RIVER CITIES RECAP: EDGINTON CAPTURES 17TH JOHN SEITZ MEMORIAL

Peterson, Sparby, Schow, and Carter also win Seitz Memorial Championships

For the first time since 2018 when Ricky Weiss won the event, a local driver has defended home turf, as fellow Canadian and friend Shane Edginton led the final 13 laps to win the 17th annual John Seitz Memorial at the Bullring. Tyler Peterson, Matt Schow, and Hunter Carter won their second features of the three-day weekend, while Matt Sparby returned to Rydellcars.com victory lane for the first time since 2007 as the Super Stocks returned to the Bullring for the first time since 2006.

Cole Searing and Cole Schill finished first and second respectively in Friday night's Go Hard or Go Home pole dash to make up the front row of the 92-lap John Seitz Memorial championship main event for the Cirrus Aircraft Late Models.

Schill led the opening laps before a caution on the third trip around the Bullring saw Jeff Massingill spin in turn two, collecting two-time Seitz champ Brad Seng, though both continued. 

Chad Mahder and Cole Searing traded second and third past another caution with 76 to go, but it was Tyler Peterson who climbed up the order following a caution with 69 to go, improving to the runner-up spot and staying there until the fuel stop on lap 32.

Peterson took the lead, passing Cole Schill to his outside on the backstretch on the restart to take the lead. Three-time Seitz winner AJ Diemel, who also won Thursday’s Prelude to the Johnny’, spun and collected four cars in turn one lap 35.

Shane Edginton, who had fallen back as low as seventh before the fuel stop, moved to the inside of Searing, taking third on the restart.

Another caution with 56 to go saw an all NLRA top-three go three-wide as the race resumed as Edginton split Peterson and Schill in turns one and two, though Peterson remained the leader.

Peterson entered lapped traffic with 50 trips around the quarter-mile left on the scoreboard, as the lead trio pulled away in thick traffic until the next caution with 28 laps left.

Another skirmish in turn four the following lap saw the lead trio go three-wide for the third time, with Peterson keeping the point.

Rounding turn two with 15 to go, Peterson caught a tractor tire which cost him the lead two laps later when Edginton took the top spot. Schill and 20th starter Chad Becker also passed Peterson, as his race came to an end a few laps later when he and Cole Searing got together in turn three, causing Searing to spin.

Searing remained fourth on the final restart with 8 to go but followed Becker as the new second and third place runners as Edginton clicked off the final laps en route to the $9,200 payday.

“Oh man, I've been wanting to get to this victory lane for so, so long and we struggled so bad to start this year and to win this thing, this is just amazing!” Edginton said in Rydellcars.com victory lane.

“We were standing here, getting ready to go, and standing with Mike Greseth. I said if I don't win this thing, you better win it. And he said the same with you buddy. To do this in front of everybody is just huge. All my friends and family are here, everybody came down. It's such a big event to Canadians and my family and everybody… it’s just wicked to win this deal.”

Becker, Searing, Schill, and Bryce Sward completed the top five.

Splitting the previous two Modified main events contested during the three-day John Seitz Memorial, Tyler Peterson and Zach Johnson led the 30-lap Modified feature to drop of the green.

Following a pile-up on the initial start, Peterson led through the first trips around turns one and two over Johnson and Parked Anderson.

Anderson moved to the inside of Johnson, who won Friday’s Al Delaine Memorial, on the second lap, taking the spot at the line at the completion of the circuit. From there, a three-wide battle between Scott Ward, Brock Gronwold, and Lee Grosz for fourth became the best on track, though Grosz kept the spot at that point.

Anderson moved in on Peterson for the lead on the fifth lap, though Peterson fended off the challenge. The top three pulled away from the rest of the field as Peterson entered lapped traffic on lap ten.

Peterson worked thick lap traffic just before the midway point, as it took about four laps for him to lap the first four cars, but he remained the leader as Johnson and Gronwold completed the podium with ten laps remaining.

Peterson remained unchallenged in traffic in the closing laps, winning over Johnson, Gronwold, Mike Stearns, and Joseph Thomas.

Jeremy North and Matt Sparby were the first to the stripe at the beginning of the 25-lap Super Stock feature. Sparby, who entered the weekend as the only remaining Super Stock competitor that was in attendance the last time the class competed at the speedway on this weekend in 2006, crossed under North going into turn three to lead the opening lap as Jason Havel and Brandon Bahr battled for third.

Sparby had built a healthy advantage out front as the best battle on track was between Thursday night’s winner Brandon Duellman and Don Shaw for fourth before a caution six laps into the race.

That would prove to be the only caution of the race as Sparby continued to lead when the race resumed. Havel moved in on North for second as the battle for second went three wide with 18 to go as Shaw moved inside of Havel and North.

The trio continued to battle for the spot along with Brandon Duellman just before the midway point. At halfway, the top three pulled away from the rest of the field With Shaw reeling in Havel for the runner-up spot with ten to go.

The pair went side-by-side for a number of laps before Shaw won the battle for second. Shaw reeled and Sparby for the lead in the closing laps but ran out of time as Sparby went on to win over Shaw, Havel, Duellman, and 17th starter Trevor Nelson.

Matt Schow and Jamie Dietzler paced the 25-lap Happy Harry's Midwest Mods main event at the start. Schow, who also won Thursday night's main event, led after the initial start was called back, Schow led the opening lap over Dietzler and Jason Halverson. Schow built a straightaway lead through five laps as Halverson moved into the runner-up spot over Dietzler and Jory Berg.

Schow continued to lead as he started working lapped traffic on tenth lap before a caution put the leaders back out and clean air. Reise Stenberg capitalized when the race went back green, moving past Dietzler for the third spot.

A handful of cautions from 11 laps remaining through the to 9 to go point saw the elimination of Dietzler and Stenberg from contention, which saw Austin Hunter complete the new top three.

Halverson, Hunter, Berg, and Lance Schill battled for second as Schow remained unchallenged out front.

Schow went on to sweep the weekend in the division over Halverson, Berg, Hunter, and Schill.

James Meagher and Trey Hess brought the 25-lap Big Al's Construction Street Stock feature to green, but it was Cole Greseth that got the best start, moving up to challenge Meagher door-to-door for the lead throughout the opening lap.

The lead duo remained door-to-door on many occasions throughout the first seven laps before they started working lapped traffic. This allowed national point leader Justin Vogel to move into third and challenge for the lead.

On lap ten, Greseth had taken a half straightaway lead as Vogel, Kyle Anderson, and Scotty Messner went three-wide for the third spot.

Just before the midway point Greseth was able to pull away a little bit more as the three-way battle for third became a three-way battle for second with Messner taking the runner-up spot.

The race saw several slowdowns follow, including a four-car pile-up at the bottom of turn four with 11 laps to go. That four-car pile-up briefly included 24th place starting Hunter Carter, but he was able to continue in the 11th spot. These caution periods eventually eliminated top contenders such as Vogel, Trey Hess, and Greg Jose.

With four to go, Hunter Carter, who also won Thursday’s main event at the Bullring, moved into the third spot as he continued his climb from the 12th and final row as Anderson moved to the inside of Greseth for the lead.

As the field came to the white flag, the final caution of the race set up a green-white-checkered finish, giving Anderson and Carter one last shot at the victory.

Hunter Carter moved to the outside of Anderson into second and went on to battle door-to-door with Greseth throughout the final lap, beating Greseth back to the line by 0.052 seconds for the win.