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Wednesday, September 9

The 38th annual Northern Nationals was held this past weekend at Gondik Law Speedway in Superior, Wisconsin.

As they have now for seven years, the Northern Nationals kicks off on Wednesday night with a rather unusual event: the XR+ Showdown in Souptown. The race consists of a 20-lap, heads-up race between the WISSOTA Super Stocks and the Midwest Modifieds. An open practice session for anything on four wheels is also held on Wednesday, with the events of the Showdown worked in during the evening between practice sessions.

The top eight drivers in track points in the two divisions receive an invite to this special race and if some don’t wish to be a part of it, they offer the opportunity to the next driver in line. For some reason this year only six Super Stock drivers chose to compete while the MidMods had their full field of eight, though there was also one replacement driver in that group.

In recent years the field has raced without allowances between the classes with time trials now used to determine the starting order for the race.

I’m assuming the track was run hard and dry in case rain were to hit during the weekend. Just a bit of moisture was put on before time trials. Steve Stuart was the first driver out for qualifying and he took advantage of the little moisture that was left, as he set quick time at 18.880 seconds. Kyle Copp was the other racers in the 18-second bracket.

The race itself was not too much to remember, unless you won some money driving it. Stuart started on the pole and led from start to finish. The race ran off nonstop for 20 quick laps and the highlight of the race was the battle for second between Copp and Andy Grymala. They ran wheel to wheel for several laps before Grymala edged past into second.

Passing was at a premium; Rick Simpson and Paul Ripley ran fourth and fifth for much of the race. The whole event took a grand total of eight minutes to run. Super Stocks dominated — the top four finishers were Supers, and five of the top six.

The was some serious money on the line for at least the top three finishers. Stuart earned a whopping $2,000 for eight minutes of work, Grymala earned $1000, while Copp settled for $500 for third. I never saw what any other positions won, so I must assume they are racing for a handshake and a “thank you for coming.”

It is a good deal for the spectators though, as it costs them nothing to watch. Only the drivers pay pit passes, and others are free in the pits.

The time trials did produce some quirky happenings. Don Livingston spun out on his second lap of qualifying and spun around so hard that his car dug into the track and he flipped over on the driver’s side door. I don’t know if I have seen that before. The car wasn’t damaged badly and he was able to drive away from the scene and race the main. Earlier his car started belching lots of smoke during hot laps, so it was a trying night for him.

Jonny Nowak, who was the alternative added on to the Midwest Mod field, probably wished that he had stayed home. Upon completion of his qualifying, he pounded the turn four wall violently, which ended his night and badly damaged his car. And for some reason, there were no tow trucks on the grounds, which could have been a serious issue. Heavy equipment was rigged to carry his car off the track.

Ray Stuart was back in the flag stand on Wednesday. This guy has retired and unretired more times than Brett Favre. Dollars to donuts, he’s flagging the rest of the week.

He did pull out a new starter’s signal that I have never seen before and I’ve seen more than a few flagman in action. With five laps remaining in the feature race, he held out five fingers to the drivers that most good flagman will do. He, however, also waved the green flag vigorously at the same time and I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. I have seen a number of starters vigorously wave the green with two laps to go — “The Flying Green” it is called — but never with five to go. I will have to ask him where he came up with that move.

I did pick up a couple bits of news in the pits before the cars started hot lapping. Ross Siiter was driving the No. 7a Midwest Mod most recently driven by Brad Anderson. Whether this was a one-night borrowed ride or he has purchased the car, I don’t know.

What I do know is that Ryan Savoy, long-one of Gondik’s best Midwest Mod drivers, is moving up to the Modifieds. He purchased the Longhorn Mod driven this year by Deven VanHouse. To power it, he bought the motor that Jack Rivord has been running this year in his MB Mod.

Here is one reason why this time of year leaves me melancholy. This weekend will likely mark the end of a great and long tradition in Twin Ports dirt track racing; it may be the last weekend that a Rivord will be racing at the Superior track. Jack Rivord sold his Modified to Tim Patchen and now they’ve also sold the motor. They are also selling their trailer and tow vehicle and liquidating their entire racing operation.

The reason? Jack has done an internship with a major business corporation in Superior, and with just one more year of school before he graduates from U.W. Stout, they have already promised him a job when he completes school. However, it means he will likely be moving to Texas.

