Glenz captures Seitz Memorial crown

The 20th John Seitz Memorial wrapped up Saturday at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks with the 92-lap late model feature highlighting the night.

I don’t get why the stands aren’t fuller for this event with 71 late models signed in. There is no event in Wissota that draws that many late models, I suspect the Wissota 100 will be around 50.  Plus, car counts were strong in other classes.

The late model B mains, in terms of quality, looked like A mains at most tracks with the depth and quality of drivers not in the show after Friday. With only three qualifiers out of each of the three, starting position in those was beyond crucial.

The track deteriorated as the night went on, developing some major holes that drivers had to contend with.  I have talked to some regulars at the Bullring this summer and they haven’t been very satisfied with the track surface all year, if I am being honest, and the nights I have covered the track, I haven't been either as a fan.

The 92-lap race is two races in one, in my opinion. The track had just been watered and for first 32 laps the track is very fast, and everyone was running the bottom. The real racing begins after the lap 32 fuel stop, in my opinion as the track widens out.  The big key if you are among the leaders – getting through lapped traffic unscathed.

James Giossi won the dash on Friday and had the inside pole for the 92-lapper and would take the lead earlier

TPO took the lead on the 10^th lap as Giossi was mired in lapped traffic.  Jayson Good of Watertown was running well in third with Gavin Tarras of New Richmond, Wis., in fourth.  Joey Pederson of East Grand Forks settled into fifth.  There wasn’t a ton of passing in the first portion as everyone was running the bottom.  Lapped traffic slowed TPO and Giossi took advantage to take the lead on Lap 31and was credited as the leader when the caution came out for the fuel stop on lap 32.  At the fuel stop the top five were Giossi, TPO, Good, Tarras and Pederson.

On the restart the car on the mover was Aberdeen’s Josh Skorcewski as he moved past Good into third. Jesse Glenz of Chippewa Falls, Wis., had moved into the top five.  The first caution came out with 51to go when Mike Greseth’s 17 was turned in the fourth turn. He would get pushed to the pits and his night would come to an end.

On the restart Skorczewski moved around TPO for second briefly but TPO got back into second. The second caution flew for Mike Stearns, who slid off the backstretch.

TPO made a run for the lead on the next restart and went around Giossi with Glenz charging into the second spot. Good and Skorczewski were fighting for fourth and two-time Seitz winner Aaron Turnbull had moved to sixth.

The leaders faced lapped traffic with Glenz about two car lengths back when the caution flew for defending champion Cole Schill who was off of turn one. Schill would go into the work area and return at the tail of the field. With 37 to go, Dustin Strand – who started 27^th – had worked up to 12^th. Another car I was watching was former champion Cole Searing, who won his B main and was just outside the top five.

Glenz chose the outside on the restart and Giossi would go around himfror second. Good would slide high and lose a couple of spots, moving Searing to fifth. As the race went on more drivers went up to the high side trying to make that work, but the bottom was the better line.

TPO was running away at the front with a 2.7 lead with 28 to go over Giossi. The ead would shrink in lapped traffic as Giossi closed the gap. But the caution would fly with 17 to go when former champion Shane Edginton went off of turns three and four.  The other factor was the track was developing a couple of holes as well.

Glenz moved back into second but was well behind TPO. Searing had moved into fourth past Skorczewski.

Then a stunning development with 11 to go – TPO’s 1 machine would slow off the backstretch. He would get a push back to the hauler. The TPO was the class of the field but his late model race ended with a big disappointment.

Glenz would take over the lead with Giossi in second After a caution  Searing was working on Giossi for second when the caution came out for Travis Robertson who was off turns three and four.   Robertson finished fifth in the Seitz a year ago.

On the restart Turnbull, driving one of Nick Corbett’s 6 cars, was on the outside of Searinga nd took second as Glenz stayed out front. After Jake Redetzke’s 27 stalled in turn four, the caution flew again.

Turnbull went from broke on the high side and got close to Glenz in turns one and two, but was unable to make the pass as Glenz held on. The caution would come out for Cody Overton’s 37 which  slowed, setting up a three-lap final shootout.

What frustrated me about this race was the amount of late cautions, which really disrupted the racing over the final 11 laps. There weren’t many big wrecks but there were several single-car incidents.

With two laps to go Glenz got a good restart, but Searing made one last charge to get close but came up short as Glenz won the $9,292 top prize.  Searing (Second) and Turnbull (third) both went home with $9,200 (20^th anniversary of the event, second and third payout were bumped up).  For Turnbull, driving someone else’s car, it was a hell of a run.

Skorczewski had a great weekend, finishing fourth with Giossi fifth. Strand was the hard charger, going from 27th to eighth.

The Wissota Mod feature didn’t make it a lap as there was a four-car pileup involving Loki Bjerke, Brock Gronwold, Preston Carr and Davey Mills. Gronwold suffered the most damage and left on the hook. Bjerke was also pushed pitside

Bryce Sward led early with Mike Stearns, Ward Imrie and Austin Hunter fighting for second. TPO had moved quickly to fifth and was up to fourth. Stearns was soon pressuring  Sward and would take the lead with 23 to go.  National point leader Blake Adams of Cameron, Wis., was closing on the top five.

TPO got around Imrie for third as Sward was chasing Stearns. After a spin on the frontstretch involving Rick Delaine things got crazy for second as Adams joined the battle with TPO and Sward. Joseph Thomas of Glyndon, Thursday’s winner, was climbing the standings and moving into fourth.

