8-18 Page 24 | ATD Racing News

Pederson puts away LM field and Stearns scores first River Cities win Friday while Hunter and Greseth continue march toward track titles

By Steve Young

GRAND FORKS, ND (August 14) - Spotty showers could not keep history from being made on School Bus night at River Cities Speedway Friday, as Kelsi Pederson became the first female driver in track history to win a WISSOTA Late Model main event.

Track point leaders Cole Greseth and Austin Hunter continued their marches toward track titles with their feature wins in the WISSOTA Street Stock and Midwest Mod divisions, while Mike Stearns collected his first checkered flag at the Bullring in the WISSOTA Modifieds.

It was sister and brother up front to start the WISSOTA Late Model main event, as Kelsi and Tucker Pederson led the 26-car, 20-lap race to green. What followed became five minutes of the best racing of the season as the feature went caution free.

The family affair at the front of the field remained door-to-door for the majority of the opening lap with Tucker leading by inches at the conclusion of the lap. Tucker and Kelsi remained first and second as they held off third running Jason Strand to remain the top pair through two circuits.

Strand bicycled hard in turn three and did an incredible job to save the car from going over, though it cost him third as Dustin Strand replaced him on the podium. Tucker Pederson continued to lead past lap five but by then, Kelsi had gathered momentum to reel him back in and continue their door-to-door battle for the top spot as the pair approached slower traffic on lap eight.

Kelsi Pederson rode around the low side of the track to lead her first lap of the race as Strand began to reel in both to make it a three-car battle for the top spot. Though Kelsi had the lead, she was the first one to have to make her way through what was quickly becoming heavy lapped traffic, the majority of whom were running the low side along with her.

The top three were then joined by the eldest Pederson, their father Joey, as he brought Shane Edginton with him into what was quickly becoming a five-car battle for the top spot at the midway point.

Kelsi Pederson was stuck behind the same slower car for a number of laps, though she continued to lead the race. With seven to go, she tried the middle of the track to put the final car on the lead lap behind her, allowing Tucker Pederson to take the lead back for the second time with six to go.

Kelsi held her ground in the middle of the track and beat Tucker by inches back to the line with five to go. While the Pedersons continued to wage war at the front of the field, Edginton was threading his way past Joey Pederson, then Dustin Strand, to move into third as Kelsi approached a pair of slower cars running two-wide in front of her with three to go.

Wasting no time, she split the pair of slower cars to make what proved to be the race-winning move, opening up her biggest advantage of the race in the final lap. She left Tucker to fend off Edginton in the battle for the runner-up spot as she went on to win the race over Tucker Pederson, Edginton, Mike Greseth, and Dustin Strand.

Aaron Holtan and Rick Delaine paced the field to start the 20-lap WISSOTA Modified main event. Holtan took the early lead as Preston Carr moved to Delaine's inside to battle for second. On the second circuit, Delaine used the high side to his advantage, edging Holtan for the lead at the conclusion of the lap.

Delaine began to put some space between himself and Holtan for the top spot. Carr and Holtan tussled for the second spot before Carr spun in turn one with 11 to go to set up the only restart of the race.

Holtan remained second as Sean Teunis became the next driver to throw his hat in the ring for the runner-up spot as second through sixth remained within a blanket drop of each other past the midway point.

With six to go, the drivers running third through fifth moved to the top of the top of the track, giving sixth starting Mike Stearns all the room he needed to move from sixth to third, becoming the final driver to challenge Holtan for the second spot with three to go. Stearns abandoned the bottom to take the runner-up spot with two laps remaining as he reeled in Delaine as the white flag dropped.

Stearns returned to the bottom of the circuit to pull even with Delaine to begin the final lap, eventually sailing past Delaine to steal the win on the final lap. Holtan, Ward Imrie, and Teunis completed the top five.

Nate Raasakka and Jory Berg made up the front row of the WISSOTA Midwest Mod feature. Nearly 25 years after the pair were go-kart competitors on the southeast side of the fairgrounds, they remained first and second as Berg pulled to a second lead in the opening circuits of the race before the first slowdown on lap three.

