Lonnie Wheatley, CLUTE, Texas (March 3, 2016) – Aaron Reutzel held his own against the best of the best in home territory last weekend, posting finishes of tenth and 11th in World of Outlaws action at a pair of Texas ovals on Friday and Saturday.
Now, Reutzel makes his first visit to The Dirt Track at Las Vegas for another pair of World of Outlaw nights on Thursday and Friday. Reutzel will pull double-duty on Friday, competing in the USAC Southwest vs. USAC Western States wingless Sprint Car portion of the Sin City Showdown as well.
“I’ve never actually seen the place,” Reutzel says of the Las Vegas dirt track. “I have watched it online though, and it looks like it’s usually pretty racy.”
Reutzel will take the seat of Shane Liebig’s No. 55 Triple-X Chassis for both nights of WoO action and then jump into the wingless USAC 360-ci entry fielded by Glenn Styres and Jack Yeley. The Liebig No. 55 entry out of Rapid City, SD, is the same mount that Reutzel opened the 2016 season with in Winter Heat action at Yuma’s Cocopah Speedway.
“They’re both good pieces, we’ll be able to contend for wins in both cars,” Reutzel says.
One week away from kicking off his ASCS National title defense, Reutzel comes off a strong weekend of World of Outlaws competition in Texas aboard the Shark-powered Dissolvealloy Frac Ball Revolution /BC Fundz No. 87 Triple-X Sprint Car.
“Those guys are the best in the world, I realize that every time I get on the track with them,” Reutzel explains. “So to run where we did, I guess that’s not too bad.”
The weekend kicked off Friday with the World of Outlaws debut at Cotton Bowl Speedway in Paige, TX.
After qualifying eighth-quick, Reutzel raced into the Dash and ultimately finished the night out tenth in the main event.
“The first night was good, we qualified where we needed to be,” Reutzel says. “We were up to fifth or sixth in the feature. We got to racing with one guy and got dirtied a little bit and had to check up. That put us back to about 12th.”
Reutzel battled back to tenth in the Wren Motorsports/Momentum Racing Suspensions machine, saying that, “We had a good car.”
Saturday started out very promising aboard the Danny Sander Construction/ButlerBuilt machine at Baytown’s Royal Purple Raceway.
“We qualified really good, it would probably would have been second or third quick,” Reutzel explains.
But then the timing and scoring system malfunctioned, forcing the series to revert to the draw sheet for heat race lineups.
Things still seemed to be falling in place for Reutzel and the Wright Way Logistics/Walker Performance Filtration team.
“We were supposed to start third in our heat, but the pole starter didn’t show up so that moved us up to the pole,” Reutzel explains.
The advantage was quickly taken away when officials deemed that Reutzel jumped the initial start and put him back to third. “I didn’t think it was a jump, it was more a case of Sammy just not going with me.”
Reutzel held down third throughout the heat to transfer to the feature and then ultimately finished 11th.
“The track was really tight, it didn’t really blow off until around lap 30,” Reutzel said of the 40 lapper. “We were around 15th then, we made some progress those last few laps and actually finished up in 11th.”
With his initial pair of World of Outlaws events of 2016 in the books, Reutzel gets two more rounds this weekend in Las Vegas beginning tonight along with a wingless outing tomorrow.
Up Next: World of Outlaws Sprint Cars at The Dirt Track at Las Vegas on Thursday and Friday in Shane Liebig’s No. 55 along with a USAC Southwest vs. USAC West Coast non-wing Sprint Car card on Friday in a car fielded by Glenn Styres and Jack Yeley.
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.
(Photo courtesy of Jay Hallas)
- Lonnie Wheatley on Mar 03, 2016
- Article Date: 3/3/2016 by Lonnie Wheatley