The family is also trying to sell Rick Rivord’s MB Mod and believe they might be moving that car by next week. Then they just have the one motor to sell and all of that racing equipment will be gone. Dating back to the days of Ollie Rivord, when the Tri State Speedway was a flat half-mile, there has always been one or more Rivord family members racing at the speedway. Times change and circumstances change, but sometimes the inevitable changes still hurt.

Thursday, September 10

The special event season for WISSOTA Auto Racing continued for me at River Cities Speedway for the 20th annual John Seitz Memorial.

Two decades having passed hardly seems possible, but true. Special activities and events were a part of this year’s race in honor of that. Most notably when looking at the payoff, the winner received $9292, while second and third place received $9200. The race still paid $920 to start the main event.

This is my first visit of the year to Grand Forks. The Seitz weekend consists of three nights of racing action with full programs for four of the WISSOTA divisions, including the Late Models, Modifieds, Midwest Mods and Street Stocks.

The Modifieds run three full programs, with the other three classes running two full shows spread out over three nights at the “Bullring.” If ever a track deserved that title, this is the place that does.

I often wonder what drivers who have never raced here before think when they see how banked it is, how tight it is, how small it is, and yet how fast it is. Also, without outside walls or guardrail, the drop off is considerable. Drivers are always racing on the edge of disaster.

Thursday night features the Prelude to the Johnny, which includes a full show for all four classes and is also the final point race for the NLRA WISSOTA Late Model series. A champion for that group is crowned at the conclusion of the evening. And while it is an NLRA point race, it is also their biggest race of the year in terms of car count; just about all the Late Model teams are on hand for the Thursday night event, with many using it as a paying practice session for the Seitz, which begins qualifying events on Friday evening.

For that reason, the car count for the $2,000 and spare change event is through the roof. With many cars running on the NLRA circuit this year, and perhaps more interest by traveling teams due to 2026’s purse, the record for Thursday was quickly blown out of the water.

The previous record for this event was 63 Late Model drivers racing. Sixty-four drivers signed in to race Late Models on Thursday night, and more were expected for Friday and Saturday’s action.

Good fields of drivers signed in for the other WISSOTA classes racing a full show on Thursday, including 48 Midwest Mods, 35 Mods and 19 Street Stocks. All three classes were down slightly from last year’s totals. Still, with more than 160 drivers racing full shows on Thursday, there was more than enough racing to satisfy even the most avid of fan.

Late Model drivers drew a number for a starting spot in their heats, with seven necessary for the car count. Passing points were also in order. Folks on hand tell me the Seitz has used passing points for the last five or six years, but for some reason I do not recall that. The NLRA has long-been a draw/redraw proponent. In any event, passing points were used this year, which is much more fair when dealing with such a large field of entrants. Passing points were also used to line up the mains for the other three classes as well.

In an attempt to be truthful as well as fair to the track, the track prep stumbled Thursday. It was painfully dry to begin the program and they ran many heats over a number of different divisions before they finally did something about the situation. Thankfully, the touch-ups worked and the feature races were much better.

Along with seven heats and three B Features for the Late Models, the Modifieds ran four heats and one huge B feature. The Midwest Mods had five heats and a pair of B features, while the Street Stocks, down in numbers, had two heats plus their main event.

The top 27 Late Model drivers in the 60-plus car field started the 30-lap Late Model main. With a better track to race on than from the heats, we knew these drivers could put on a show and indeed, they did. Thirty laps ran off nonstop and there were multiple battles for position across the field that made this a good race. All four features had their moments that made them better than any of the preliminaries we saw earlier.

Dave Mass and A.J. Diemel exchanged the lead three times in the Late Model feature before Mass found a line that worked especially well for him. He regained the lead with only three laps to go to take the win.

Mass led from the start, from the pole, but Diemel, who always seems to shine at this track, was able to wrestle away the top spot on lap three. He then led until Mass made his late-race move. They were racing close together the whole race and trying different lines around the track, which were not available earlier until the track prep. Diemel was mostly working the cushion while Mass ran low. Ironically, late in the race Mass found the top side to work the best for him and by getting great runs off the banking in turn two, he was able to blast past Diemel for the win.

