Inside Line Promotions - NEW RICHMOND, Wis. (May 10, 2017) - Ryan Bowers was able to turn bad luck into the Hard Charger Award last Saturday at Cedar Lake Speedway.
"Saturday started off pretty good with an 11th-place qualifying run and that put us on the pole of the heat race, which we were leading until the caution came out," he said. "I'm not sure what happened, but I ended up backwards in the wall and the guy behind me slid into me."
Bowers and the Ozzie Motorsports team were unable to finish the heat race because the wreck bent the front axle and tore out the rear end. Scrambling to get the race car back together, Bowers had the help of many people.
"Bill Balog and the Rhine Auto team plus a member of Parker Price-Miller's team and Steve Meyer helped me and my guys get the car back together for the feature," he said. "There was no B Main so we didn't have much time."
Bowers started 22nd and drove his way up to ninth before the checkered flag was waved. However, to his advantage, a car in front of him was disqualified and Bowers was awarded an eighth-place finish. That also earned him the Hard Charger Award for passing the most cars.
"We tried some new stuff with the car and I really liked how it felt so we're pretty excited to move on from here and get to another race," he said. "Without the help of those other teams, I'm not sure we would have gotten it all back together in time so I can't thank them enough."
Bowers was supposed to start a two-race weekend with the IRA Sprint Car Series on Friday at Oshkosh Speedzone Raceway in Oshkosh, Wis. However, the water truck dumped too much water onto the track and after hours of trying to run it in the race was cancelled.
The team will travel to Beaver Dam Raceway in Beaver Dam, Wis., this Saturday with the IRA Sprint Car Series. Bowers is tied for ninth in the championship standings.
