap, $9,200 to win late model feature at River Cities Speedway. Saturday capped off a busy three-days at the Bullring.
I have a theory on this race, having watched it so many times. It’s almost three races in one – up to the fuel stop at lap 30, and then I think the next 30 is a lot of shuffling as the track changes. But to me, you want the best car over the final 30-32 laps. The big key, ultimately, is getting through lapped traffic.
As far as the three-night weekend goes, the turnout of cars was great, but – and this is my own opinion as a fan -- I didn’t think the racing was all that smooth or spectacular. I’ve seen the track in better shape for this event than this year, too. I felt there were FAR too many cautions, and it seemed like it took forever to restart a race after caution on a lot of occasions. There was some ridiculous driving back in traffic in some of the features. I don’t know, maybe it’s just the nature of invitational racing nowadays… But I know when the announcer is getting frustrated with the cautions, it’s a long night. As a blogger, my patience was about shot.
That being said, let's not overshadow the great performances by Shane Edginton and Hunter Carter and others on the night.
Cole Schill of Hawley took the lead to open the big money event over Cole Searing of Huron, who won the pole dash on Friday night.
The caution waved when Jeff Massingill spun in turn two after there was some contact below him – a chain reaction deal as Dustin Strand of East Grand Forks hit a tire on the low side and started the contact. Brad Seng of Grand Forks would hit Massingill hard. Both were able to continue. Strand was sent to the tail.
On the restart Chad Mahder of Chippewa Falls was working the outside of Searing for second as Tyler Peterson of Hickson moved into third. NLRA champion Mike Greseth of Harwood was fifth.
Schill’s lead over Searing was just .132 seconds just 16 laps into the race as the 44 encountered lapped traffic. It turned into a fight for the top spot as Mahder and Peterson both closed.
The caution would wave with 74 to go as defending champion Don Shaw of Ham Lake and John Seng of Grand Forks were turned around. I didn’t see what happened, but Shaw would go pitside with some front suspension damage.
Schill opened a lead over Searing as Peterson got by Mahder for third. The caution would wave as Massingill, who started eighth, slowed on the backstretch. On the restart Peterson passed Searing for second as Shane Edginton of East St. Paul, Man., moved into fifth.
One car I was watching was Chad Becker of Aberdeen, who was making some headway on the high side and got up to seventh. He is fighting with Peterson for the national point lead.
Peterson looked to pass Schill in lapped traffic, but the caution would wave, and the fuel stop would take place with 60 to go.
Once the race resumed from the fuel stop Peterson went to the outside and passed Schill for the top spot; the caution would wave shortly after as three-time champion A.J. Diemel of Elk Mound, Wis., went around in turns one and two, and getting collected were Canadian Scott Greer, Strand and Seng. It was an uncharacteristic mistake for Diemel, who had finished in the top three at the Seitz all 12 times he had raced previously. But that streak ended this year as he would later pull into the infield.
On the restart, Edginton passed Searing for third as Peterson pulled away from Schill. Soon Greseth was challenging Searing for fourth. Another caution would wave when Morgan Ward Grosz spun in turns three.
Edginton moved into second as Becker was still lurking on the outside in sixth. Things started to spread out a bit as Peterson pushed the lead to 2.1 seconds over Edginton, who had some breathing room on Schill. Greseth was third but was closing on Schill in third.
It what turned into a long green flag run – about 30 aps by my count – Peterson was in firm control with a 2.423 second lead, and had lapped up to 11th place when the caution would wave with 28 to go, I didn’t see what for. At that point the top five was Peterson, Edginton, Schill, Greseth and Searing.
After a crash which left Mike Balcaen and Ryan Corbett with a lot of damage, Edginton got back to second. Becker had moved to fourth as Greseth and Searing fought for fifth.
Edginton started to close the gap on Peterson in lapped traffic, cutting the deficit to less than a half second. Peterson had made contact with the rear of a lapped car and his nose looked out of whack and it had a clear effect on the 1TPO. Edginton had caught Peterson and with 12 to go made the pass for the lead.
Peterson began to fade as both Schill and Becker got by as well. The caution would wave with eight to go as Searing was turned in turn three. I didn’t see that incident but Searing got his spot back. Peterson would pull in
Edginton got a great restart and ran away from Becker, who had taken over second. Searing moved into third as Schill fought Bryce Sward of Nelson for fourth.