For virtually the whole race, Dustin Stand and Shane Edginton battled for third, which was also the battle for the NLRA point title. Only four points separated them going into the final feature for 2026. By staying right behind Strand, Edginton eeked out the title by the scantest of points to claim the championship.

Behind them, Zach Johnson and Chad Olsen battled for position through the whole race until the last few laps, when James Giossi moved up and passed both of them. There was plenty of side-by-side racing and competition, so fans walked out of the grandstand feeling good about the racing.

Just before that race, the Modified 25-lap feature also was a good one, with a somewhat surprise finish. Not that Joe Thomas winning a main event is either a surprise or an upset, but in order to win this one Thursday, he had to drive around Tyler Peterson to do so. Once TPO gets a race lead, he seldom lets it slip away, but that was the rare situation that occurred on Thursday.

Thomas led from the start after starting on the outside pole, chased by Ward Imrie and Peterson. Peterson went to the cushion where he had immediate success, passing Imrie. On lap 14, he passed Thomas for the lead.

The cushion, which had been so friendly to TPO early on, came back to bite him late in the race. Following a lap 18 yellow, only the second of the race, Peterson again went to the cushion but it was tricky and there was quite a lip on it. When TPO jumped that and lost time, Thomas drove back under him and retook the lead. And when Peterson pushed even harder to try and regain positioning, it caused him even more grief. He lost more time and that allowed Ryan Gierke to get by for second. A charging Bryce Sward, from 12th, came home fourth ahead of Cole Chernosky. Only two drivers failed to finish this race

I am being kind when I say that the Midwest Mods had an off night. To be truthful, many of their races Thursday were horrible, with multiple yellows and a number of drivers seemingly racing for the first time ever. It was enough to send many in the crowd on their bathroom break early.

In fact, things were so bad early in the second heat race that after five yellows and only one lap completed, the entire field was sent to the infield for a “timeout” with the next race brought onto the track to run their heat and then the second heat was brought back out to see if they could do better. They managed to run the rest of their heat with only one more yellow.

However, this was the way most of the night went. It was trying for all, with patience stretched almost to the breaking point.

Their 25-car main event started out the same way, with three yellows in the first four laps including one multi-car crash.

Thankfully, they finally settled down and completed the last sixteen laps uncluttered. However, the rest of the race was pretty much single file. Landyn Randt, who started on the outside pole, led from start to finish and actually stretched his advantage to almost a full straightway. His main challenge was lapped traffic, which caused the finish to be closer than the rest of the race was.

Jory Berg had a long battle with Matt Schow for second and after he finally claimed the spot, he shortened up the distance on Randt, but it never got to the point where Randt’s lead was contested. Only four drivers failed to finish the race.

It’s not often when the top four drivers in WISSOTA national points are at the same track and battling for the lead in the feature, but that was the exact scenario in the Street Stocks on Thursday. And those four — Levi Randt, Keith Tourville, Cole Greseth and Justin Vogel — put on a great show.

Tourville started on the pole for the 20-lap feature but could only lead one lap before Vogel three-wheeled it past him on the cushion. Vogel has never found a cushion that he didn’t like, and he was rolling it again on Thursday, biking his car around the top side of the track as Tourville tried to keep pace with him.

Meanwhile, Greseth — who dominated here in the regular season — worked the low side of the track and moved into contention. Lap after lap, Greseth gained ground on the low side and one lap short of the halfway point, he took over the top spot.

Those three raced together for the remainder of the feature, as Vogel and Tourville tried hard to retake the lead. Greseth had them covered, however, as he continued to hold them off and drove on for the win, setting a track record for numbers of feature wins earned here this year.

For Randt, it was a frustrating night. He had a flat tire on the first lap of his heat race, had to start tail back in the field, and could only move forward to ninth at the finish.

Friday, September 11

The 20th anniversary John Seitz Memorial race began in earnest on Friday, September 11 at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, North Dakota. After Thursday night’s Prelude race, attention turned to the all-important qualifying heats for the Late Models.

Along with the Late Models, heat races were held for the Street Stocks and Midwest Mods, which set the field for the feature events for Saturday night. These two classes get the short end of the stick, as it were, for the weekend; they only get two full shows during the three-day event and Friday night racing is just heat races for them. And yet, for a variety of reasons, those two classes continue to provide plenty of race cars for the weekend. The Street Stock numbers have been down all year at this track and that was reflected in the fact that they weren’t going to need any B features on Saturday.

