Aaron Turnbull becomes first back-to-back Seitz Memorial champion in photo finish

By Mike Spieker

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (September 12, 2020) - The 14th annual John Seitz Memorial will be one that is talked about for years to come. Fifty WISSOTA Late Models made the trek to the three-tenths mile bullring of River Cities Speedway in hopes of claiming the $9,200 check on Saturday night, but it came down to two previous Seitz Memorial champions in a classic dash to the checkers. In a photo finish with two-time Seitz Memorial champion AJ Diemel, Aaron Turnbull picked up his second consecutive title by a mere 0.138 seconds, equating to a half car length. 

“I thought we were a third place car there at the beginning. I guess we had enough there at the end,” said a shocked Turnbull in victory lane. “Last year was bigger because my family was here. That was just so awesome to have those guys here with me. But this is unbelievable.”

After a thrilling win the previous night in the $920-to-win Go Hard or Go Home pole dash, Turnbull led the field to the green with 2014 champion, Don Shaw, to his outside. 

Shaw grabbed the early lead as Dave Mass moved past Turnbull for second. Shaw quickly checked out from the rest of the field, but Mass was able to close the gap in traffic. On lap 19, Mass took the point away from Shaw, but his stint in the lead was brief. Shaw regained the lead on lap 20 as 10th place starter, Diemel, moved into second. Diemel continued to march forward, driving past Shaw on lap 25 and led the field to the fuel stop on lap 32. Turnbull, Shaw, Mass and Joey Pederson rounded out the top five at the break. 

As the race resumed, Diemel quickly distanced himself from the rest of the field. The driver from Elk Mound, Wis. seemed poised to be the first driver to capture three Seitz Memorial titles as he raced his way to a commanding four-second lead over Turnbull with 35 circuits remaining. 

With 26 to go, his lead was erased as the caution was displayed. That set off a series of yellows, including one red flag. 

On the first restart, fourth-place runner, Cole Schill, was spun in turn one. The caution was called on newly crowned NLRA series champion Dustin Strand, sending him to the tail of the lead lap cars. 

On the ensuing restart, Turnbull stole the point from Diemel just before the caution was displayed. Following that restart, the red was quickly displayed for Strand, who dropped his right rear tire over the edge of the banking in turn three which caused his car to high-center and flip. Strand did one complete barrel roll before landing on all four wheels off the banking. Strand was okay as he drove his No. 71 machine back to the trailer. 

Jeffrey Massingill shot from fourth to second on the restart, running where nobody else was on the extreme low side of the speedway. 

On the restart with 16 to go, Turnbull, Jesse Glenz and Massingill raced three wide for the lead with Turnbull hanging on to the position. Late-race charger Casey Meyer made his presence known racing inside the top three with under 10 to go.

Glenz showed his nose to Turnbull with four to go before Diemel came from fourth to challenge Glenz for second. Coming to the white flag, the top four runners raced within three car lengths of each other as Turnbull, Diemel and Glenz were three wide for the lead off turn four. 

On the 92nd circuit in the final set of corners, Turnbull used a lapped car to his inside as a pick to defend against a potential slide job from Diemel. Turnbull slid up the track off the corner, giving Diemel a run at him down the front straightaway. At the line, Turnbull won by a half car length over Diemel. 

“I was so flustered those last 20 laps,” said Turnbull after the race. “The last two or three laps I saw a nose poking under me. I probably didn’t do the right thing going to the bottom on the last lap in (turns) three and four but I saw a slide job coming. I thought I should at least try and protect that. It was a good thing it was 92 (laps) and not 93.”

Glenz, making his Seitz Memorial debut, finished in third while Meyer finished with a career-best fourth. Massingill was the hard-charger of the event, racing from 23rd to round out the top five. 

The WISSOTA Modifieds were led to the green by Tyler Peterson and Michael Greseth. Peterson grabbed the early lead using the moisture on the low side of the speedway. A restart on lap seven led to a three wide battle for the point with Peterson, Greseth and Jayson Good. 

Peterson fended off the challenge as Good moved into second. 

Greseth made a late-race charge on Peterson for the lead. Greseth nearly took the lead on several occasions, but Peterson put his No. 1TPO up on the cushion and pulled away from Greseth in the final laps to claim the win.

Lance Schill bested a full field of Happy Harry's Bottle Shops WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds. Schill took advantage of a lap five restart to move from third to the lead with passes over Jaden Varnson and Nate Reynolds. 

The restart on lap seven was quickly halted by the red flag. Reynolds spun in turn four coming to green and was collected by Les Schoon. From there, seven other drivers had nowhere to go and piled into each other. All drivers were okay. 

