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Searing claims first John Seitz Memorial; Thomas ends Peterson Seitz streak at four

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (September 7, 2024) – The 18th annual John Seitz Memorial concluded on Saturday night at River Cities Speedway with five WISSOTA Dirt Track Racing feature winners - Cole Searing, Joe Thomas, Trevor Nelson, Matt Schow and Cole Greseth.

Cole Searing of Huron, South Dakota won the night’s 92-lap, $9,200-to-win Seitz Memorial Late Model finale. The race was paced early by Go Hard or Go Home pole dash winner Chad Becker for the first 13 laps. On lap 14, two-time Seitz Memorial champion Aaron Turnbull took the point, wheeling a car owned by Shane Edginton, and brought Searing with him.

Turnbull led to the fuel stop on lap 32 as Searing edged out Becker for second at the stop.

Turnbull showed the way until he began to reach lapped traffic with 50 to go. That’s when Searing looked to make his move on the low side of the speedway. Searing and Turnbull ran door-to-door until Searing cleared for the lead on the front straightaway with 47 to go.

Once out front, Searing wasn’t able to enjoy a comfortable lead as Turnbull and Dustin Strand remained within striking distance amid heavy lapped traffic.

A series of cautions in the closing stages kept the leaders out of lapped traffic.

Strand moved into second and set his sights on Searing with a dozen circuits remaining, and appeared to have the fastest car on the track. Strand made his way to the back bumper of Searing with under 10 to go, but when he needed to most, Searing found a way to power away from Strand and the rest of the field to take the checkers.

Strand and Turnbull completed the podium as Michael Greseth, who rebounded from a flat tire, finished fourth and AJ Diemel fifth.

Joe Thomas ended Tyler Peterson's string of four consecutive Modified Seitz Memorial victories in a thrilling fight to the finish. Mike Stearns led laps one through 15 until Thomas took the point on lap 16. Thomas then led five laps until he pushed in turn two, allowing Peterson to take the point at the opposite end of the speedway.

Thomas crossed over, but the caution waved giving Peterson the lead for the restart.

On the restart, a three-wide battle broke out between Peterson, Thomas and Ward Imrie. Imrie took the runner-up position and placed a bid for the lead.

Peterson held him off until the final caution flew with four to go.

Another wild restart ensued as Peterson, Imrie, Thomas and now Cayden Schmeling all battled for the lead. Thomas was the big beneficiary as he raced from third to take the lead coming out of turn four. Peterson gave him everything he had but Thomas was too strong as he raced to the win.

Trevor Nelson took the checkers in the Super Stock feature, which was one of the most exciting races of the night. Nelson took the lead from Dave Mass on lap four and drove out to a three car length lead. Mass found a groove on the low side and reeled Nelson back in as the two ran door-to-door for six consecutive laps. Nelson regained control of the point just as he entered lapped traffic. As he did, Terran Spacek entered the fray and moved by Mass for second and was within striking distance of Nelson for the lead.

Spacek ran out of laps, however, as Nelson went on to take the checkers.

Matt Schow drove from the outside of the second row to win his fourth Seitz Memorial in the Midwest Modifieds. Schow quickly worked his way up to second and worked to reel in leader Austin Hunter. Hunter looked strong from the start, but Schow took advantage of a restart with 17 to go to pull alongside Hunter. The two battled for the lead for a pair of circuits before Schow prevailed and took the point. Hunter then moved down to the low of the speedway where Schow was running, but Schow was too quick.

The McIntosh, Minnesota driver took the win by three-quarters of a second over Hunter. Thursday night winner Blake Adams finished third.

Cole Greseth had arguably the best weekend of his relatively short career. The Harwood, ND youngster one his first Street Stock Tour feature on Thursday night and came back Saturday to do the exact same and take home the big check.

Greseth started on the outside the front row and grabbed the lead early over Braden Brauer. Brauer was hot on his heels in the early stages as both drivers ran the low side of the speedway.

The lead duo ran in that order until Brauer spun out in turn two with 10 laps to go, putting Brauer at the tail of the field. Once the race resumed, Greseth found himself running from Parker Anderson and defending WISSOTA Street Stock national champion Justin Vogel. Vogel was the only car in the top 10 running the extreme high side of the speedway. It was working for him for a few laps, but he eventually faded back to the third position.

Greseth went on to take the win; his second with the Street Stock Tour. Anderson and Vogel rounded out the podium.

Ty Agen, who finished fourth in the feature, was crowned the Street Stock Tour series champion.

