Schulz wins his second Eagle River World Championship

The StaffFebruary 18, 2016

Matt Schulz of Wausau, Wis., first won the Eagle River World Championship in 2010. The banked ice oval track in Eagle River, Wis., was kind to Schulz once again in 2016, as he led every lap aboard his LRM-powered Ski-Doo mod en route to hoisting the Snow Goer Cup for a second time. Nick Van Strydonk (Polaris), the 2012 champ, finished second, 2.346 seconds back, with Cardell Potter (Ski-Doo) third, Gunnar Sterne (Ski-Doo) in fourth, Mike Hakey (Ski-Doo) fifth, Joey Fjerstad (Polaris) sixth and Glen Hart (Ski-Doo) seventh.

Matt Schulz of Wausau, Wis., captured his second Snow Goer Cup by winning the Eagle River World Championship in January. He also won on the banked ice oval in 2010.

John T. Prusak, editor and publisher of Snow Goer magazine, a PSB sister publication, spent the race weekend in Eagle River and spoke with Schulz after the race.

“I can’t believe it!” Schulz exclaimed when he came up to the front stretch and was surrounded by reporters. “I’ve been so close every year since 2010. It got to the point where I started to wonder if we just got lucky in 2010, and I didn’t know if we’d ever do it again.”

“We were really, really good when we unloaded and were really good all weekend except for Friday night, when we changed our torque converter,” Schulz explained. “I didn’t sleep well last night — for some reason I was really, really nervous. I knew I had a fast sled.”

Asked his strategy, he said, “I wanted to run the high line and stay out of the rough stuff.”