Edginton would pick up the win, his first Seitz Memorial title. He is the third Canadian to win the crown, joining Ricky Weiss and Aaron Turnbull. Becker went from 20th to second and was the hard charger. Searing was third, Schill was fourth and Sward was fifth. Brody Troftgruben of Grand Forks ran in the top 10 much of the night and took sixth.
It was interesting that several cars I thought could win the big feature ended up with DNFs – Peterson, Diemel, Strand and Greseth being among them.
The veteran James Meagher led the Wissota Street Stock feature early but he had a lot of heat from Cole Greseth of Harwood. Trey Hess of Grand Forks was third.
With 16 to go Greseth made the pass for the lead. The Wolverine, Justin Vogel of Brooten, in a tense fight for the national points lead, moved into third, but he had his hands full with Scotty Messner of Bemidji and Kyle Anderson of Jamestown as those three fought for position.
Meagher got nudged out of the way as things got crazy for those spots and fell back to fifth.
Vogel would slow suddenly with a broke transmission and pull into the infield with 12 to go, ending his hopes for another Seitz win. Greseth had opened a 1.610 lead before the caution waved for a pair of cars who spun in turn four.
Anderson moved into second on the restart and went to work on Greseth; but the caution would fly as things heated up for the lead as Rory Opp, Nick Shumansky, Weston Ramsrud and Rodney Hulst were involved in a pileup in turn four. After a clean start for the first half of the race, things turned ugly with a ton of cautions. In simple terms it was a cluster.
On the 10 to go restart Greseth lead Anderson as Greg Jose of Grand Forks was fighting Messner for the third spot. Hunter Carter of Mapleton, who started 24th, had fought his way up to fifth. Carter won Thursday’s main event for his first feature win of the year. And he was far from done on Saturday.
Ramsrud had worked back to fourth when another caution waved for Rory Opp. ON the restart with four to go, Carter moved into third as Anderson stayed close to Greseth. Anderson pulled beside Greseth with two to go and had a very good run on the inside – but the caution waved again. It set up a green-white-checkered finish.
While most of the race was a fiasco, the ending was outstanding. Carter went up to the middle lane and got a run beside Greseth down the backstretch, and the two were dead even at the white flag. The duel continued for the whole final lap as Carter would edge Greseth by 0.052 seconds at the line for the win. Carter’s win was an example of patience, avoiding all the mishaps in front of him, and giving himself a shot at the end. I’m not sure if it was his biggest win, maybe it was, but it likely it was his most memorable, going from 24th to the front.
It was a heartbreaking loss for Greseth, who had to settle for second but still had an excellent night. Anderson was a solid third, Ramsrud was fourth, and Shane Swenson of Devils Lake – who started 16th – worked up to fifth in a very long race.
I’m not indicting the whole field when I say this (only a select few), but the Wissota Street Stocks had a rough weekend racing wise. Way too many wrecks and cautions in both features, and usually it was from the middle of the pack on back. The racing up front, when it lasted more than a lap, was pretty good. Only 15 of the 24 cars finished on Saturday and the feature took 26 minutes. IN my opinion the track wasn’t great for either feature which did not help matters.
The Wissota Midwest Modifieds didn’t make it a lap as Nate Reynolds was turned around on the opening lap. He required a push to the pits but would return at the back of the field. He would be a DNF, however.
Matt Schow, who dominated Thursday’s main event, surged to the lead over Jamie Dietzler of Larimore. Jason Halvorson moved into second past Dietzler. Jory Berg of Grand Forks was fourth and Reise Stenberg of Argusville was fifth.
Schow had built a 2.727 lead on Halvorson when the caution would wave with 16 to go.
Stenberg would move into third after the race resumed with Dietzler chasing him. Austin Hunter of Winnipeg was working on Berg for fifth and would make the pass. The caution would wave with 11 to go with when a couple of cars were turned around.
Schow was very fast on the restart and his lead quickly grew to 1.7 seconds. Stenberg went up to the high side to try and get some traction but would get loose and spin, sending him to the tail after running in third.
Unfortunately this race followed the street stocks and turned into a caution fest. The mid mods went caution free on Thursday and did a great job, but was far from it on Saturday. It was ugly at times.
The cautions had to bother Schow as much as anybody, as each time he’d open a lead the yellow would wave. Finally, there was a long green flag run over the final nine laps, and Schow reestablished his dominance with a 3.293 second lead by the checkered to complete a weekend sweep in the class. He was impressive and outlasted the eight cautions on Saturday for the win.
Halverson was second and Berg was third. Hunter went from 12th to fourth while Lance Schill of Langdon, who started 17th after winning the B main, finished fifth. Only 15 cars finished in what turned into an enduro. As a fan, I was far from impressed with either the streets or mid mods.
