Lizakowski Earns First-Ever Happy Harry's Midwest Mod Win at River Cities

By Mike Spieker

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (September 1, 2017) – Lapped traffic was the demise of Matt Schow’s solid run in the Happy Harry’s WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature. Schow took the lead over Gary Nelson on the opening lap before departing out to a 10 car length lead over Jeremy Lizakowski.

Schow extended his advantage further before reach the tail of the field. Schow maneuvered past the first lapped cars with little trouble, but he broke his momentum when he reached a pair of cars racing side by side. Schow moved to the inside to make it three wide in turn two, but one of the drivers began to lose the handle on their machine, which forced Schow to stab the brake.

That’s all it took for Lizakowski to reel in the McIntosh, Minn. driver.

With seven laps to go, Schow and Lizakowski reached a traffic jam of lapped cars. That’s where Lizakowski made his move.

The driver of the No. 96 machine went to the top of the race track and drove around Schow amidst four other lapped cars. Schow tried to battle back, but was pinned to the inside in traffic.

When the leaders reached open track, Lizakowski had an eight car length lead over Schow with three laps remaining. Lizakowski rode around the fast and tacky bullring to claim his first-ever win at River Cities Speedway.

RESULTS:
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 96L-Jeremy Lizakowski, [4]; 2. 74-Gary Nelson, [1]; 3. 28S-Ryan Schow, [3]; 4. 44-Austin Hunter, [6]; 5. 17S-Lance Schill, [8]; 6. 16T-Tim Kanten, [5]; 7. 22-Rick Hamel, [7]; 8. 87S-Reise Stenberg, [10]; 9. 01-Zach Bruer, [12]; 10. 2G-Brock Gronwold, [9]; 11. 5C-Preston Carr, [13]; 12. 5-Aaron Blacklance, [18]; 13. 22S-Tyler Schow, [17]; 14. 35-John Halvorson, [15]; 15. 6R-Nate Reynolds, [23]; 16. M1-Ryan Oppegaard, [16]; 17. 77B-Logan Bauer, [19]; 18. 3-Adam Unrau, [24]; 19. (DNF) 2S-Matt Schow, [2]; 20. (DNF) 57-Nathan Raasakka, [20]; 21. (DNF) 39-Jamie Dietzler, [22]; 22. (DNF) 21-Todd Johnson, [14]; 23. (DNF) 97-Grady Shearer, [11]; (DNS) 96-Brent Loftsgard,


Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 74-Gary Nelson, [1]; 2. 16T-Tim Kanten, [4]; 3. 28S-Ryan Schow, [3]; 4. 87S-Reise Stenberg, [5]; 5. 5C-Preston Carr, [7]; 6. M1-Ryan Oppegaard, [8]; 7. (DNF) 39-Jamie Dietzler, [2]; 8. (DNF) 6R-Nate Reynolds, [6]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2S-Matt Schow, [2]; 2. 96L-Jeremy Lizakowski, [1]; 3. 2G-Brock Gronwold, [7]; 4. 97-Grady Shearer, [4]; 5. 21-Todd Johnson, [5]; 6. 22S-Tyler Schow, [3]; 7. 77B-Logan Bauer, [8]; 8. (DNF) 3-Adam Unrau, [6]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 22-Rick Hamel, [2]; 2. 17S-Lance Schill, [1]; 3. 44-Austin Hunter, [4]; 4. 01-Zach Bruer, [6]; 5. 35-John Halvorson, [7]; 6. 5-Aaron Blacklance, [8]; 7. 57-Nathan Raasakka, [5]; 8. (DNF) 96-Brent Loftsgard, [3]