Pits packed for Friday's Seitz Memorial program

The pit area was packed at River Cities Speedway for Friday’s portion of the John Seitz Memorial. A total of 180 cars, led by a record 71 Wissota Late Models.

With Friday mostly being heat races, which for practical reasons I usually don’t write about (The blog would be 4,000 words long), this will be more of a notebook as I enjoyed just walking around the pit area checking out the all the cars, which included drivers from five states and three Canadian provinces. Saturday’s program will be recapped for the feature races.

One feature was contested on Friday, and that was the Al Delaine Memorial Wissota Modified main event, which paid $3,092 to the win. Bryce Sward of Nelson was the defending champion.

Tyler Peterson of Hickson (TPO) grabbed the lead from the outside pole with Mike Stearns of Aberdeen in second. Travis Saurer of Elizabeth was in third with Canadians Cole Chernosky and Canadian Brendan Luschinski fighting for fourth.

TPO was pulling away quickly, stretching the lead to 1.9 seconds with 28 to go. Luschinski meanwhile had moved into third past Saurer and was closing on Stearns. Dustin Strand, driving the #8 car, passed Chernosky for the fifth spot.

Luschinski was flying around the high side and took second from Stearns as TPO was into lapped traffic. Preston Carr’s 5C stalled in turn one to bring out the first caution.

The re4start saw some new cars move into the mix as Joe Thomas was charging. He started 16th but climbed to third by the halfway point as Strand moved into fourth with pressure from Ryan Gierke of Villard.

TPO pulled away to a 1.8 second lead over Stearns who had about a half-second lead on Thomas. As the lapped traffic got heavy, Thomas and Stearns were closing on TPO when the second caution came out.

Thomas, who won the mod feature on Thursday, was looking for two in a row but TPO would have nothing of it, stretching the lead to 1.2 seconds with five to go.  Thomas cut the gap to about a half-second but came up short as TPO took home the $3,092 top prize. Thomas went from 16th to second. Stearns was third, Gierke fourth and Strand in fifth. National point leader Blake Adams of Cameron was the hard charger, going from 22nd to seventh.

James Giossi of Hudson, Wis., dominated the Go Fast or Go Home Dash to earn the inside pole for Saturday’s $9,292 to win Wissota Late Model feature. Gavin Tarras of New Richmond will start on the outside pole.

Walking through the pits

--Nick Seitz of Bemidji (car pictured at the top), son of the late John Seitz for whom this Memorial event is named, is racing in his first Seitz Memorial. He moved into the Wissota Midwest Modifieds this year after racing previously in the Wissota Mod 4s. The 92 car had a wrap that reminded me of one his dad raced in a late model many years ago.

--Blake Adams of Cameron, Wis., leads both the Wissota Modified and Midwest Modified national points and has both cars at River Cities this week. Blake won the 2025 Wissota Modified national title. His dad, Buzzy, is a four-time Wissota Mod national champion and also won a Wissota Super Stock national title in 2003.

--Two-time Seitz Memorial champion Aaron Turnbull of Estevan, Sask., was racing one of Nick Corbett’s late models, a car that also has been used by Brad Seng and Shane Edginton this year after their cars were damaged in wrecks. Do not count out Turnbull as a contender for Saturday's late model feature; he will start 12th.

--Canadian Cole Chernosky (33C) is the 2024 Wissota Modified national champion and has raced the Seitz the past two years. Chernosky is a top runner at Thunder City Speedway in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

--A surprise entrant to me in the modifieds was Shane Sabraski of Rice (7A), who is the national point leader. I figured Sabraski would go to Gondik Law in Superior, where he is very tough. Sabraski did not have a good night with a DNF in his heat race and did not qualify out of his B main. Sabraski has 12 Wissota national championships and more than 1,000 feature wins in a highly decorated career.

--Former champions in the late model field included Cole Schill, Cole Searing, Shane Edginton, A.J. Diemel, Aaron Turnbull, Chad Mahder, Brad Seng and Mitch Johnson. Johnson won the first Seitz Memorial in 2007. Schill and Turnbull are the only former champions qualified for the A main so far.

National points implications

The top four drivers in the Wissota Street Stock national points are at River Cities this week: first-place Levi Randt, second-place Cole Greseth (who won on Thursday), third-place Keith Tourville and fourth-place Justin Vogel. Greseth picked up a key win on Thursday. Randt has the outside pole for Saturday's feature while Greseth starts third, Tourville fourth and Vogel ninth.

There were several national-points contenders there in other classes as well: Four of the top five Wissota Modified national points cars were in attendance: leader Blake Adams, Shane Sabraski (3rd), Mike Stearns (4th) and Joe Thomas (5th).

Three of the top six Wissota Midwest Modified drivers were in attendance:Landyn Randt (3rd), Jory Berg (5th) and Dawson Zabel (6th). Zabel starts on the inside pole, Berg starts third and Randt seventh. Blake Adams is the national point leader but does not have his midwest modified in attendance.

TPO (3rd) and Dave Mass (4th) were the top Wissota Late Models in attendance. Sabraski leads the national points in the late models but did not have that car there.