Joey Pederson Scores Top Five at John Seitz Memorial, Breaks River Cities Speedway Track Record

EAST GRAND FORKS, Minn. (September 11, 2018) – All the top WISSOTA Late Model teams from the upper Midwest migrated to River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks over the weekend for the 12th running of the John Seitz Memorial. By weekend’s end, Joey Pederson claimed a top-five finish in the 92-lap main event on Saturday night.

“Of the 46 or so cars checked in… to come out fifth, we are pretty happy,” said Pederson after the A-main on Saturday.

Pederson started fourth on the 26-car grid and ran inside the top five the entire race. The driver of the Pro Power / MB Customs No. 7P made it as high as second on lap 20, but settled into the fifth position just past the midway point of the race.

“For me, the fast way around I felt was in the worst part of the track where it was rough. I just didn’t dare push the car that hard. I felt like I would have ended up breaking something or end up in the wall. I kind of just rode it out and played it safe. I didn’t see anybody to the inside of me so I just held my line.”

In the waning laps of the race, Pederson ran about a straightaway behind the fourth place car and had a full straightaway cushion over the sixth place car. “It was kind of lonely out there,” he joked. “Nobody was around me for a lot of the race, except for lapped cars.”

On Friday, Late Model heat races were run to determine dash, A-main and B-main lineups for Saturday night. Pederson picked up a convincing win in his heat race and, in the process, set a brand new River Cities Speedway track record with a lap of 11.255 seconds around the high-banked three-tenths mile bullring, averaging 95.957mph. The previous track record was established by Mike Marlar on July 14, 2017 during the World of Outlaws Craftsman Late Model event.

A make-up feature from the August 31st rainout was completed on Friday night. Pederson raced to an eighth-place finish in the 20 lapper.

Tucker Pederson was also in action at the John Seitz Memorial. The second-year Street Stock driver finished second in the Prelude to the Johnny make-up show on Saturday afternoon. In the Saturday night finale, Tucker started on the outside of the first row and led the first four laps until something went array on his No. 27P machine.

This Friday, only Kelsi Pederson will be in action as she will attempt to clinch her first career points title with the Northern Lightning Sprint Association at River Cities Speedway.

2018 Stats:

Joey Pederson:
Races: 19
Wins: 3
Top Fives: 11
Top Tens: 12

Kelsi Pederson:
Races: 29
Wins: 3
Top Fives: 23
Top Tens: 25

Tucker Pederson
Races: 26
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 11
Top Tens: 18

Photo by Speedway Shots