Schill went on to pick up his fifth Midwest Mod win of the season at the Bullring over Mike Nichols. ​

Kyle Dkyhoff cruised to the Big Al’s Construction WISSOTA Street Stock feature win. Dykhoff started from the pole and led all 20 laps. Behind him, Aaron Blacklance, Tucker Pederson, Justin Vogel, and Ryan Pommerer rounded out the top five. 

Vogel did not run Friday night’s program so he tagged the tail of a B-main. He started 15th and finished fourth to transfer into the main event. Then started 21st in the feature before coming home in fourth.

SUMMARY:
WISSOTA Late Models
John Seitz Memorial Feature (92 Laps): 1. 21-Aaron Turnbull[1]; 2. 58-AJ Diemel[10]; 3. 7X-Jesse Glenz[3]; 4. 03-Casey Meyer[5]; 5. 6M-Jeffrey Massingill[23]; 6. 55C-Chad Mahder[20]; 7. 10-Cole Searing[15]; 8. 12S-Brad Seng[21]; 9. 7P-Joey Pederson[7]; 10. 2-Dave Mass[4]; 11. 44-Cole Schill[14]; 12. 15*-Ryan Mikkelson[8]; 13. 18X-Shawn Meyer[9]; 14. 10R-Kevin Robertson[16]; 15. 2S-Josh Skorczewski[22]; 16. 14-Brody Troftgruben[6]; 17. C4-Ryan Corbett[12]; 18. 37-Scott Ward[19]; 19. 1 2-Bryce Sward[24]; 20. 71G-Trent Grager[26]; 21. 02-Dan Dowling[11]; 22. (DNF) 42S-Don Shaw[2]; 23. (DNF) 71S-Dustin Strand[13]; 24. (DNF) 28-Jeff Provinzino[17]; 25. (DNF) T1-Tom Corcoran[18]; 26. (DNF) 12-Chad Becker[25]

B Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 28-Jeff Provinzino[3]; 2. 37-Scott Ward[4]; 3. 12S-Brad Seng[10]; 4. 6M-Jeffrey Massingill[9]; 5. 12-Chad Becker[2]; 6. F9-Brandon Fuller[1]; 7. 9-Steve Anderson[7]; 8. 20-Trevor Anderson[16]; 9. 71X-Cory Tammen[5]; 10. 35-George Ledin Jr[6]; 11. 9A-Blake Anderson[12]; 12. 16S-Jeff Hapala[8]; 13. 18-Dustin Hapka[15]; 14. 9R-Erik Robertson[11]; 15. 1M-Nicholas Minske[14]; 16. (DNF) 17-Lance Schill[13]; 17. (DNS) 32-Jordan Tollakson

B Feature 2 (20 Laps): 1. T1-Tom Corcoran[2]; 2. 55C-Chad Mahder[12]; 3. 2S-Josh Skorczewski[1]; 4. 1 2-Bryce Sward[5]; 5. 45-Dustin Bluhm[4]; 6. 71G-Trent Grager[7]; 7. 11-Troy Schill[16]; 8. 11M-Paul Mueller[9]; 9. 37JR-Morgan Ward[10]; 10. 2*-Cole Babcock[8]; 11. 54-Terry Nelson[14]; 12. 4V-Billy Vogel[6]; 13. (DNF) 3-Clarence Washburn[11]; 14. (DNF) 71-Steffen Snare[3]; 15. (DNS) Z17-Zach Naastad; 16. (DNS) 47-Kreig Kasin

WISSOTA Modifieds
A Feature 1 (30 Laps): 1. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[1]; 2. 17-Mike Greseth[2]; 3. 6X-Zach Johnson[8]; 4. 23-Matt Gilbertson[5]; 5. 1CTO-Corky Thomas[10]; 6. 26G-Ryan Gierke[14]; 7. 24S-Mike Stearns[6]; 8. 22-Davey Mills[12]; 9. 25-Jamie Trautner[11]; 10. 7J-Richard Jacobson[9]; 11. 48-Brent Dutenhoffer[7]; 12. 74-Dustin Wahl[21]; 13. 2-Aaron Holtan[15]; 14. 6-Dale Ames[13]; 15. 51T-Tim Thomas[18]; 16. 2S-Matt Schow[16]; 17. 15F-Devin Fouquette[23]; 18. 22B-Josh Beaulieu[17]; 19. 18-Scotty Messner[20]; 20. 3-Arne Anderson[22]; 21. 32-Jesse Young[25]; 22. (DNF) 7T-Joseph Thomas[4]; 23. (DNF) 85-Jayson Good[3]; 24. (DNF) 57-Michael Tiani[24]; 25. (DNF) 57H-Nathan Higginbotham[19]; 26. (DNF) 5P-Ryan Pommerer[26]; 27. (DNS) 32T-Jon Tollakson

