Schow dominates for River Cities season opener win

By Mike Spieker

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (May 29, 2020) – With restrictions in place and social distancing in effect, River Cities Speedway was finally able to kick off its season opener on Friday night in front of a crowd of 500 – the maximum amount of spectators allowed to attend. ​

Total Ag Solutions and Big Al’s Construction stepped up to make it $700-to-win for both the WISSOTA Midwest Mods and Street Stocks. Several other sponsors joined and added to the purse throughout the field. 

Twenty-one Happy Harry’s Midwest Mods made up the field for the starting grid with Matt Schow and Jory Berg making up the front row. Schow jumped out to the early lead as Hunter Hougard moved into second on the opening circuit. Behind the leaders, Preston Carr, Lance Schill and Berg raced three-wide for second with Schill completing the slide job to take the spot. 

Sixth-place starter, Justin Froemming, entered the fray early on as well, as he and Schill took over the second and third positions. A handful of cautions slowed the action throughout the of the 25-lap main event. 

Preston Carr made his way past both Schill and Froemming around the midway point to hold down the second position, but both drivers were able to get back around Carr on the penultimate restart. 

Up front, however, it was all Schow as he led all 25 trips around the Bullring to pick up the win and the $700 Total Ag Solutions check. 

“It was a pretty slippery track – not a normal Grand Forks track tonight,” said Schow in RydellCars.com Victory Lane. “The car worked really well. We worked on it a bunch this winter. This is what we were struggling with – the super dry slick tracks – and it drove really nice tonight.”

​RESULTS:
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 2S-Matt Schow[1]; 2. 33X-Justin Froemming[6]; 3. 188-Hunter Hougard[3]; 4. 5C-Preston Carr[5]; 5. 17-Lance Schill[4]; 6. 69G-Jayson Good[12]; 7. B0-Jory Berg[2]; 8. 21L-Jarett Lovcik[10]; 9. 87S-Reise Stenberg[7]; 10. 1S-Scott Bintz[13]; 11. 5BA-Aaron Blacklance[8]; 12. 2R-Jeff Reed[15]; 13. 35-John Halvorson[11]; 14. 8-Jason Schuh[21]; 15. (DNF) 12-Jaden Varnson[16]; 16. (DNF) 57-Nathan Raasakka[17]; 17. (DNF) B1N-Ronnie Novacek[14]; 18. (DNF) 16-Skyler Smith[19]; 19. (DNF) 77-Alan Olafson[18]; 20. (DNF) 54-Terry Nelson[20]; 21. (DNS) 57S-Corey Storck

Dash (6 Laps): 1. 2S-Matt Schow[2]; 2. B0-Jory Berg[1]; 3. 188-Hunter Hougard[8]; 4. 17-Lance Schill[5]; 5. 5C-Preston Carr[4]; 6. 33X-Justin Froemming[9]; 7. 87S-Reise Stenberg[7]; 8. 5BA-Aaron Blacklance[6]; 9. (DNF) 57S-Corey Storck[3]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 33X-Justin Froemming[3]; 2. 5C-Preston Carr[1]; 3. B0-Jory Berg[6]; 4. 21L-Jarett Lovcik[4]; 5. 1S-Scott Bintz[5]; 6. 12-Jaden Varnson[7]; 7. 16-Skyler Smith[2]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2S-Matt Schow[2]; 2. 57S-Corey Storck[3]; 3. 5BA-Aaron Blacklance[4]; 4. 35-John Halvorson[7]; 5. B1N-Ronnie Novacek[6]; 6. 57-Nathan Raasakka[1]; 7. (DNF) 54-Terry Nelson[5]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 87S-Reise Stenberg[3]; 2. 17-Lance Schill[7]; 3. 188-Hunter Hougard[6]; 4. 69G-Jayson Good[5]; 5. 2R-Jeff Reed[1]; 6. 77-Alan Olafson[4]; 7. (DNF) 8-Jason Schuh[2]