Reutzel Caps Return with Victory at the Pete Jacobs Memorial

By Mike Swanger
Orrville, Ohio Sunday, September, 5, 2021-The stands were jammed packed at Wayne County Speedway for the Pete Jacobs Memorial presented by DAC Vitamins and Minerals as 31 sprinters checked into the pits for the $15,000 to win 40 lap feature.

Clute, Texas’ Aaron Reutzel would start the night off by claiming the GNR Drywall Fast Qualifier award with a time of 14.423 seconds as Trey Jacobs, Cale Thomas, Cole Macedo and Cap Henry topped the heat races as Henry collected the Wayne Homes dash ($200) to start on the pole of the feature as he was looking for his second straight Pete Jacobs Memorial win.

At the drop of the green flag, Henry grabbed the point with Henry Malcuit on his rear bumper for the first four circuits when the red flag waved when Sammy Swindell, Ricky Peterson and Trey Jacobs got together and tumbled in turn three. The race got one more lap in before coming to a stop again for Marcus Dumesny who hit the wall in turn one and flipped. Back to green flag action, Henry set the pace while Malcuit was looking for an opening to swipe the lead away from Henry. As the pair went into turn three on lap eight, Henry jumped the cushion and went high into turn four as Malcuit went low in four and made contact with the inside tractor tire and broke the front end of his ride and ending his night.

Henry was able to keep going and keep the lead, although the #4 was not he same. On the restart, Reutzel quickly put the pressure on Henry and overpowered Henry down the backstretch on lap 11 to put the Commercial Edge 1, R & L Holdings and Munson Electric #8 out front. As the laps clicked off, Reutzel built up a straight away lead as all eyed went to the battle for second between Tim Shaffer and Jac Haudenschild.

The Wild Child made several runs at the Steel City Outlaw but never got by. Reutzel was now into lapped traffic and going into turn three on lap 30, tapped Chris Myers and the B Main winner came to stop to bring out the caution and then the red flag for a fuel stop for the field.

The race would go green for two circuits when track champion Dean Jacobs was working for a top five finish, jumped the cushion in turn four and flipped. The final eight laps would go non stop as Reutzel would drive away with Shaffer keeping Haudenschild at bay for second and Henry hanging on to fourth.

The last two laps saw Cale Thomas and Spencer Bayston going tooth and nail for fifth with Thomas getting the edge. The night was short lived by Broc Martin and T J Michaels as both flipped in seperate hot lap incidents as all driners who ended up upside down were OK.

For the first time ever the Attica/Fremont 305 Sprints rolled into ‘Orrvile’s Historic Oval’ and a couple of young teenagers who had never put a tire on Wayne County Speedway’s surface put on a great feature race, Kasey Jedrzejek and Kelsey Ivy would bring the 18 car field to the green with Jedrzejek taking the point with 4th starting Bryce Lucius pulling into second.

A lap five caution for Wade Fraley kept the field bunched together and as the green flag waved again, Jedrzejek kept a five car length lead over Lucius as Shawn Valenti, Laryy Kingseed Jr., Ivy and fast qualifier Mike Keegan battled for a top five finish.

On lap 15, Lucius found some extra horse power in the X-1, 87 Speed, Greber Racing Products #32 and was able to outpower Jedrzejek coming out of turn two for the lead. Jimmy McGrath Jr. would bring out the yellow flag on lap17 with a spin. As the green flag waved again, Jedrzejek would make a couple of runs at Lucius but the 14 year old from Findlay held off the challenges and win his first 305 feature ever. Valenti held off Kingseed Jr. for third as Ivy took fifth. Heat winners were Jedrzejek and Valenti.