By T.J. Buffenbarger
MECHANICSBURG, PA (September 18, 2020) — Aaron Reutzel was in the right place at the right time to find rubber on the bottom of the race racing surface that propelled him to victory on Friday night at Williams Grove Speedway with the Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1. The win also served as a qualifier for Dirt Classic at Lincoln Speedway, giving Reutzel a guaranteed starting spot in the feature on Saturday.
Reutzel bided his time and pounced just before halfway in the 30-lap feature to drive by Gio Scelzi for the lead. With a late race restart with two laps to go Reutzel drove away from Scelzi for the victory. The win was Reutzel’s 14th victory of the 2020 calendar year.
Reutzel was quick to credit his crew for giving him a race car that allowed him to search the racetrack to find the sweet spot at the right moment.
“Our car was phenomenal tonight where I could move around. I could blast the top, I could run through the middle, I could run the bottom,” said Reutzel. “We had a little bit of luck there, but sometimes it pays off to run third, second where you can move around like that.”
Larson used the opportunity running third to search the track for a way around Brian Brown and Scelzi.
“Brown was kind of using up the whole race track so I was able to sit on the bottom and do the one thing he wasn’t doing. I was starting to make some speed up on him and at that point and I don’t think (the rubber) was really laid down yet because I jumped back up to the top,” said Reutzel. “Then I just got back down and was lucky I was down at the right time so I could run up to (Scelzi) and I found it. Gio moved down over here and I thought for sure I thought he would move down on this end to, but the track was good enough where he thought he was still carrying speed over there. You don’t want to pull the trigger too soon on him because that’s what I did with Brown and luckily I was just close enough to clear him and sit on the bottom and hit my marks.”
Brown and Scelzi started on the front row for the main event. Scelzi took the lead with Brown and Reutzel right behind him. Behind the lead trio Kyle Larson was making his presence felt driving by Paul McMahan for the fourth position.
By lap six Reutzel started to put pressure on Brown for the second position diving under him in turns one and two but could not make the pass. Two laps later Reutzel was able to drive by Brown on the front stretch.
Reutzel started to close in on Scelzi for the lead on lap 11 until Reutzel was held up by a slower car and allowed Scelzi to extend his lead. One lap later Scelzi nearly spun the car in turn two which allowed Reutzel to close right up to his back bumper. On lap 14 Reutzel drove under Scelzi off the second corner and took the lead down the backstretch.
Lap 15 saw Larson continue to move towards the front of the field passing Brian Brown for the third position. On lap 18 Larson nearly got into the fence in turn four and allowed Brown to take back the third position.
With the leaders all locked down on the bottom of the track the caution appeared with two laps to go when Zeb Wise slowed while running fifth with a flat right rear tire.
Retuzel was up for the challenge pulling away after the restart for the victory over Scelzi. Larson was able to get by Brown for the third position. Brown and McMahan rounded out the top five.
For Reutzel the victory came at the right time to maintain the lead in the All Star Circuit of Champions points in what he considers the most critical weekend of the September portion of the schedule.
“It was just an awesome night. The points are starting to get tough. I said earlier this week these next few nights are going to be the difference of who wins or loses the championship because it’s so hard to run good here against the Posse or so many good guys. This is one down and we’ve got three more to go.”
Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1
Williams Grove Speedway
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
Friday September 18, 2020
Lincoln Electirc Qualifying
1. 18-Giovanni Scelzi, 16.742[5]
2. 57-Kyle Larson, 16.748[9]
3. 2M-Kerry Madsen, 16.768[4]
4. 17-Ian Madsen, 16.818[11]
5. 21-Brian Brown, 16.903[6]
6. 48-Danny Dietrich, 16.933[8]
7. 1X-Chad Trout, 16.935[3]
8. 39M-Anthony Macri, 16.990[13]
9. 5C-Dylan Cisney, 17.023[22]
10. 5-Brent Marks, 17.057[17]
11. 11-Zeb Wise, 17.084[10]
12. 51-Freddie Rahmer, 17.117[20]
13. 26-Cory Eliason, 17.201[27]
14. 14-Tony Stewart, 17.238[14]
15. 1W-Matt Campbell, 17.241[12]
16. 24W-Lucas Wolfe, 17.248[7]
17. 24-Rico Abreu, 17.306[19]
18. 12-Brent Shearer, 17.323[2]
19. 13-Paul McMahan, 17.333[25]
20. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss, 17.334[31]
21. 21M-Brian Montieth, 17.356[21]
22. 99M-Kyle Moody, 17.373[16]
23. 87-Aaron Reutzel, 17.382[33]
24. 11T-TJ Stutts, 17.389[26]
25. 91-Kyle Reinhardt, 17.449[18]
26. 55K-Robbie Kendall, 17.540[24]
27. 39-Justin Peck, 17.558[29]
28. 73B-Brett Michalski, 17.612[1]
29. 54-Zach Newlin, 17.768[15]
30. W20-Greg Wilson, 17.961[28]
31. 99-Skylar Gee, 17.973[32]
32. 27S-Adrian Shaffer, 18.176[30]
33. 12W-Troy Fraker, 19.052[23]
Ford Performance Heat Race #1 (8 Laps)
1. 21-Brian Brown[1]
2. 2M-Kerry Madsen[2]
3. 57-Kyle Larson[3]
4. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[4]
5. 48-Danny Dietrich[5]
6. 1X-Chad Trout[6]
7. 73B-Brett Michalski[9]
8. 24W-Lucas Wolfe[7]
9. 12-Brent Shearer[8]
All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads Heat Race #2 (8 Laps)
1. 11-Zeb Wise[1]
2. 5-Brent Marks[2]
3. 39M-Anthony Macri[3]
4. 17-Ian Madsen[4]
5. 14-Tony Stewart[5]
6. 1W-Matt Campbell[6]
7. 99M-Kyle Moody[7]
8. 54-Zach Newlin[8]
Hunt Brothers Pizza Heat Race #3 (8 Laps)
1. 13-Paul McMahan[1]
2. 51-Freddie Rahmer[3]
3. 24-Rico Abreu[2]
4. 5C-Dylan Cisney[4]
5. 91-Kyle Reinhardt[6]
6. 21M-Brian Montieth[5]
7. 55K-Robbie Kendall[7]
8. 12W-Troy Fraker[8]
Mobil 1 Heat Race #4 (8 Laps)
1. 87-Aaron Reutzel[2]
2. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[3]
3. 26-Cory Eliason[4]
4. 99-Skylar Gee[7]
5. 27S-Adrian Shaffer[8]
6. 39-Justin Peck[5]
7. W20-Greg Wilson[6]
DNS: 11T-TJ Stutts
Kears Speed Shop Dash #1 (4 Laps)
1. 21-Brian Brown[1]
2. 13-Paul McMahan[2]
3. 57-Kyle Larson[3]
4. 2M-Kerry Madsen[4]
5. 17-Ian Madsen[5]
Elliotts Custom Trailers and Carts Dash #2 (4 Laps)
1. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[1]
2. 87-Aaron Reutzel[4]
3. 11-Zeb Wise[2]
4. 5C-Dylan Cisney[5]
5. 26-Cory Eliason[3]
Classic Ink USA B-Main (12 Laps)
1. 1X-Chad Trout[1]
2. 1W-Matt Campbell[2]
3. 21M-Brian Montieth[3]
4. 55K-Robbie Kendall[6]
5. 39-Justin Peck[4]
6. 73B-Brett Michalski[7]
7. 11T-TJ Stutts[10]
8. 99M-Kyle Moody[5]
9. 24W-Lucas Wolfe[9]
10. 54-Zach Newlin[11]
11. W20-Greg Wilson[8]
12. 12W-Troy Fraker[12]
13. 12-Brent Shearer[13]
Ollies Bargain Outlet A-Main (30 Laps)
1. 87-Aaron Reutzel[4]
2. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[2]
3. 57-Kyle Larson[5]
4. 13-Paul McMahan[3]
5. 5-Brent Marks[11]
6. 39M-Anthony Macri[14]
7. 48-Danny Dietrich[17]
8. 2M-Kerry Madsen[7]
9. 51-Freddie Rahmer[12]
10. 5C-Dylan Cisney[8]
11. 17-Ian Madsen[9]
12. 26-Cory Eliason[10]
13. 27S-Adrian Shaffer[20]
14. 91-Kyle Reinhardt[19]
15. 24-Rico Abreu[15]
16. 14-Tony Stewart[18]
17. 1X-Chad Trout[21]
18. 24W-Lucas Wolfe[26]
19. 21M-Brian Montieth[23]
20. 99-Skylar Gee[16]
21. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[13]
22. 21-Brian Brown[1]
23. 11-Zeb Wise[6]
24. 1W-Matt Campbell[22]
25. 11T-TJ Stutts[25]
26. 55K-Robbie Kendall[24]