Dustin Strand wrapped up another NLRA championship on Thursday night, finishing third in the 25-lap late model feature at River Cities Speedway. It was Strand’s fourth NLRA title in the 23-year history of the organization.

His performance on the opening night of the 14th annual John Seitz Memorial Late Model Invitational wasn’t a surprise as the East Grand Forks driver has been a top racer at The Bullring for a number of years.

But Strand and the other top drivers now have another contender -- Lance Schill.

Schill, who started up front and led every lap, won the feature also known as The Prelude to the Johnny.

“This win has to be on the top shelf,” said Schill, who has won two of the past three late model features at RCS. “It’s the John Seitz Memorial. We call it the Catalina Wine Mixer, right? We’re just happy to be here, run up front with these guys and put on a show.”

The win allows Schill to carry some momentum into the heart of the Seitz weekend -- the Friday qualifying that leads to Saturday night’s 92-lap, $9,200-to-win feature.

“We just need to keep our nose clean and keep going forward,” said Schill.

Schill opened a comfortable lead but that advantage closed when he hit lapped traffic on Lap 17.

Joey Pederson managed to slip by Schill briefly, but a caution flag wiped out Pederson’s pass. The field reset to the previous lap and Schill took off on the restart and was in the clear.

Last year’s Seitz winner, Aaron Turnbull of Estevan, Sask., finished second followed by Strand, Jeff Massingill and two-time Seitz winner A.J. Diemel.

Turnbull was able to cross the U.S.-Canadian border to race in the weekend event. But he’s the first Candian driver to compete at RCS this season as the pandemic has largely closed the border..

The field also included World of Outlaws 10-time champion Donny Schatz, who finished eighth. He’ll return to his sprint car Friday and Saturday for a two-day show in Kansas.

Two other classes raced Thursday night -- Midwest modifieds and streets.

Matt Schow won the Midwest modifieds feature, although he crossed the finish line with the front of his car facing Turn 4.

Schow, who was leading, and Jory Berg made contact coming out of Turn 4 on the last lap. Berg actually crossed the finish line first but track officials awarded the win to Schow.

“I kind of botched Turn 3 a bit and tried to keep it on the bottom (in Turn 4) and hold it there,” said Schow of the final two corners. “I knew if I could hold it there we could roll through and get this one. Jory got into me but I was slower than he was so I don’t blame him for that.”

Jonny Carter of Lisbon, N.D., won the 20-lap streets feature, 1.828 seconds ahead of Kyle Dykhoff. Ryan Johnson finished third.

Late models, Midwest modifieds, streets will race again Friday night at the Seitz. NOSA sprints and Modifieds will also race.

Auto racing

NLRA Late Models

Heat 1 -- Cole Schill, 2. Billy Vogel, 3. Jeffrey Massingill, 4. Dan Dowling, 5. Trevor Anderson, 6. Dave Mass, 7. Cory Tammen
Heat 2 -- 1. Joey Pederson, 2. Dustin Strand, 3. Morgan Ward, 4. Brad Seng, 5. Zach Naatsad, 6. Brody Troftgruben, 7. Scott Ward, 8. Erik Robertson
Heat 3 -- 1. Shawn Meyer, 2. Chad Mahder, 3. Kevin Robertson, 4. Chad Becker, 5. Dustin Hapka, 6. Cole Babcock, 7. Blake Anderson, 8. Clarence Washburn
Heat 4 -- 1. Lance Schill, 2. Donny Schatz, 3. Ryan Mikkelson, 4. Josh Skorczewski, 5. Cole Searing, 6. Brandon Fuller, 7. Casey Meyer, 8. Ryan Dahl
Heat 5 -- 1. Steffen Snare, 2. Tom Corcoran, 3. Jordan Tollakson, 4. Dustin Bluhm, 5. Jeff Hapala, 6. Steve Anderson, 7. Nicholas Minske
Heat 6 -- 1. Bryce Sward, 2. Aaron Turnbull, 3. Don Shaw, 4. AJ Diemel, 5. Ryan Corbett, 6. Trent Grager, 7. George Ledin Jr., 8. Terry Nelson
B Feature 1 -- 1. Bluhm, 2. Becker, 3. Mass, 4. Dowling, 5. T. Anderson, 6. Babcock, 7. Minske, 8. Tammen, 9. Hapka, 10. S. Anderson, 11. Hapala, 12. B. Anderson, 13. Washburn, 14. Dahl, 15. E. Robertson, 16. Wilde
B Feature 2 -- 1. Seng, 2. Diemel, 3. Skorczewski, 4. Ward, 5. Searing, 6. Troftgruben, 7. Corbett, 8. Grager, 9. Fuller, 10. C. Meyer, 11. Nelson
A Feature -- 1. L. Schill, 2. Turnbull, 3. Strand, 4. Massingill, 5. Diemel, 6. Pederson, 7. Mahder, 8. Schatz, 9. Seng, 10. S. Meyer, 11. Ward, 12. Becker, 13. Tollakson, 14. Shaw, 15. C. Schill, 16. Mikkelson, 17. Snare, 18. S. Anderson, 19. Troftgruben, 20. Sward, 21. Vogel, 22. C. Meyer, 23. K. Robertson