SUMMARY
WISSOTA Late Models
A Feature (92 Laps): 1. 10C-Cole Searing[5]; 2. 71-Dustin Strand[4]; 3. 21T-Aaron Turnbull[3]; 4. 17-Mike Greseth[2]; 5. 58-AJ Diemel[7]; 6. 92-Shane Edginton[20]; 7. 12-Chad Becker[1]; 8. 37-Scott Ward[6]; 9. 27-Jake Redetzke[11]; 10. 28P-Jeff Provinzino[9]; 11. 28-Sam Mars[13]; 12. 42S-Don Shaw[15]; 13. 12S-Brad Seng[18]; 14. 44*-Cole Schill[27]; 15. 2-Dave Mass[12]; 16. 6M-Jeff Massingill[26]; 17. 20-Trevor Anderson[16]; 18. 4J-Lee Grosz[8]; 19. 00-Mitch Johnson[23]; 20. 22-Nick Panitzke[10]; 21. (DNF) 17S-Lance Schill[14]; 22. (DNF) 2S-Josh Skorczewski[24]; 23. (DNF) 5-Josh Zimpel[17]; 24. (DNF) 14-Brody Troftgruben[25]; 25. (DNF) 55C-Chad Mahder[21]; 26. (DNF) 5G-Scott Greer[22]; 27. (DNF) 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[19]

B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 5-Josh Zimpel[6]; 2. 92-Shane Edginton[1]; 3. 00-Mitch Johnson[9]; 4. 7P-Joey Pederson[4]; 5. 1-Amelia Eisenschenk[7]; 6. 13L-Bryan LePier[5]; 7. 2*-Cole Babcock[12]; 8. 6R-Nate Reynolds[2]; 9. F9-Brandon Fuller[8]; 10. 88-Steve Hucovski[11]; 11. 11-Troy Schill[14]; 12. (DNF) 57H-Nathan Higginbotham[10]; 13. (DNF) 81X-Matt Sparby[16]; 14. (DNF) 56-Laine Schwehr[13]; 15. (DNF) 50-Ryan Corbett[3]; 16. (DNF) 13-John Buchner[15]

B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 12S-Brad Seng[1]; 2. 55C-Chad Mahder[3]; 3. 2S-Josh Skorczewski[4]; 4. 6M-Jeff Massingill[9]; 5. 11JR-Shane Holden[8]; 6. E85-Jason Strand[6]; 7. 29K-Ryan Kereluk[10]; 8. 21-Todd Frank[12]; 9. 11S-Casey Stremick[5]; 10. 27P-Tucker Pederson[7]; 11. 33-Ryan Dahl[13]; 12. 37JR-Morgan Ward Grosz[11]; 13. 02-Dan Dowling[15]; 14. (DNF) 85-Jayson Good[2]; 15. (DNS) 77-Corey Seckerson

B Feature 3 (15 Laps): 1. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[3]; 2. 5G-Scott Greer[1]; 3. 14-Brody Troftgruben[4]; 4. 21F-Gunner Frank[7]; 5. 44*-Cole Schill[6]; 6. 21S-John Seng[9]; 7. 2K-Rusty Kollman[2]; 8. 12F-Greg Friestad[5]; 9. 15-Laela Eisenschenk[8]; 10. 4C-Brandon Corbett[12]; 11. 97-Dan McNamee[13]; 12. 42-Matthew Jarvis[10]; 13. 57-Blake Higginbotham[15]; 14. (DNF) 25-Jamie Trautner[14]; 15. (DNF) 9-Steve Anderson[11]

Last Chance (15 Laps): 1. 6M-Jeff Massingill[2]; 2. 7P-Joey Pederson[1]; 3. 21F-Gunner Frank[3]; 4. 21S-John Seng[9]; 5. 44-Cole Schill[6]; 6. 1-Amelia Eisenschenk[4]; 7. 6R-Nate Reynolds[13]; 8. 2-Cole Babcock[10]; 9. 29K-Ryan Kereluk[11]; 10. 2K-Rusty Kollman[12]; 11. 21-Todd Frank[14]; 12. 11JR-Shane Holden[5]; 13. (DNF) 13L-Bryan LePier[7]; 14. (DNS) E85-Jason Strand; 15. (DNS) 12F-Greg Friestad