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 85-Jayson Good[1]; 2. 48-Brent Dutenhoffer[2]; 3. 7J-Richard Jacobson[3]; 4. 22-Davey Mills[5]; 5. 26G-Ryan Gierke[7]; 6. 2S-Matt Schow[4]; 7. 57H-Nathan Higginbotham[6]; 8. 3-Arne Anderson[8]; 9. 32-Jesse Young[9]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 7T-Joseph Thomas[1]; 2. 23-Matt Gilbertson[3]; 3. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[9]; 4. 1CTO-Corky Thomas[6]; 5. 2-Aaron Holtan[4]; 6. 22B-Josh Beaulieu[2]; 7. 18-Scotty Messner[7]; 8. 15F-Devin Fouquette[5]; 9. (DNS) 32T-Jon Tollakson

Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 17-Mike Greseth[2]; 2. 24S-Mike Stearns[3]; 3. 6X-Zach Johnson[5]; 4. 6-Dale Ames[4]; 5. 25-Jamie Trautner[9]; 6. 51T-Tim Thomas[1]; 7. 74-Dustin Wahl[6]; 8. 57-Michael Tiani[7]; 9. (DNF) 5P-Ryan Pommerer[8]

WISSOTA Midwest Mods
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 17-Lance Schill[6]; 2. 67-Mike Nichols[11]; 3. 188-Hunter Hougard[3]; 4. 5BA-Aaron Blacklance[13]; 5. 87S-Reise Stenberg[14]; 6. 12-Jaden Varnson[2]; 7. 32F-Chad Fouquette[15]; 8. 2S-Matt Schow[19]; 9. 77R-Ryan Schroeder[7]; 10. 39-Jamie Dietzler[21]; 11. 33-Jeff Nelson[23]; 12. 57-Nathan Raasakka[20]; 13. 11S-Darren Engesser[22]; 14. 8-Jason Schuh[1]; 15. 2R-Jeff Reed[12]; 16. 735-Tanner Theis[24]; 17. (DNF) 27-Les Schoon[8]; 18. (DNF) 28S-Ryan Schow[17]; 19. (DNF) 96L-Jeremy Lizakowski[10]; 20. (DNF) 69R-Terry Reilly[9]; 21. (DNF) 21-Jake Smith[18]; 22. (DNF) 6R-Nate Reynolds[5]; 23. (DNF) B0-Jory Berg[4]; 24. (DNF) 55-Dustin Burke[16]

B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 28S-Ryan Schow[2]; 2. 21-Jake Smith[1]; 3. 2S-Matt Schow[5]; 4. 57-Nathan Raasakka[9]; 5. 39-Jamie Dietzler[14]; 6. 11S-Darren Engesser[3]; 7. 33-Jeff Nelson[4]; 8. 735-Tanner Theis[6]; 9. 29X-Brandon Bahr[12]; 10. 4-Michael Miller[8]; 11. 28-Tommy Nichols[10]; 12. (DNF) 57X-Blake Higginbotham[7]; 13. (DNF) 77B-Logan Bauer[11]; 14. (DNF) 4X-Phil Christlieb[15]; 15. (DNS) 46-Cole Neset

WISSOTA Street Stocks
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 11-Kyle Dykhoff[1]; 2. 5BA-Aaron Blacklance[5]; 3. 27P-Tucker Pederson[4]; 4. 10V-Justin Vogel[21]; 5. 5P-Ryan Pommerer[3]; 6. 25-Ryan Johnson[12]; 7. 33-Daniel Aberle[8]; 8. 00-Dustin Ebensteiner[18]; 9. 2U-Kasey Ussatis[23]; 10. 8T-Doug VanMill[6]; 11. 21J-Brian Johanson[2]; 12. 5H-Jason Havel[22]; 13. 4-Trey Hess[20]; 14. 10-Joe Potter[19]; 15. 34X-Ryne Uhrich[15]; 16. 48-Chase Boen[14]; 17. 28-Greg Jose[16]; 18. 5-Brittany Smith[9]; 19. 7-James Meagher[24]; 20. 3L-Zach Lee[13]; 21. (DNF) 1J-Cody Armstrong[11]; 22. (DNF) 34-Bill Gustafson[10]; 23. (DNF) 99-Josh Barker[7]; 24. (DNF) 30-Seth Klostreich[17]
​
B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 30-Seth Klostreich[2]; 2. 00-Dustin Ebensteiner[3]; 3. 10-Joe Potter[5]; 4. 4-Trey Hess[8]; 5. 10V-Justin Vogel[15]; 6. 5H-Jason Havel[4]; 7. 2U-Kasey Ussatis[1]; 8. 7-James Meagher[9]; 9. 87-Alan Lane[13]; 10. 00C-Brandon Corbett[7]; 11. 27-Parker Anderson[11]; 12. 5J-Royce Jawaski[14]; 13. 29-Dan McNamee[6]; 14. 10T-Darek Turner[10]; 15. 5S-Chris Smeby[12]