WISSOTA Midwest Mods

Heat 1 -- 1. Matt Schow, 2. Aaron Blacklance, 3. Brandon Bahr, 4. Hunter Hougard, 5. Les Schoon, 6. Jake Smith, 7. Randy Thompson, 8. Tanner Theis
Heat 2 -- 1. Jamie Dietzler, 2. Cole Neset, 3. Jason Schuh, 4. Jeremy Lizakowski, 5. Darren Engesser, 6. Nate Reynolds, 7. Connor Graff, 8. Dustin Burke, 9. Reise Stenberg
Heat 3 -- 1. Jory Berg, 2. Tommy Nichols, 3. Jeff Reed, 4. Michael Miller, 5. Chad Fouquette, 6. Richard Reed, 7. Logan Bauer
Heat 4 -- Ryan Schroeder, 2. Mike Nichols, 3. Ryan Schow, 4. Nathan Raasakka, 5. Lance Schill, 6. Jeff Nelson, 7. Jaden Varnson, 8. Blake Higginbotham
B Feature -- L. Schill, 2. Reynolds, 3. Lizakowski, 4. Engesser, 5. Varnson, 6. Smith, 7. Nelson, 8. Stenberg, 9. Schoon, 10. Graff, 11. Dustin Burke, 12. Schuh, 13. Bruer, 14. Reilly, 15. Higginbotham, 16. Theis
A Feature -- 1. M. Schow, 2. Dietzler, 3. Hougard, 4. L. Schill, 5. Schroeder, 6. R. Schow, 7. Reynolds, 8. Neset, 9. Fouquette, 10. M. Nichols, 11. T. Nichols, 12. Bahr, 13. Reed, 14. Raasakka, 15. Blacklance, 16. Lizakowski, 17. Nelson, 18. Stenberg, 19. Engesser, 20. Varnson, 21. Berg

WISSOTA Street Stocks

Heat 1 -- 1. Aaron Blacklance, 2. Brandon Corbett, 3. Daniel Aberle, 4. Alan Lane, 5. Kasey Ussatis, 6. Parker Anderson, 7. Chris Smeby
Heat 2 -- 1. Jerome Berger, 2. Jonny Carter, 3. Ryne Uhrich, 4. Chase Boen, 5. Dan McNamee, 6. Greg Jose, 7. Tucker Pederson, 8. Bob Smith
Heat 3 -- 1. Royce Jawaski, 2. Ryan Johnson, 3. Kyle Dykhoff, 4. Joe Potter, 5. Doug VanMill, 6. Jason Havel, 7. Jeremy Gust
Heat 4 -- 1. Dustin Ebensteiner, 2. Zach Lee, 3. James Meagher, 4. Seth Klostreich, 5. Trey Hess, 6. Brian Johanson, 7. Josh Barker
B Feature -- 1. Lane, 2. VanMill, 3. Hess, 4. Klostreich, 5. Havel, 6. Anderson, 7. Jose, 8. Gust, 9. Barker, 10. Johanson, 11. Armstrong, 12. Smith, 13. Smeby
A Feature -- 1. Carter, 2. Dykhoff, 3. Johnson, 4. Ebensteiner, 5. Havel, 6. Boen, 7. Ussatis, 8. Hess, 9. Jose, 10. VanMill, 11. Aberle, 12. Anderson, 13. Uhrich, 14. Gust, 15. Klostreich, 16. Berger, 17. Corbett, 18. Meagher, 19. Potter, 20. Jawaski, 21. Lane, 22. Lee, 23. Blacklance, 24. McNamee