Connor Drewry capitalized on the restart, moving past Raasakka into second. Point leader Austin Hunter was the next to challenge Raasakka, moving to the inside on the bottom of turns three and four on the fourth lap to complete the podium.

Berg started working lap traffic with eight to go, but at that point, he still had a 1-second advantage over Drewry. That advantage was quickly erased as the traffic became thicker, turning the podium into a nose-to-tail battle for the top spot with five to go.

The second and final caution with four remaining cleared the way for the leaders to battle it out for the victory in clean air. Drewry chose the inside on the ensuing double file restart which gave Hunter all he needed to use the top of the racetrack to move by both Drewry and Berg to take the lead with three to go.

Hunter pulled away in the closing laps to win his second feature in four weeks ahead of Berg, Drewry, Chris Edmonds, and Travis Klein in the top five.

Cole Greseth and Greg Jose, who have been the top two in the division all summer, led the field to green in the WISSOTA Street Stock finale. Greseth led the opening lap, but Jose remained close as the field cycled around the quarter mile to begin the 20-lapper.

Greseth continued to lead following a lap five caution, but the restart allowed third running Trey Hess to move in on Jose for the second spot. Adam Dehne took a peek to the inside of Hess in the first laps following the slowdown as Greseth started to build his first advantage of the race, which became a straightaway lead by the midway point.

The top three remained evenly spaced through the conclusion of the race, as Greseth went on to win his ninth of the season at the speedway over Jose, Hess, Dehne, and Scotty Messner in the top five.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Late Models:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 93-Kelsi Pederson[1]; 2. 27P-Tucker Pederson[2]; 3. 5E-Shane Edginton[9]; 4. 17-Mike Greseth[13]; 5. 71-Dustin Strand[5]; 6. 7P-Joey Pederson[6]; 7. 2S-Matt Schow[4]; 8. 14-Brody Troftgruben[12]; 9. E85-Jason Strand[3]; 10. 24S-Mike Stearns[10]; 11. 12S-Brad Seng[11]; 12. 6-Nick Corbett[7]; 13. 4-Dylan Langevin[8]; 14. 70-Jesse Teunis[16]; 15. 56-Laine Schwehr[15]; 16. 77-Corey Seckerson[14]; 17. T 1-Tom Corcoran[17]; 18. 39-Jamie Dietzler[22]; 19. 29K-Ryan Kereluk[19]; 20. 4C-Brandon Corbett[18]; 21. 07HD1-Stan Dueck[21]; 22. 17T-Talon Seckerson[20]; 23. 00H-Ben Hunt[23]; 24. 7-Skylar Seckerson[24]; 25. (DNF) 25-Jamie Trautner[26]; 26. (DNS) 21S-John Seng

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 27P-Tucker Pederson[1]; 2. 2S-Matt Schow[3]; 3. 5E-Shane Edginton[7]; 4. 17-Mike Greseth[6]; 5. T 1-Tom Corcoran[4]; 6. 07HD1-Stan Dueck[2]; 7. (DNF) 25-Jamie Trautner[5]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 7P-Joey Pederson[2]; 2. 71-Dustin Strand[4]; 3. 24S-Mike Stearns[3]; 4. 77-Corey Seckerson[5]; 5. 4C-Brandon Corbett[1]; 6. 39-Jamie Dietzler[7]; 7. 7-Skylar Seckerson[6]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 6-Nick Corbett[1]; 2. 4-Dylan Langevin[4]; 3. 12S-Brad Seng[2]; 4. 56-Laine Schwehr[3]; 5. 29K-Ryan Kereluk[5]; 6. 00H-Ben Hunt[6]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. E85-Jason Strand[1]; 2. 93-Kelsi Pederson[5]; 3. 14-Brody Troftgruben[3]; 4. 70-Jesse Teunis[4]; 5. 17T-Talon Seckerson[2]; 6. (DNF) 21S-John Seng[6]

