Great Falls, MT — (July 17, 2015) — For the fourth year, the Electric City Speedway saw a new track winner with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network as Aaron Reutzel notched National Tour victory No. 4 for the 2015 season, and his eighth career National Tour win.
Despite a small rain delay following the night’s Heat Races, track crews worked quickly to keep the Electric City Speedway surface in good condition, providing a wide track for teams to compete on.
Working from fourth, the B.C. Funds No. 87 wasted little time getting into position to challenge for the lead. Into second by the third round, Aaron chased Laurel, Montana’s Phil Dietz into slower traffic.
Trying to use slower cars as picks, Reutzel found a hole and went for it through turns three and four, taking the lead with a close slide-job coming to complete Lap 12.
“I knew it was going to be tough to win that deal. Phil was definitely fast enough to win it and really, if it wasn’t for lapped traffic, we wouldn’t have been able to get by,” said Aaron in Victory Lane. “We had a phenomenal racecar, it was just tight racing out there and I haven’t been really good on heavy race tracks like this, but maybe going out a running for Roth Motorsports last week taught me a thing or two, and showed me a little bit of what I can get away with on these cars when we loosen them up a little, but I have to say thanks to my crew guy, Don Grable. He did a great job tonight.”
Setting a rapid pace through the field, Reutzel put all but the top-nine a lap down, with a pair of drivers going two laps down. Leading by as much as three seconds, a Lap 27 restart put the margin of victory at 0.795 seconds.
Working around slower traffic, Phil Dietz was in position to challenge for the lead on the Lap 27 restart, but would end up settling for the runner-up spot; his best finish against the National Tour.
“This is awesome, especially to run second to that guy, he’s doing a hell of a job this year so, we’ll take it,” commented Dietz. “This almost fells like a win, so we’ll go from here and see what we can do tomorrow in Billings.”
In a fierce battle with Johnny Herrera for most of the last half of the night’s feature, Montana’s Joe Ramaker put the Ostrich Racing Engines No. 98 on the final podium step.
Asked about having to hold the No. 45x at bay, Joe replied, “It was fun racing with him [Johnny]. I could hear him back there, but I never saw the front of his car, but I knew he had to be really, really, close so I had my elbows out, my foot out, and anything else I could think of just to keep him behind me.”
Herrera ended up fourth after starting sixth with Seth Bergman coming from 11th to fifth with a last lap pass to crack the top-five.
Victim to the pass by Bergman, Oklahoma’s Wayne Johnson crossed sixth with Kyle Bellm coming from 12th to seventh. Blake Hahn was eighth with J.J. Hickle posting his ninth consecutive top-ten finish with the Frontier Region in ninth. Jeremy McCune came up from 14th to round out the top-ten.
With 32 drivers drawing in, four Heat Races went to Blake Hahn, Trever Kirkland, Joe Ramaker, and J.J. Hickle. The B-Feature was won by Tyler Gable. No provisional starts were used.
The Lucas Oil ASCS presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network heads to the Billings Motorsports Park on Saturday, July 18 with the ASCS Frontier Region. Updates and news can be found at http://www.ascsracing.com.
Race Results:
Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour
Electric City Speedway – Great Falls, Mont.
Friday, July 17, 2015
Car Count: 32
Heat Races: 8 Laps, taking the winner plus the next the next 12 highest in passing points to the A-Feature.
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 52-Blake Hahn[2]; 2. 2JR-Kelly Miller[1]; 3. 33-Kris Miller[3]; 4. 99-Skylar Gee[7]; 5. 32-Tyler Gabel[4]; 6. 14-Kyle Van Ulden[5]; 7. 1-Bill Boyce[8]; 8. 24-Leroy Brush[6]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 37-Trever Kirkland[2]; 2. 72-Phil Dietz[4]; 3. 77X-Wayne Johnson[5]; 4. 38B-Bryan Brown[7]; 5. 14K-Kyle Bellm[8]; 6. 92-Jordan Weaver[6]; 7. 4-Cliff Nelson Jr.[1]; 8. 4N-John Nelson[3]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 98-Joe Ramaker[2]; 2. 95-Matt Covington[1]; 3. 45X-Johnny Herrera[6]; 4. 23-Seth Bergman[7]; 5. 28-Joe Perry[3]; 6. 35M-Cody Masse[4]; 7. 56X-Mark Chisholm[5]; 8. 00-Roger Cummings[8]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 23N-J.J. Hickle[2]; 2. 87-Aaron Reutzel[6]; 3. 0J-Jeremy McCune[1]; 4. 27DD-David Hoiness[4]; 5. 12-Josh Ostermiller[5]; 6. 77-Bob Shiplet[3]; 7. 21-Ryder Olson[8]; 8. 2-Shad Peterson[7]
B-Feature(s): 12 laps, taking the top 6 to the tail of the A-Feature.
B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 32-Tyler Gabel[3]; 2. 12-Josh Ostermiller[2]; 3. 28-Joe Perry[4]; 4. 92-Jordan Weaver[5]; 5. 1-Bill Boyce[7]; 6. 14-Kyle Van Ulden[6]; 7. 21-Ryder Olson[8]; 8. 35M-Cody Masse[9]; 9. 77-Bob Shiplet[10]; 10. 00-Roger Cummings[12]; 11. 2-Shad Peterson[13]; 12. 24-Leroy Brush[15]; 13. 4N-John Nelson[16]; 14. (DNF) 56X-Mark Chisholm[11]; 15. (DNF) 27DD-David Hoiness[1]; 16. (DNF) 4-Cliff Nelson Jr.[14]
A-Feature: 30 Laps
A Feature 1 (30 Laps): 1. 87-Aaron Reutzel[4]; 2. 72-Phil Dietz[2]; 3. 98-Joe Ramaker[1]; 4. 45X-Johnny Herrera[6]; 5. 23-Seth Bergman[11]; 6. 77X-Wayne Johnson[5]; 7. 14K-Kyle Bellm[12]; 8. 52-Blake Hahn[7]; 9. 23N-J.J. Hickle[3]; 10. 0J-Jeremy McCune[14]; 11. 28-Joe Perry[18]; 12. 38B-Bryan Brown[8]; 13. 14-Kyle Van Ulden[21]; 14. 32-Tyler Gabel[16]; 15. (DNF) 92-Jordan Weaver[19]; 16. (DNF) 2JR-Kelly Miller[10]; 17. (DNF) 1-Bill Boyce[20]; 18. (DNF) 33-Kris Miller[15]; 19. (DNF) 95-Matt Covington[13]; 20. (DNF) 99-Skylar Gee[9]; 21. (DNF) 12-Josh Ostermiller[17]; DNS 37-Trever Kirkland
Lap Leader(s): Phil Dietz 1-11; Aaron Reutzel 12-30
KSE Hard Charger: Kyle Van Ulden +8
FSR High Point: Aaron Reutzel
Provisional(s): N/A