WISSOTA Midwest Mods
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 2S-Matt Schow[4]; 2. 44-Austin Hunter[1]; 3. 40D-Blake Adams[2]; 4. 1Z-Dawson Zabel[3]; 5. 87S-Reise Stenberg[9]; 6. 5BA-Aaron Blacklance[8]; 7. 18XX-Connor Drewry[22]; 8. 16L-Brenden Luschinski[7]; 9. 16-Skyler Smith[14]; 10. 29X-Brandon Bahr[5]; 11. 35-Tanner Theis[11]; 12. 15R-MaKenna Romuld[17]; 13. 4-Phil Christlieb[10]; 14. 169-Justin Olson[23]; 15. 88-Paul Veert[12]; 16. 23-Scott Vasichek[16]; 17. (DNF) 11K-Travis Klein[19]; 18. (DNF) 15-Glen Manning[6]; 19. (DNF) 111-Jason Halverson[13]; 20. (DNF) 11R-Landyn Randt[18]; 21. (DNF) 33A-Austin Overwater[15]; 22. (DNF) 73-Onyx Johnson[20]; 23. (DNF) 77JR-Brody Kraft[21]; 24. (DNF) 4B-Brandon Rehill[24]

B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 15R-MaKenna Romuld[2]; 2. 11K-Travis Klein[1]; 3. 77JR-Brody Kraft[4]; 4. 169-Justin Olson[3]; 5. 28S-Ryan Schow[6]; 6. 7B-Bailey Cousins[5]; 7. 20-Nick Audette[7]; 8. 15TRX-Chris Edmonds[8]; 9. 188-Hunter Hougard[15]; 10. 7T-Connor Graff[11]; 11. 8S-Jason Schuh[9]; 12. 69T-Nick Thoreson[16]; 13. 115-Kalin Honer[12]; 14. 24Z-David Hangsleben[10]; 15. 27-Adam Unrau[14]; 16. 24JR-Rebecca Stutsky[13]

B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 11R-Landyn Randt[2]; 2. 73-Onyx Johnson[3]; 3. 18XX-Connor Drewry[1]; 4. 4B-Brandon Rehill[4]; 5. 007-Alex Johnson[8]; 6. 77X-Dylan McCaughan[7]; 7. 08-Frank Veert[10]; 8. 47-Memphis Klassen[14]; 9. 07HD-Jesse Mckuski[9]; 10. 15G-Landon Gross[5]; 11. 19-Darrin Lawler[11]; 12. (DNF) 17S-Lance Schill[6]; 13. (DNF) 29-Cylen Vargason[12]; 14. (DNS) 30-Cole Neset; 15. (DNS) 77B-Logan Bauer

WISSOTA Street Stocks
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 19-Cole Greseth[2]; 2. 127-Parker Anderson[5]; 3. 10V-Justin Vogel[3]; 4. 26-Ty Agen[11]; 5. 20-Andrew Hanson[14]; 6. 19H-Hunter Carter[16]; 7. 2U-Kasey Ussatis[4]; 8. 4-Trey Hess[8]; 9. 11R-Levi Randt[20]; 10. 10T-Darek Turner[18]; 11. 18J-Justin Peterson[19]; 12. 20JR-Jayden Bogh[6]; 13. 18-Scotty Messner[10]; 14. 01-Chris Serr[24]; 15. 30-Seth Klostreich[12]; 16. 35-John Halvorson[9]; 17. 17-Nick Shumansky[17]; 18. 91-Shane Swenson[21]; 19. 62-Jayson Bronk[22]; 20. 34JR-Braden Brauer[1]; 21. 13-Devyn Weleski[7]; 22. 7-James Meagher[23]; 23. (DNF) 28-Greg Jose[15]; 24. (DNF) 11-Kyle Dykhoff[13]

B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 17-Nick Shumansky[2]; 2. 18J-Justin Peterson[3]; 3. 91-Shane Swenson[4]; 4. 7-James Meagher[8]; 5. 00-Dustin Ebensteiner[6]; 6. 7HD-Stan Dueck[10]; 7. 29-Rachael McNamee[7]; 8. (DNF) 11JR-Jeff Ekdahl[5]; 9. (DNF) 69-Stoney Kruk[1]; 10. (DNF) 14-Lindsay Durocher[9]

B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 10T-Darek Turner[1]; 2. 11R-Levi Randt[2]; 3. 62-Jayson Bronk[3]; 4. 01-Chris Serr[6]; 5. 24-Ashley Wampler[5]; 6. 34-Billy Binkley[4]; 7. 0007H-Austin Dueck[9]; 8. 49-Rodney Hulst[7]; 9. (DNS) 99-Josh Barker

