River Cities wins to Greseth, McCaughan, TPO, Richardson and Hastings

River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks held opening night of the Wayne Anderson Cup on Thursday.  The move to Thursday will end up being a wise one as almost every Friday track regionally (I-94 EMR, Dacotah and Fix It Forward Speedways) has already been cancelled with rain and cool temps in the forecast.

The INEX Legends joined the four regular RCS classes on Friday. One of the things I’ve liked as a fan about RCS is they’ve normally stayed at four classes for their weekly program, but this year will run five classes on certain nights, bringing in classes like the Legends, non-winged sprints and Wissota Modifieds on different occasions.  The trend is to go to 6-7 classes weekly which is too many in this blogger's opinion. But that's another blog.

I don’t think I am going out on a limb here in saying it’s going to take a damn good race car to beat Cole Greseth of Harwood this season. He is the defending Wissota Street Stock national runner-up and hasn’t missed a beat to start 2026.

Veterans John Halvorson of Warren and Greg Jose of Grand Forks led the Wissota Streets to the green. Halvorson grabbed the early advantage, but it didn’t take long for Greseth to mount a challenge for the top spot. Greseth started fourth but moved into the top spot on the fourth lap. Halvorson and Jose fought for second as the caution waved for Bryce Reimer of Cavalier and Rodney Hulst of Emerado spinning in turns three and four with 16 to go. Hulst was done for the night as he couldn’t get his #49 machine refired.

Greseth started to pull away as Halvorson and Jose dueled for second. Weston Ramsrud of Bagley was a solid fourth as Blaine Barnes, Logan Hayes and Charlie Paradis of Erskine waged a battle for fifth. The caution flew with 11 to go when Hayes spun in turn two.

Barnes moved into fourth on the restart as Jose seized second from Halvorson. Ramsrud would fight back to regain fourth a few laps later.

Jose was inching closer and within three car lengths with six to go, but Greseth would add to the lead over the final 4-5 laps to pick the win by about a half straightaway. He has five wins in six starts this summer; the only driver to beat Greseth this year is Kyle Dykhoff at I-94 EMR Speedway.

Jose finished second for a second straight night while the always-steady Halvorson was third. Ramsrud was fourth and Barnes finished fifth. Barnes, only 13, is a second year street stock driver who got his racing start in the go-karts, like many in racing. He’s shown good potential in his #B1 machine.

Kenna Breidenbach of Grand Forks and defending RCS champion Austin Hunter of Winnipeg led the Wissota Midwest Modifieds to the green. A spin on the opening lap nullified the start but Kenna Breidenbach would grab the lead on the restart over Hunter and Canadian Dylan McCaughan. Breidenbach however would slide off the backstretch on the second lap and would bring out the second yellpw; she would have to go to the tail of the field.

McCaughan was the leader but soon found pressure from Memphis Klassen of Winkler, who got around Hunter for second. Aaron Blacklance of Thief River Falls was fourth ahead of Jory Berg of Grand Forks. Cylen Vargason of Edinburg was staying close to Berg.

With 13 to go Blacklance spun in turn four to bring out the caution for the third time. He was able to continue but was tagged with the yellow. When the race resumed Berg grabbed third and was threatening Memphis Klassen for second. At the halfway point Berg took over second but was almost two seconds behind. That lead vanished when Nick Seitz spun in turn three.

Brennan Schmidt of Bemidji was having a good night, climbing into fifth. Klassen passed Berg for second with six to go but  the battle was far from over as Berg fought back in what was the best battle of the race.

McCaughan was in good shape at the front, never challenged over the final laps as he prevailed by 1.924 seconds. Klassen edged Berg by .068 seconds for the runner-up spot in an excellent duel. Schmidt ran well all night to finish fourth ahead of Hunter. Blacklance made a nice recovery to get back up to seventh.

Brad Seng of Grand Forks led the Wissota Late Models on lap one with Week 1 winner Shane Edginton giving chase. Troy Schill of Thompson was battling Tyler Peterson (TPO) of Hickson for third. The caution waved for Jamie Trautner on the third lap.

Seng had his hands full with TPO on the restart but the caution would wave one lap later as John Seng of Grand Forks and Brandon Corbett of Grand Forks were sideways in turn three.

Edginton was the new challenger for Seng and would take the lead with 20 to go. Joey Pederson of Grand Forks had climbed into the top five.

TPO got around Seng for second with 17 to go as Brody Troftgruben was running a solid fourth. Edginton and TPO were in heavy lapped traffic when the caution came out for Canadian Jesse Teunis, who stalled in turns three and four. He would leave on the hook.

Edginton led but TPO was all over him. Unforunately as the race heated up another car went off the backstretch for the fourth caution.

Dustin Strand of East Grand Forks looked to make a run into the top five on the restart but made contact with Pederson and got sideways and lost several spots.

With 11 to go TPO had moved in front, using the high side  to surge into the lead.  Ryan Kereluk spun in turn four and collected Strand. Strand would call it a night.