For the Modifieds, Friday night is the most important night of the weekend, with the Big Al Delaine Memorial race paying $3,092 dollars to the winner. There was also an increased purse for the first nine finishers.

The evening began with a reminder from track announcer Jon Roberts about 9/11. After a moment of reflection, hopefully by all, it was time to go racing in North Dakota.

There has been a lot of talk recently about how this might be the year the program broke the record for Late Models attendance. And technically speaking, the record was indeed broken in 2026. Over the course of the last two nights, 71 WISSOTA Late Models competed in racing events here at the track, even though 64 actually raced each night. Seven drivers who ran on Thursday night did not return for Friday night, and they were replaced by seven others who saw their first action on Friday, including an eighth different car for Nate Reynolds. After he had trouble with his own ride on Friday night, he borrowed a car from the Wilde Racing team to compete again on Friday.

Actually, the number of different cars was 72; Tyler Peterson, after driving the Harry Gant looking No. 33 on Thursday night, decided to return to the more familiar No. 1TPO Friday after the Thursday car did not perform up to par. He drove his trusty 1TPO into the dash and guaranteed himself a starting spot inside the top eight on Saturday.

It was an excellent night for Peterson overall, after having hit a bit of a dry spell lately. He also went on to win the Delaine Memorial Friday.

Seven 15-lap heats were held for the Late Models, giving the night the feel of multiple main events. The drivers obviously ran these races as hard as any feature race they might be in all year. The top 16 in passing points earned during the heat races locked those drivers into the 92-lap feature on Saturday night, with the top eight then making the “Go Hard Or Go Home Dash.” They redrew for their starting positions for that race and the finish of it set the first eight rows for the main on Saturday.

There certainly were some different faces winning the heat races this year and also making the dash. Gavin Tarras and Konner Sperle were probably not on anyone’s pre-race scorecard to make the dash, but both ran strongly and showed they belonged there. Tarras actually earned the outside pole for the feature.

James Giossi also has limited experience here but that didn’t seem to bother him. He ran away with the 15-lap dash. Lots of well-known drivers with impressive records had to battle it out in the three B features on Saturday night, and certainly there will be some left on the sidelines.

For the Modified drivers, 39 of them were on hand to try and win the Delaine Memorial, the most prized win for the class at River Cities Speedway.

Four heats and a pair of B features set the 25-driver field for the race, set for 35 laps.

This race was dominated by Peterson, who led all but the first lap of the race. Mike Stearns started on the pole and led the opening round ahead of Peterson, but once TPO got up on the cushion, he blew past Stearns and then proceeded to pull away from the pack. He was very fast on the cushion, despite the fact that it was again quite bumpy. Anyone who drove that line had their hands full on Friday, and that included drivers racing in all classes.

However, for those lacking fear and perhaps the great ability to fight their car through such a setup, it worked. Peterson opened up nearly a full straightaway at times over the field, with lapped traffic his major concern.

The race was a smooth one with only two yellow flags to slow the action, spread out such that the race was pretty much run in thirds. As Peterson pulled away from the pack, Stearns maintained second, with Travis Saurer and Dustin Strand close behind.

On an impressive move was Brendan Luschinski, who started sixth. When he got up on the cushion he moved forward quickly, taking second from Stearns just as the first yellow waved with 13 laps complete.

Luschinski continued to run with the second place pack until he got over the edge of the track. While he saved it and didn’t cause a yellow, he lost of lot of ground and ended up finishing 12th.

Joe Thomas was also on the move. He started 16th but by the halfway point of the race was up to third; he then engaged in a terrific battle with Stearns for second as they swapped the spot several times — working through traffic at the same time.

The second and final yellow came with 25 laps complete, a phantom yellow no one could figure out. It slowed the field, nevertheless. Peterson again took off and drove away from the pack but Thomas got the jump on Stearns and took over second.

Peterson had some late race traffic to contend with and as he carefully worked through it, Thomas closed up on the leader and made the finish as close as the race had been to that point. Still, Peterson didn’t feel any particular heat as he drove on for the win ahead of Thomas, Stearns, Ryan Gierke and Strand in the top five. Only six drivers didn’t complete the race and heavy traffic marked much of the contest.

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