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 24S-Mike Stearns[6]; 2. 1R-Rick Delaine[2]; 3. 50-Aaron Holtan[1]; 4. 10W-Ward Imrie[8]; 5. 39-Shawn Teunis[4]; 6. 81-Jordan Duray[5]; 7. 5C-Preston Carr[3]; 8. 18P-Tevin Poluyko[12]; 9. 25-Ryan Johnson[9]; 10. 57-Michael Tiani[13]; 11. 96-Erv Grossman[11]; 12. 11-Loki Bjerke[7]; 13. (DNF) 40-Patrick Sobolik[10]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 11-Loki Bjerke[2]; 2. 10W-Ward Imrie[6]; 3. 1R-Rick Delaine[1]; 4. 5C-Preston Carr[7]; 5. 25-Ryan Johnson[5]; 6. 96-Erv Grossman[3]; 7. 57-Michael Tiani[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 50-Aaron Holtan[3]; 2. 39-Shawn Teunis[1]; 3. 81-Jordan Duray[5]; 4. 24S-Mike Stearns[6]; 5. 40-Patrick Sobolik[2]; 6. 18P-Tevin Poluyko[4]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 44-Austin Hunter[6]; 2. BO-Jory Berg[2]; 3. 18X-Connor Drewry[3]; 4. 15TRX-Chris Edmonds[4]; 5. 11K-Travis Klein[10]; 6. 57-Nathan Raasakka[1]; 7. 007-Alex Johnson[12]; 8. 46J-Taylor Jacobson[9]; 9. 4BJR-Hunter Besson[11]; 10. 54-Terry Nelson[8]; 11. 2SJR-Liam Schow[16]; 12. E15-Mavrik Strand[17]; 13. 39-Colin Dietzler[15]; 14. 72R-Ryan Veldman[14]; 15. 01-Zach Bruer[5]; 16. (DNF) 83X-Garett Veldman[13]; 17. (DNF) 15-Kenna Breidenbach[7]; 18. (DNS) 12-Ryan Johnson

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 18X-Connor Drewry[2]; 2. 15TRX-Chris Edmonds[5]; 3. 01-Zach Bruer[4]; 4. 11K-Travis Klein[6]; 5. 83X-Garett Veldman[3]; 6. (DNS) 12-Ryan Johnson

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. BO-Jory Berg[1]; 2. 46J-Taylor Jacobson[3]; 3. 15-Kenna Breidenbach[5]; 4. 4BJR-Hunter Besson[2]; 5. 72R-Ryan Veldman[4]; 6. (DNF) E15-Mavrik Strand[6]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 57-Nathan Raasakka[1]; 2. 44-Austin Hunter[5]; 3. 54-Terry Nelson[2]; 4. 007-Alex Johnson[3]; 5. 39-Colin Dietzler[4]; 6. 2SJR-Liam Schow[6]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 19-Cole Greseth[1]; 2. 28-Greg Jose[2]; 3. 49-Trey Hess[3]; 4. 77-Adam Dehne[5]; 5. 18-Scotty Messner[6]; 6. B1*-Blaine Barnes[8]; 7. 35-John Halvorson[4]; 8. 8T-Doug VanMill[7]; 9. 00-Logan Hayes[9]; 10. 29P-Charlie Paradis[13]; 11. (DNF) 3L-Zach Lee[10]; 12. (DNF) 99-Josh Barker[12]; 13. (DNF) 29XT-Aaron Sigerud[11]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Greg Jose[3]; 2. 8T-Doug VanMill[1]; 3. 49-Trey Hess[5]; 4. 18-Scotty Messner[4]; 5. 00-Logan Hayes[2]; 6. 29XT-Aaron Sigerud[6]; 7. 29P-Charlie Paradis[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 19-Cole Greseth[1]; 2. 77-Adam Dehne[2]; 3. B1*-Blaine Barnes[3]; 4. 35-John Halvorson[5]; 5. 3L-Zach Lee[4]; 6. 99-Josh Barker[6]