TPO pulled away on the restart as Edginton and Seng fought for second. A good three-car battle between Pederson, Troftgruben and Travis Robertson of Moorhead was shaping up for the fourth spot.  With eight to go smoke was coming out of Matt Schow’s 2S machine and he slowed to bring out the yellow.

TPO resumed control on the restart as Edginton pulled away form Seng for second. Defending Seitz Memorial winner Cole Schill of Horace had been patient and climbed into the top five around Pederson with six to go.

TPO, tbe three-time defending Wissota Late Model national champion, won comfortably by 1.3 seconds. Edgington, Seng, Troftgruben and Schill rounded out the top five as all ran well. Cautions seemed to interrupt the racing when things were heating up which was unfortunate.

A nice 19-car field of INEX Legends was on hand, but trouble hit three of the strong contenders in the race – Sean Johnson of Kindred, Tye Wilke of Detroit Lakes and Tye Olson of Bismarck, as all were DNFs.

Ryan Braseth of Ulen took the lead over Johnson. There was a three-car battle shaping up for third between Wilke, Alexander Clark and Olson.

Braseth quickly got into lapped traffic but a spin would alleviate that issue for a while.  Wilke had moved into third. Wilke however would pull in shortly after the next restart but I didn’t see what happened to the 72.

Braseth  resumed the lead but Colton Miller was all over him for the lead. Johnson was third with Scott Richardson of Pelican Rapids now joining the fray. With seven laps left the caution came out for a spin. I didn’t see what happened to Johnson but he would pull pitside.

Richardson made a move on the outside of Braseth with Miller right there it what a tense three-car battle for the lead. Richardson was one of the few cars who went to a higher line, and he was persistent over the final laps. That persistence would pay off; Richardson edged ahead with two laps left and by the finish had a couple of car length lead to pick up an impressive victory. It was his first win of 2026.

Braseth settled for second with Miller taking third. Carter Restad of West Fargo had a heck of a run through the field, displaying patience to go from 14^th to fourth. Clark capped off a good solid run in fifth.

Blake Egeland  took the lead early in the NOSA Sprint feature with Zach Wilde running second and Alex Truscinski of Greenbush running third. Jade Hastings soon would get around Truscinski and Mark Dobmeier of Grand Forks was hauling; he soon would climb to the second spot, passing both Hastings and Wilde.

Jordan Graham’s spin brought out a yellow, and Egeland couldn’t fend off Dobmeier on the restart. as the 13JT flew around the outside for the lead with 21 left. Colton Young of Devils Lake, a driver who has shown some real progress this season, had moved to fifth but faced heat from Jack Croaker when Zach Omdahl spun off of turn two.

Hastings would move into second after the restart with Egeland and Wilde racing hard for third. Omdahl’s tough night continue when he went off the backstretch for a caution. Omdahl, a good guy, will have better nights.

The car charging through the field was Andy Pake of Felton. He broke in his heat and had to start well back in the field in 20^th, but got around Wilde and Croaker to move into fourth. The caution flew again with a car off the backstretch.

Dobmeier pulled away from Hastings as Egeland maintained a good third-place position with Pake and Wilde in the top five.  Hastings  made a move in lapped traffic to get around Dobmeier and the battle went down to the final lap.

Dobmeier’s night would end with a flip as rolled his 13JT machine in turn three after clipping the No. 4 car of Colton Young on the backstretch. He was OK but for the second straight week, a potential win disappeared.

 After the red flag, another car flipped as Wilde, who had run in the top five much of the night, ended up on his roof off the backstretch.  He was OK. As  a result of the many caution laps, cars were allowed to put in fuel during the final red with two to go. The marathon race lasted about 40 minutes including the two red flags and a few too many cautions for my liking.

Hastings pulled away over the final two laps and picked up his first win of 2026. It was really good to see Egeland run well all night; he doesn’t have the best luck all the time but drove a heck of a race to settle for runner-up.

Pake went from 20^th to third to earn the hard charger bonus.  Truscinski also ran in the top 6-7 all night and claimed fourth ahead of Nick Omdahl of East Grand Forks.

RCS notes

--Josh Barker of Thompson will race his Wissota Street Stock at RCS this summer; his son, Jordan, will pilot the car at Devils Lake on a weekly basis. Barker unfortunately had trouble on the opening lap of the feature and pulled in.

--Lucas Rodin of Marion, a former Wissota Midwest Modified national champion, was at RCS in a Wissota Late Model, driving one of Rusty Kollman’s cars.  Rodin debuted in a late model at the Jamestown Stampede last year, and this will be his first full year in a late model. Expect to see Rodin race some NLRA shows this year.  He has raced Wissota Midwest Modifieds and Modifieds as well at Brown County Speedway in Aberdeen.

--Another Wissota/NLRA Late Model newcomer is Dylan Langevin of Thief River Falls. Langevin spent the previous five years in the lightning sprint class, including winning four features in 2025.

--Nick Seitz of Bemidji, the son of the late John Seitz, a former NLRA late model champion, has moved into the Wissota Midwest Modified class this season, sporting a very similar look to what his dad ran.  Nick Seitz previously raced in the Wissota Mod 4 class. His dad was an outstanding driver and is still missed to this day.