5/31/2018
Aaron Reutzel
All Star Points Leader Reutzel Charges with the Outlaws – Three Races on Tap for this Weekend
Lonnie Wheatley, CLUTE, Texas (May 31, 2018) – Aaron Reutzel’s Memorial Day Weekend of racing was filled with some ups and some downs.
It ended on a strong upside for Reutzel and the Baughman-Reutzel Motorsports No. 87 Sprint Car team with a thrilling charge through the field from 22nd to seventh in Monday night’s World of Outlaws feature event at Indiana’s Lawrenceburg Speedway.
“That’s the most fun I’ve had racing all year,” Reutzel recalls. “It was three and four wide in the pack on the restarts, it was cutthroat back there.”
It wrapped up a slated four-race weekend that kicked off with a top-ten All Star Circuit of Champions finish at Attica Raceway Park, a rainout at Wayne County Speedway and then a salvaged 14th-place run at Wayne County Speedway on Sunday night after an incident in hot laps.
This weekend’s triple includes another pair of All Star events on Friday and Sunday at Pennsylvania’s Lernerville Speedway and Bedford Speedway with a stop at Port Royal Speedway scheduled in between on Saturday night.
Last week’s action began at Attica Raceway Park on Friday night with Reutzel picking off a seventh-place finish aboard the Folkens Brothers Trucking/Dissolvalloy Downhole Revolution Triple-X Sprint Car entry for the second time in a row at Attica.
“We qualified alright, although I thought we should have qualified better. Then we had a really good car it the heat race to get to the Dash,” Reutzel says.
A loose car the rest of the night limited Reutzel to seventh in the feature.
“We were a little loose in the Dash,” Reutzel explains. “We tried something totally different from last time since we weren’t that great then and we were still loose again. They rolled the top down after the heat races and there’s nothing to lean on, you have to roll the middle and we’re struggling with it there.”
Reutzel was still in contention, battling among the lead trio.
“We were contending and got together with another car and that put us back,” Reutzel says. “Seventh-place still wasn’t too bad considering how bad the car was.”
After Saturday’s rainout at Orrville, Ohio’s Wayne County Speedway, Sunday’s tilt at Waynesfield Raceway Park got off to a rough start with a flip in hot laps that forced the Precision Catalyst/Hollywood Blasting & Coating/Beard Equipment team to miss out on qualifying and heat race action.
“We almost made it out, we were ready but it wouldn’t fire,” Reutzel explains. “We had a bad MSD box in it.”
After running a few laps to feel the car out in “B” Main action, Reutzel gridded the feature field in 25th and climbed 11 positions to salvage a 14th-place finish to maintain the All Star points lead.
“We were just okay in the feature, getting to 14th was about all we had,” Reutzel says.
Reutzel saved the best of the weekend for last with his Monday night World of Outlaws Hard Charger effort aboard the Nattress Construction/Momentum Racing Suspensions machine.
“We tried something in qualifying and it just didn’t work like we had hoped,” Reutzel said of a qualifying time that was 21st among the 34-car field.
The night was on the upswing from there.
“We were pretty good in the ‘B’ and in the ‘A’ Main the car was awesome,” Reutzel recalls.
Reutzel rallied through the field, picking off 15 positions along the way to earn a seventh-place finish.
“I think we might have had a little more, I slid Jason Johnson for sixth right before the finish but couldn’t quite stick it,” Reutzel explains. “It was pretty badass to go from 22nd to seventh with that group of guys.”
Reutzel will take that momentum into this weekend’s trio of events in Pennsylvania at Lernerville, Port Royal and Bedford.
2018 Quick Stats: 21 races, 2 wins, 7 top-fives, 11 top-tens.
Up Next:
Friday – All Star Circuit of Champions at Lernerville (PA) Speedway.
Saturday – 410-ci Sprint Cars at Port Royal (PA) Speedway.
Sunday – All Star Circuit of Champions at Bedford (PA) Speedway.
Keep Track: Keep track of Aaron Reutzel’s on-track action including schedule and results at http://www.aaronreutzelracing.com/, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aaron-Reutzel-Racing/117666254913127 or on Twitter at @AaronReutzel. You can also e-mail Aaron at aaronreutzel@yahoo.com.
If you would like Aaron Reutzel Racing press releases e-mailed directly to you, send your e-mail address to Lonnie Wheatley at lonniewheatley@gmail.com.
Penning the recurring series of “The Wheatley Chronicles” articles on www.sprintcarmania.com, Lonnie Wheatley provides media, public relations and more for select tracks, drivers and events. For more information, Wheatley may be contacted at lonniewheatley@gmail.com.
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Article Credit: Lonnie Wheatley
