Lonnie Wheatley
PEORIA, Ariz. (February 4, 2014) – It had all the makings of an epic weekend for Aaron Reutzel.
Things fell into place in the heat races. The car was fast. The driver was on top of his game. But then come feature time, well, things just didn’t go right at all.
“It turned into a nightmare of a weekend,” the Clute, TX, driver summed up after a parts failure on one night and then an
accident the next night resulted in a quick trip to the crash house that shortened a scheduled three-day racing weekend to just two.
After rallying past 32 cars in the initial three events of Canyon Speedway Park’s Winter Challenge in Peoria, AZ, the previous weekend, the Lucas Oil ASCS National title hopeful was set for another wingless weekend of USAC Southwest vs. USAC West Coast action aboard Bob and Christie Miller’s Car Parts Machine/Stafford Performance/ButlerBuilt No. 21a.
While victory lane looked like a strong possibility on both Thursday and Friday, Reutzel’s Winter Challenge ended one night early with a separated shoulder following a crash while dicing among the leaders in the Friday night feature.
“They said it separated pretty bad, that there’s a lot of stretched ligaments,” Reutzel explained. “So I’m supposed to wear this sling to keep from moving it too much for the next four-to-six weeks. I’ll be ready to go for the ASCS National opener at Yuma though.”
Much like the previous weekend, Reutzel started deep in heat race action on both Thursday and Friday aboard the BC Fundz/Danny Sanders Construction/Wright Way Logistics Sprint Car. This time though, Reutzel was able to work far enough forward atop the 1/3-mile clay oval to earn strong feature starting positions.
Starting fourth in Thursday’s feature after ranking third in heat race passing points, Reutzel moved into second immediately and pestered the leader and eventual winner Colby Copeland in the initial rounds before slipping back to third after a caution.
“I made a mistake on that restart,” Reutzel explained. “The cushion was so treacherous I thought the leader might make a mistake and I could take advantage taking off down low. I didn’t get going though and with the way they do the cone the guy behind me was able to drive right by, I just made a mistake there.”
Still running a strong third less than half way through the race, Reutzel’s podium effort was cut short when the right rear wheel broke entering turn one. While the past ASCS Gulf South champion averted disaster and brought the car to a safe stop, the early end to the night was a harbinger of things to come.
Reutzel bounced back in strong form on Friday night, ranking as the top driver in passing points after Friday’s heat race action. As a result, Reutzel was set to start the feature sixth with the USAC Southwest vs. USAC West Coast six-car invert.
“We had a shot at winning that Thursday feature but we had an even better chance on Friday, the car was really good,” Reutzel commented of the Momentum Racing Suspensions mount courtesy of Brad Benic.
That he did, battling for second with Jimmy Crawford ten rounds into the 30-lapper with leader Dave Darland in his sites when disaster struck.
“The bottom was still a little slimy to begin with, the top was where everyone was gonna be,” Reutzel explained. “I spent the first part of that race just trying to blow off the bottom so there’d be something to work with there.”
Making his way past Nic Faas for third, Reutzel went after Crawford for second with a slide job entering turn three on tenth round when contact sent both cars flipping.
“I’d just got Faas and tried the slide job on Crawford to get clear of both of them,” Reutzel commented. “He could have used his brakes and avoided the whole thing, I got slid a lot worse than that a bunch of times over the last couple of weeks and used the brakes to avoid a crash.”
Brakes weren’t used on this occasion and another possible win for Reutzel ended with the crunch of metal and the pain of a dislocated shoulder.
“The car really wasn’t torn up that bad, the guys had it ready to go by the time I got out of the hospital,” Reutzel explained.
But with an ailing shoulder the Lucas Oil ASCS National title the primary focus of the 2014 season, sitting out the Winter Challenge finale was a difficult yet wise decision.
“We’ll be ready for Yuma at the end of the month, you can count on that,” Reutzel concluded as he looks forward to putting a rough weekend at Canyon Speedway Park in the rearview mirror.
2014 Quick Stats: 5 races, 3 top-tens. Finished 13th in USAC Southwest vs. USAC West Coast Sprint Car Winter Challenge points despite missing the final event.
Up Next: Reutzel kicks off his pursuit of the Lucas Oil ASCS National championship with the series season opener at Cocopah Speedway on February 28 and March 1. The current ASCS National slate consists of approximately 50 nights of competition throughout the nation.
Keep on Track: Keep track of Aaron Reutzel’s on track-action including schedule and results at http://www.aaronreutzelracing.
Providing media and more for tracks, drivers and series, Lonnie Wheatley may be contacted at lonniewheatley@gmail.com.