KELSI WRAPS UP PEDERSON RACING WEEKEND WITH BUFFALO RIVER VICTORY
EAST GRAND FORKS, Minn. (August 1, 2023) – The final week of July saw the Pederson racing family of racers remaining busy with Tucker’s pursuit of the WISSOTA National Street Stock title, but it was Kelsi that wrapped up the weekend with her fourth victory of the season with the POWRi Minn-Kota Lightning Sprints at Buffalo River Speedway in Glyndon, Minnesota.
The Pederson siblings were in action together again on Sunday night at Buffalo River Speedway, where the pair have combined for six victories so far in the 2023 campaign.
Following a heat race win, Kelsi brought the field to green as the pole sitter in her No. 93 Olson Underground / Ad Monkeys Henchcraft. As a three-car battle ensued behind her, Kelsi built a near straight away lead by the time she started working lapped traffic.
Pederson continued to lead on a lap eight restart, though Kate Taves began to reel in the lead just past the midway point of the 20-lap race. Kelsi pulled away a bit before Taves pulled back within a car length before a caution with five to go.
Taves remained close in the closing circuits, but Pederson drove under the checkers first, leading every lap for her fourth win of the season.
“I definitely knew she was there,” Kelsi said in victory lane post-race. “Kate and Matt both have got very fast here, and everywhere really in general. I saw the rubber kind move down, so I knew I had to get to the bottom or someone else is gonna sneak underneath me. The car handled darn near perfect, and it worked out.”
Earlier in the night, Tucker charged from eighth to third in his No. 27P Shawn Horn Crary Real Estate / Southline Farms Kurshinsky in his heat race and rolled off fifth in his 20-lap feature. Tucker fell back to sixth early but climbed up two fourth on lap eight.
Tucker reeled in the second-place battle between Cole Greseth and Tyler Klugman at the midway point and went on to go nose-to-tail with the leaders in the closing laps.
Tucker peeked to the inside of Klugman with two laps left, but headed to the pits early, ending with a ninth-place finish.
The Pederson boys were in action on Saturday night at Greenbush Race Park as the NLRA Late Models visited the track. The pair won their heat races, setting up an eighth-place start for Tucker and a sixth-place start for Joey.
Tucker went three-wide in the middle of Josh Barker and Jerome Berger on the opening lap, ending the circuit in fourth. Tucker followed Weston Ramsrud on a lap three restart around the top of the track to move up to second.
Tucker went door-to-door with Ramsrud before the second restart of the race. When the race resumed, Tucker briefly slipped back to fourth just before the midway mark but moved back to second on the following lap. Tucker held off John Halvorson in the closing laps to finish second.
Rolling off on the outside of row four in the No. 7P R&R Farms / InVision Ag Rocket XR1 in the 25 lap NLRA main event, Joey lined up on the outside of the third double file row while running seventh on a lap six restart.
Joey battled for spots in the second half of the top ten as the race came back to green, running in the tenth spot through ten laps. The final 19 laps went clean and green as Joey spent the remaining laps holding off Dustin Strand and Jesse Teunis to finish tenth.
The Pederson’s kicked off the week at River Cities Speedway as their schedules aligned for all three cars to be in action on the same night at River Cities for the fourth time this season.
Tucker had the best start to the evening as he won his heat race. Kelsi was fourth in her heat race, while Joey finished fifth in his heat.
Tucker started on the pole of his 20-lap feature, with Tucker leading the opening two laps. John Halvorson and Weston Ramsrud moved under Tucker, taking first and second. Tucker slid back to fourth, eventually falling victim to mechanical woes on lap eight.
Kelsi started on the outside of the fifth row in her 20-lap main event. She improved to seventh following a red flag on lap three and traded sixth and seventh with Alan Truscinski as the following 12 laps went caution free.
Kelsi held off Jason Berg and got back past Alan Truscinski to finish sixth.
Joey had a hill to climb in the 25 lap NLRA main event, as he was slated to start on the outside of the ninth row.
Joey made up three spots in the opening five laps before the first caution flag flew. From there, Joey made three more passes before another yellow just before the midway point. The final 14 laps went caution free with Joey finishing 12th.
This week for the Pederson’s is already underway with Tucker racing in Wisconsin at the Street Stock Little Dream event at Rice Lake Speedway. Among other action scheduled, Joey and Tucker will be back at it at River Cities on Friday, while Kelsi will have another off weekend.
Pederson Racing would like to thank all our sponsors:
Shawn Horn – Crary Real Estate
R&R Farms
Amy Dallum Photography
North Dakota Eye Clinic
Olson Underground, inc.
Ad Monkeys
Dahlstrom Motors Inc.
Markit County Grain LLC
Trilogy Ag Group
Pro Land/Snow
Bad Boy Mowers
Southline Farms
InVision Ag
Hilleshog
Northern Valley Fertilizer
Don & Darleen Votava
Phil Thompson & Associates
Turf Pros
Big Jim’s Tire
Channel Seed
B & E Meats
HOPE Church
Applied Hi-Performance Products
Eagles Dakotah Aerie 350
Energy Release Products
Dynamic Welding and Machine LLC.
Bruce Hart Repair & Fabrication
Roxbury Racing Transmissions
Zeuli Race Engines
SkyVu Drive-In
Mark Sinn “Sinner”
2023 Stats (Joey):
Races: 11
Wins: 0
Top 5’s: 6
Top 10’s: 8
2023 Stats (Kelsi):
Races: 12
Wins: 4
Top 5’s: 8
Top 10’s: 12
2023 Stats (Tucker):
Races: 42
Wins: 15
Top 5’s: 32
Top 10’s: 36