TPO got around Stearns with eight to go but Adams was challenging him for the lead.   It turned into a heck of fighf for the lead as the laps waned as Adams and TPO exchanged sliders and Stearns stayed right in the hunt. TPO would survive the battle for the win, his second mod win in as many nights. Adams was second, Stearns third, Thomas fourth and Sward fifth. Ryan Gierke went from 17th to eighth.

I thought the modified race was better than the late model race, honestly.

Dawson Zabel of Selby, S.D. was the early leader of the Wissota Midwest Modified feature  with Austin Hunter of Winnipeg and Jory Berg of Grand Forks fighting for second. The caution came out on the third lap as Reise Stenberg of Argusville clipped the tractor tire.

Landyn Randt of Siren, one of the national point contenders, was involved with some contact in traffic and suffered some damage; he left on the hook. Zabel led on the restart as Hunter and Berg ran side-by-side for second; they were soon joined by Matt Schow of McIntosh and Cylan Vargeson of Edinburg were fighting for fourth, ahead of Ryan Schow.

Berg was closing on Zabel and Schow passed Hunter for second. Schow wasn’t done, and his charge continued into the top spot. Zabel had all kinds of heat from Hunter and Berg.

Matt Schow’s lead was up to two seconds with nine laps to go as Zabel was tending to fend off Hunter. Ryan Schow had climbed to fourth and Memphis Klassen was pressuring Berg for fifth. The caution flew with seven laps to go when Zabel went around before the entrance of turn one after some contact with other cars.  He would get this place back.

Matt Schow built some breathing room over Hunter with Berg about two car lengths back in third. Vargason had climbed back to fourth.  The caution flew when Landon Gross spun on the frontstretch, and moments later there was a four-car cluster on the frontstretch just as the white flag was in hand. And of course, once that was cleaned up, the caution came out again as Memphis Klassenand Dusty Peterson were involved in an incident ine turns one and two. Both were done for the night.

Matt Schow got a great final restart and pulled away Hunter to record the win. Hunter seemed to battle Berg all night for position and held on for second. Zabel was fourth and Dylan McCaughan of Manitoba was fifth.  Cejay LaValley of Bemidji had a nice night, going from 18th to 10th.

The national points chase took center stage in the Wissota Street Stock feature, where the top three cars in national points – Levi Randt of Siren, Cole Greseth of Harwood and Keith Tourville of Janesville, Minn. – were in the front two rows.  Greseth won the feature on Thursday with all three cars competing. One note about Tourville: he entered the night with 29 wins in 39 starts. Greseth had 34 wins in 54 starts and Randt had 29 feature wins.

It was apparent from the green flag that Tourville wasn’t messing around, as he stormed around Randt to take the lead. The caution came out on lap two for Josh Barker of Thompson who went off the track. On the restart Greseth was pressuring Darek Turner of Fargo.

The red flag came out on the third lap for Dustin Ebersteiner, who ended up on his side off by the backstretch. He got out of the car under his own power but the car was a mess. He went for a ride and actually took out part of the Ellingson sign on the fence before landing on its side. In his interview with Brina Seng, he voiced his displeasure to another driver who shared his number. Without seeing the whole thing I won’t remark further…

On the restart Greseth nabbed the third spot and was working underneath Randt for second. Hunter Carter of Mapleton, a former Seitz winner, was up to fourth with Turner in fifth.

Two former national champions were lurking outside the top five – Parker Anderson of Phillips, Wis, and Justin Vogel of Brooten. Anderson, who won the Little Dream earlier this summer, was in the top five early but slid back on a restart.

Greseth had just completed the pass for second when the caution flew for Greg Jose of Grand Forks and Adam Dehne of Medina who were turned in turns one and two with 16 to go. Jose had some left-front suspension damage and was done for the night. Jose, by the was the onllly driver to beat Greseth in the street stocks at River Cities during the regular season.

Greseth got around Randt for second with 13 to go and set his sights on Tourville. With 10 to go he grabbed the top soot from Tourville. Turner was running a solid fourth with Anderson moving into fifth. Vogel and Carter were fighting for sixth in a good battle.

After passing Tourville, Greseth stretched the lead to more than a second, and soon the lead was more than two seconds and he wasn’t touched the rest of the way.

Greseth’s familiarity with RCS played a big role in this win, I felt. He knew where to go, and when and was the dominant car over the final 10-12 laps, winning by 2.7 seconds in what was a huge week in terms of the national points race.  Greseth took home $1,292 for the feature win. ith the Wissota 100 coming up next week at I-94 EMR Speedway, that national points race will continue.

Randt would get by Tourville for second late for the runner-up finish. Turner had a good run in fourth and Anderson outdueled Vogel for fifth.

RCS notes

--The Ward racing team from Watertown had both late models in the main event. Scott Ward, who has missed the season with a shoulder injury, saw his car drove by Georgia driver Cody Overton while Morgan Grosz, who is expecting her first child and stepping away from driving for the rest of the season, saw her car driven by Ty Giles. Overton ran in the top 10 much of the night but would pull off late.

--Aaron Blacklance was driving Chris Edmonds’ 15TRX late model. That is a Gen X late model Edmonds has raced a couple of times at I-94 EMR Speedway. It is running a 604 Crate motor so faced an uphill climb at the Seitz.

--Some of the prominent cars who didn’t qualify for the A main in the late models: former two-time Seitz champion Brad Seng, 2015 champion Chad Mahder, former national champion Chad Becker, Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer Lance Matthees and 2026 River Cities track champion Brody Troftgruben.