Matt Sparby of Bemidji took the lead of the Wissota Super Stock feature over Jeremy North of Huron. A caution would wave with 20 to go for a spin in turns one and two. After the restart North, Jason Havel of Rice Lake, Wis., and Don Shaw of Ham Lake, driving one of Jordan Henkemeyer’s cars, were fighting for second. Havel would take over the second spot. Friday’s winner, Brandon Duellman of St. Charles, had moved to fifth. I was watching Trevor Nelson of Warner, S.D., who started in the back after having trouble in his heat. HE had worked up to fifth with seven to go.
Shaw passed Havel on the outside and set his sights on Sparby, who was starting to encounter lapped traffic. The gap was shrinking up front as Shaw was running a little higher lane but Shaw would run out of time as Sparby picked up the win. Compared to the midwest modified and street stock clusters, this race was pretty uneventful, thank God.
Shaw settled for second with Havel capping off a good run in third. Duellman, who started eighth, was fourth and Nelson went from 17th to fifth.
The two drivers who won previous modified features at RCS this week – Tyler Peterson (Thursday) and Zach Johnson of Lowry (Friday) shared the front row for Saturday’s feature. Peterson surged int
Of course, following the theme of the night, there was a pileup in turns one and two on the first lap involving 4-5 cars. ON the restart Peterson surged into the lead as Parker Anderson of Phillips, Wis., passed Johnson for second. Soon, he closed on Peterson who had built a decent lead. Brock Gronwold of Fergus Falls, who led much of Friday’s main event, moved into fourth ahead of Superman Mike Stearns, a former national champion. After the early caution, the mod race settled down pretty good and was a pretty ho-hum affair.
Peterson pulled away through lapped traffic as Johnson closed back on Anderson for second, eventually taking over the spot with 12 to go. But he faced a 2.6 second deficit on Peterson out front. Anderson would pull off with an issue, moving Gronwold to third, Stearns to fourth and Joe Thomas of Fargo to fifth. Peterson’s lead grew to 3.7 seconds with seven to go. Stearns was threatening Gronwold for third in the best battle on the track.
Peterson won in dominating fashion for his second mod win of the week and his 13th Seitz win overall. Johnson was second while Gronwold outlasted Stearns for third. Thomas rounded out the top five.
Former Seitz late model champions in the field included Diemel (three previous wins), Shaw (two), Brad Seng (two), Chad Mahder and Mitch Johnson, who did not qualify for Saturday’s main event. Eleven drivers had won the Seitz heading into this year.
Corn Cob Nationals Night 1 Winners Crowned
Rich Pavlicek of Casselton won the IMCA Sport Mod feature Saturday night at Buffalo River Speedway near Glyndon. It was night 1 of the annual Corn Cob Nationals.
Justin Jones of Bemidji was second, Dev Malmlov of Moorhead was third, Scott Jacobson of Fargo was fourth and Kelly Jacobson of Fargo was fifth.
Dexter Dvergsten of Greenbush won the POWRi Minn-Kota Lightning Sprint feature over Bryce Haugeberg of West Fargo. Kate Taves of Detroit Lakes was third, Matthew Taves of Detroit Lakes was fourth and Hayden Koehmstedt of West Fargo was fifth.
Ryan Braseth of Ulen topped Tye Wilke of Detroit Lakes for the INEX Legends win. Evan Hendrickson of Mapleton was third, Ty Olson of Mandan was fourth and Shawn Wiest of Fargo was fifth.
Shannon George of Bagley won the Short Tracker feature over Weston Clauson of Kathryn. Brandon Hunter was third, Korbin Sarazin was fourth and Gordon Hunter fifth.
Brainerd driver Tim Otterness captured the IMCA Hobby Stock feature over Tyler Hehn of Horace. Nathan Kohl of Fort Ripley was third, Todd Gettel of Mahnomen was fourth and Andrew Juaire of Brainerd was fifth.
Tyler Hall of Fertile topped Allen Kent of West Fargo for the IMCA Modified win. Marcus Tomilinson of Turtle Lake was third, Matt Aukland of Glyndon was fourth and Josh Anderson of Barnesville was fifth.
Amelia Eisenschenk of West Fargo won the IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car feature over Andy Pake of Felton. Ty Hanten of West Fargo was third, Laela Eisenschenk of West Fargo was fourth and Morgan Nyquist of Moorhead was fifth.
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