WISSOTA Modifieds
A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 6ST-Joseph Thomas[5]; 2. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[3]; 3. 13-Cayden Schmeling[1]; 4. 10W-Ward Imrie[10]; 5. 6X-Zach Johnson[4]; 6. 26G-Ryan Gierke[9]; 7. 40A-Kevin Adams[8]; 8. 33C-Cole Chernosky[13]; 9. 12D-Mike Stearns[2]; 10. 74-Dustin Wahl[19]; 11. 22-Davey Mills[15]; 12. 22B-Josh Beaulieu[11]; 13. 77R-Ryan Schroeder[22]; 14. 81-Jordan Duray[7]; 15. 12P-Brandon Pelepetz[18]; 16. 7-Bryce Borgen[6]; 17. 16-Brenden Luschinski[20]; 18. 36-Ryan Cousins[14]; 19. 39-Shawn Teunis[24]; 20. 1R-Rick Delaine[12]; 21. (DNF) 6-Dale Ames[17]; 22. (DNF) 5BA-Aaron Blacklance[21]; 23. (DNF) 37-Scott Ward[16]; 24. (DNF) 33-Jeff Nelson[23]

B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 6-Dale Ames[4]; 2. 74-Dustin Wahl[3]; 3. 5BA-Aaron Blacklance[2]; 4. 33-Jeff Nelson[1]; 5. 57-Michael Tiani[7]; 6. 18P-Tevin Poluyko[6]; 7. (DNS) E85-Jason Strand; 8. (DNS) 2G-Brock Gronwold; 9. (DNS) 121-Dano Ostrander; 10. (DNS) 88-Tanner Williamson

B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 12P-Brandon Pelepetz[2]; 2. 16-Brenden Luschinski[3]; 3. 77R-Ryan Schroeder[1]; 4. 39-Shawn Teunis[5]; 5. 31-Eric Klassen[4]; 6. 12-Tony Caissie[7]; 7. 27-Chris Unrau[6]; 8. (DNS) 25-Ryan Johnson; 9. (DNS) 11Z-Dylan Zabel

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[2]; 2. 26G-Ryan Gierke[1]; 3. 1R-Rick Delaine[4]; 4. 22B-Josh Beaulieu[8]; 5. 16-Brenden Luschinski[5]; 6. 12P-Brandon Pelepetz[9]; 7. 18P-Tevin Poluyko[7]; 8. 57-Michael Tiani[6]; 9. (DNF) 121-Dano Ostrander[3]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 6ST-Joseph Thomas[1]; 2. 13-Cayden Schmeling[7]; 3. 12D-Mike Stearns[9]; 4. 5BA-Aaron Blacklance[4]; 5. 36-Ryan Cousins[8]; 6. 6-Dale Ames[2]; 7. (DNF) 2G-Brock Gronwold[3]; 8. (DNF) 25-Ryan Johnson[5]; 9. (DNF) 11Z-Dylan Zabel[6]

Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 7-Bryce Borgen[1]; 2. 10W-Ward Imrie[2]; 3. 33C-Cole Chernosky[4]; 4. 77R-Ryan Schroeder[3]; 5. 22-Davey Mills[8]; 6. 74-Dustin Wahl[9]; 7. E85-Jason Strand[5]; 8. 12-Tony Caissie[7]; 9. (DNF) 88-Tanner Williamson[6]

Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 81-Jordan Duray[1]; 2. 6X-Zach Johnson[5]; 3. 40A-Kevin Adams[7]; 4. 33-Jeff Nelson[2]; 5. 37-Scott Ward[8]; 6. 31-Eric Klassen[3]; 7. 39-Shawn Teunis[6]; 8. 27-Chris Unrau[4]

WISSOTA Super Stocks
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 71-Trevor Nelson[2]; 2. 22-Terran Spacek[3]; 3. 2-Dave Mass[1]; 4. 78K-Dexton Koch[12]; 5. 5-Jason Havel[6]; 6. 11A-Jordan Henkemeyer[11]; 7. 81B-Doug Bolt[13]; 8. 20-Jeremy North[8]; 9. 81X-Matt Sparby[4]; 10. T26-Nic Lewis[14]; 11. 76-Doug Koski[5]; 12. 65-Ron Reed[9]; 13. 4A-Allan Cleveland[10]; 14. (DNF) 41X-Brian Vajdl[7]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 71-Trevor Nelson[1]; 2. 22-Terran Spacek[4]; 3. 76-Doug Koski[5]; 4. 41X-Brian Vajdl[2]; 5. 65-Ron Reed[6]; 6. 11A-Jordan Henkemeyer[7]; 7. (DNF) T26-Nic Lewis[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2-Dave Mass[6]; 2. 81X-Matt Sparby[4]; 3. 5-Jason Havel[5]; 4. 20-Jeremy North[2]; 5. 4A-Allan Cleveland[1]; 6. 78K-Dexton Koch[3]; 7. 81B-Doug Bolt[7]

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