The Prelude to the Johnny kicked off a big weekend at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks on Thursday with a whopping 171-car field on hand, led by 55 Wissota Late Models. This has turned into a premier multi-day event on the calendar and while it doesn’t have the history of the Red Clay Classic or the Punky Manor, it is a weekend many drivers circle on their calendars.
I viewed Thursday as a test session for many cars with the bigger money coming up on Friday and Saturday. It was a slick track, and very tricky to run up top at times, and I’m curious if the track will be similar to that tomorrow. It could be completely different.
Since the Wissota Late Models race for their big $9,200 prize on Saturday and the Wissota Modifieds race for $3,092 to win on Friday as part of the John Seitz Memorial, I decided to focus this blog a bit more on the street stocks and midwest modifieds on Thursday.
The Wolverine Justin Vogel of Brooten – who leads the national points -- lives for invitational season, and he had the pole for the Wissota Street Stock feature next to Hunter Carter of Mapleton. Unfortunately, the 26-car street feature turned into a caution fest with a decent amount of torn up race cars.
The race didn’t make it a lap as Jerome Berger slid off turns three and four; it was costly as he started in fourth but had to go to the tail of the 25-car field. Vogel would take the lead over Carter with Cole Greseth of Harwood, the track champion at I-94 EMR Speedway and Buffalo River Speedway, was third ahead of one of the hottest drivers in the region, Kyle Anderson of Jamestown. Jeremy Gust of Strathcona and Greg Jose of Grand Forks were fighting for fifth.
Carter stayed with Vogel as the lead was just .300 seconds. The caution would wave as Trey Hess of Grand Forks and James Meagher got together with 14 to go. I didn’t see the whole incident but Hess, who is eighth in national points, was done for the night.
A multi-car pileup in turn four brought out the third caution of the race, and ended the night for Meagher as he left on the hook. They wouldn’t make it another lap before another caution waved after several cars went around in turn four, and Jose’s 28 machine left with front-end damage. As I said midpack to the back in the field this was not a smooth race.
Once things finally resumed Greseth moved into second as Anderson pressured Carter for third. The veteran Royce Jawaski of Adrian settled into fifth. While the battle for second was tense, another caution would wave with nine to go when Weston Ramsrud’s 67 was turned in turn four.
The restart saw Vogel facing heat from Carter, who had Greseth all over him. Vogel’s 10 car seemed to lose the handle – he would slide up and Carter made a run on the bottom to take over the lead. Vogel would pull in under the sixth caution, I couldn’t tell if he had a tire going down or what happened to the 10, who is second in the national points.
It turned into a three-car fight for the lead over the final laps between Carter, Greseth and Anderson, and Carter would survive by .265 seconds for his first feature victory of 2023. It’s been a good few weeks for Carter, as he and his wife, Kayla, welcomed their first child a few weeks ago.
Anderson has been on a tear lately and edged Greseth for second. Gust was fourth and the improving Darek Turner of Fargo rounded out the top five. Seth Klostreich of Grand Forks was the hard charger, going from 16th to eighth.
I hope the streets clean the racing up a bit for the rest of the weekend, way too many cautions and beat up cars in Thursday’s feature.
Matt Schow of McIntosh took the early lead in the Wissota Midwest Modified feature over Nate Reynolds of Manvel. Lance Schill of Langdon was working on Reynolds for second. Austin Hunter of Winnipeg and Jamie Dietzler of Larimore were dueling for fourth.
Schow opened a 1.712 lead on Reynolds. Schill, who recently won his 200th career feature, would slow in turns one and two and pull off with a problem, ending his night.
Hunter had caught Reynolds for second as Schow was fighting through lapped traffic. Michael Blevins Sr. of Hibbing passed Justin Olson of Thief River Falls for fifth.
Schow was slowed a little in lapped traffic but was effective in picking up his fourth feature win of 2023. Reynolds outlasted Hunter in the battle for second with Dietzler taking third. Blevins rounded out the top five. In stark contrast to the street stock feature, the Midwest modifieds went 20 laps caution free and did a very nice job.
The Wissota Modified feature saw Dustin Strand of East Grand Forks take the lead. Moving quickly was Tyler Peterson of Hickson, who started seventh but had worked to second by the first caution.
Peterson would make the pass for the lead and now faced a challenge from the MIllenial Farmer, Zach Johnson of Lowry. Scott Ward of Watertown and Superman Mike Stearns of Aberdeen were battling for fifth.
Peterson was in control up front with a 2.229 second lead over Strand who was facing a lot of heat from Johnson in the best battle on the track. Ward would slide high in turn two and lose a lot of ground, allowing Stearns to take over fourth.
Peterson’s lead kept growing through lapped traffic and he was never threatened once getting out front, winning by 4.453 seconds. Strand nipped Johnson for second by .119 seconds. Stearns was fourth and Ward rounded out the top five. After the caution four laps into the race it was a pretty clean main event.
Two-time NLRA champion Mike Greseth of Harwood grabbed the lead in the Wissota Late Model feature as he was chased by national point leader Tyler Peterson. Shane Edginton of East St. Paul, Man., was third ahead of multi-time Seitz winner A.J. Diemel of Elk Mound, Wis.
The first caution would wave when Ryan Corbett’s 4C machine went off the backstretch with 21 to go. On the ensuing restart a couple of cars got together.
On the restart Peterson took a run at Greseth but got high in turns three and four and lost a couple of spots. Diemel, who is brutally tough at River Cities, was working the low line and passed Greseth for the lead.
Peterson fought back and got to second; he got a huge run out of turn two but would get into the back of Diemel, sending the 58 spinning in turn three. Peterson was charged with the yellow and elected to go pitside, he will look for a fresh start tomorrow when the Seitz qualifying races are held for the $9,200 to win show on Saturday.
Diemel built a decent lead over Edginton, who had cleared Greseth for second. Scott Ward was also running well in fourth and soon passed Greseth for the third spot. Jordan Tollakson of Montevideo was running in fifth.
Diemel’s lead was nearly two seconds over Edginton who had a nice advantage over Ward.
Diemel, who I consider one of the big contenders for Saturday’s prize, won by 2.099 seconds. Edginton was a strong second with Ward, who started 16th, taking third. Greseth wrapped up his third straight NLRA championship by finishing in fourth with Jordan Tollakson of Montevideo had a good run finishing fifth.
Cole Searing of Huron went from 21st to eighth to cap off a good run. As I said, a lot of late model drivers were racing at River Cities for the first time, and I think getting some racing laps in on Thursday was as critical as where the drivers finished.
Tomorrow is a completely new night for the late models and modifieds, and the draw will be huge with so many good cars on hand. The midwest modified and street stocks will run their qualifying races for Saturday tomorrow. The Wissota Super Stocks ran their qualifying heats on Thursday and will run their $1,992 to win feature on Friday. Shawn Wageman of Breezy Point and Brandon Duellman of St. Charles won the heats; those two have the pole for Friday’s feature.
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