Kelsi Wins First River Cities Heat; She and Tucker Finish With Top Fives at Big Motor Mania

East Grand Forks, Minn. (July 28, 2025) - It was another highlight of a night for Pederson Racing last Friday night as they closed the book on the month of July during River Cities Speedway’s annual running of Big Motor Mania. All three drivers finished inside the top ten with Kelsi and Tucker scoring top five.

Tucker opened up the night for the family, storming from eighth to fourth in his heat to earn a re-draw spot in the opening heat race. Heat two saw Kelsi line up on the pole with Shane Edginton to her outside and Tyler Peterson and Joey in row two. When all was said and done, she held off all three to win her first River Cities Speedway heat race in the Late Model. Joey finished third.

With all three in re-draw spots, they made up the inside of the second through fourth rows with Kelsi starting third, Tucker starting fifth, and Joey starting seventh. Yet another feature that went flag-to-flag and lasted just under five minutes, Kelsi held pace with front row starters Tyler Peterson and Shane Edginton to remain third on the opening lap.

Dustin Strand passed Kelsi on the second lap but fourth was the lowest she ended up running in the next four minutes. While the top five was rounding into place, Tucker and Joey had fallen back to seventh and eighth respectively, but they teamed up to move past Troy Schill to move into sixth and seventh.

Tucker continued to move forward as he passed Jamie Trautner in the next pair of circuits to move into the top five. With four to go, Edginton broke on the backstretch moving Kelsi back into a podium spot and Tucker into fourth. In the final two laps, Kelsi and Tucker fought tooth-and-nail for the final podium spot but it was Tucker with one final slider in turns three and four on the final lap to take the third spot. Kelsi was a close fourth with Joey finishing where he started in seventh.

This week, the crew will be back at River Cities for Hall of Fame night on Friday before heading west for the final Late Model show of the year at Devils Lake Speedway near Crary, ND on Saturday. Tucker has two wins at Devils Lake this season, while Kelsi made NLRA history, finishing third during the Golden Hammer Classic in June.


2025 Stats: 

Joey: 
Races: 14
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 5
Top Tens: 8

Kelsi:
Races: 14
Wins: 0
Top Fives: 3
Top Tens: 7

Tucker:
Races: 15
Wins: 2
Top Fives: 5
Top Tens: 11

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