Five-Race Set Leads Reutzel to TMS

Lonnie Wheatley, CLUTE, Texas (May 12, 2016) – Five races at four different tracks in three different cars.  It was definitely a busy week for Aaron Reutzel.

Reutzel was painfully close to notching at least a win or two along the way, including his first career World of Outlaws triumph.  Instead, four top-fives and no finish lower than seventh wrapped up a busy week of action for the reigning Lucas Oil ASCS National champion.

“We had good speed every time out, we really should have got a couple of wins out of it,” Reutzel said.  “We’ll just stay after it and hopefully the wins will come.”

Action on the ASCS National Tour continues this weekend with two nights of competition at Fort Worth’s Texas Motor Speedway.

“We’ve always been quick there but haven’t had the greatest of luck,” Reutzel said of the Texas Motor Speedway clay oval.  “Hopefully we can shake that luck and get our first National win of the year.”

Last week’s set of five races began with Reutzel and the Shark-powered Dissolvalloy Downhole Revolution/BC Fundz No. 87 Triple-X Sprint Car team in World of Outlaws competition at Jacksonville Speedway in Illinois.

After setting second quick time in qualifying, Reutzel raced into the Dash with a runner-up finish in his heat race and then started front row outside in the feature after a runner-up Dash finish.

Reutzel chased down early leader Joey Saldana for the point a dozen laps in and led eight rounds before surrendering the lead.  Reutzel ultimately finished fifth in the Wren Motorsports/Momentum Racing Suspensions entry for his top WoO finish of the year.

“Honestly, the car was excellent,” Reutzel commented.  “That we actually ran Joey down for the lead and then ended up finishing fifth, that was disappointing.”

Reutzel reflected on the strong run.  “We took the lead and the track changed again.  The guys behind me were able to search around and find a better way to get around.  When we got into traffic, they caught me.  We ran fifth with the World of Outlaws though, so we can’t really complain.”

From there, ASCS National Tour action picked back up at Kansas City’s Lakeside Speedway, where Reutzel ran down the early leaders before slipping back to seventh over the closing laps with a damaged nose wing on the Danny Sander Construction/ButlerBuilt machine.

“We had a bad fast car from the word go,” Reutzel said of the Wright Way Logistics/Walker Performance Filtration Sprint Car at Lakeside.  “I got a little impatient in traffic and knocked the nose wing down, we just had to hang on from there.”

Thursday’s Lakeside card also marked Reutzel’s second non-wing Sprint Car outing of the year as he climbed into a J.D. Black entry for WAR competition.  Reutzel made the most of it, winning his heat race and then working the low side of the ½-mile to claim third in the feature event.

“We had a little bit of brake problems in the feature, I was a little timid to get up there and bang the fence with no brakes,” Reutzel said.  “I thought we could make the bottom work but we were just a little too loose, still it was a successful run.”

With Lakeside in the books, Reutzel hit the road right away for the 600-plus mile journey deep into the heart of Texas for two nights of ASCS Gulf South Region competition in Scottie McDonald’s No. 88 entry.

Reutzel had another fast ride only to run afoul of lapped traffic while contending for the lead in Friday’s feature at Waco’s Heart O’ Texas Speedway.

“We started eighth and were up to second by the tenth lap,” Reutzel recalls.  Challenging Channin Tankersley for the lead, a lapped car became a problem.  “A lapped car changed lines at the last second, I hit the brakes, biked it and ran off the track.”

Relegated to the tail of the field with just eight laps to go, Reutzel sliced through the field from 18th to salvage an impressive fifth-place finish.

The frenetic weekend wrapped up Saturday night at Beaumont’s Golden Triangle Raceway Park, where lapped traffic once again negated a likely win.

“Scottie gave us another great car, we should have won,” Reutzel says.

One lapped car took that one away though.

“We started out front and were leading every lap,” Reutzel recalls.  “There was one lapped car that we lapped three times.  The second time he ran us all the way to the infield.  The third time, he was changing lines again and did pretty much the same thing, he slowed us down enough to let Channin get by.”

Knocking on the door for some victories, Reutzel hopes to capture a pair this weekend as the ASCS National Tour takes to Texas Motor Speedway for two nights.

2016 Quick Stats:  30 races, 2 wins, 9 top-fives, 15 top-tens.

Up Next: Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour competition on Friday and Saturday at Fort Worth’s Texas Motor Speedway.

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.

Bellm Looks for Change of Fortune at TMS

Lonnie Wheatley, NIXA, Mo. (May 12, 2016) – A change of fortune is exactly what Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour contender Kyle Bellm is needing right now.

The Nixa, Missouri racer and the Resource Asset Management Solutions (RAMS) No. 14k Sprint Car team will look for that change of fortune at this weekend’s pair of events at Fort Worth’s Texas Motor Speedway.

“We’re looking for a good weekend,” Bellm says.  “We had a good run there last time.  Hopefully we can start with a good draw and get a top four run on Friday to lock into Saturday’s feature.”

Bellm comes off a weekend that started in promising fashion with an impressive heat race win in Thursday’s ASCS National Tour go at Kansas City’s Lakeside Speedway aboard the PPG Automotive Finishes/Colorvision entry.

It went downhill from there though with last year’s ASCS National Tour Rookie of the Year getting collected in another car’s wreck.  And it occurred just as Bellm was working his way forward through the field.

“We fell back a little at the start,” Bellm says after starting the feature in ninth.  “We started coming back through there, we found the bottom in three and four and were passing some pretty good cars.”

Just as Bellm was climbing back through the field in the Schure Built Suspensions/Christian County Collision Repair entry, it ended just as quickly.

“Loyet smoked the fence,” Bellm recalls.  Bellm was unable to avoid Loyet’s flipping Sprint Car and got upside down as well with race-ending damage.

With the Bybee Lawn Care/Dynotech Racing Engines machine in rough shape, Bellm joined forces with the Smith No. 86 team for Saturday’s ASCS Warrior Region event at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, MO.

“I really have to thank Jeff and Jerry Smith for giving us that opportunity,” Bellm says.  “It felt just like old times, the car was great right out of the box.”

Unfortunately, a similar fate awaited when another car spun in the opening corner of the feature.

“We started 17th, another car spun in the first corner and got us, it knocked the front end down,” Bellm recalls.

With the opening handful of Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour events in the books, Bellm and the Schaeffer Oil/Pro Designs/Racinboys team look to turn their fortune around at this weekend’s Texas Motor Speedway double.

2016 Quick Stats:  10 races, 1 win, 2 top-five, 3 top-tens.

Up Next: Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour on Friday and Saturday at Fort Worth’s Texas Motor Speedway.

Keep Track:  Keep track of Kyle Bellm’s on-track action including schedule and results at http://www.kylebellm.com/, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/KyleBellmRacing?fref=ts or on Twitter at @kylebellmracing.

If you would like Kyle Bellm 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.

Clauson Conquers Eldora for Circular Insanity Win Number 12

Lonnie Wheatley, ROSSBURG, Ohio (May 12, 2016) – Surging past the quarter pole of the “Circular Insanity Tour” pursuit of 200 races in 2016, Bryan Clauson added his 12th win of the season at last weekend’s #LetsRaceTwo event at Eldora Speedway.

With the race count climbing to 52, Clauson finally captured his first USAC Sprint Car victory atop the storied Eldora oval on Friday night.  Clauson rounded out the weekend with a sixth-place USAC run on Saturday with a pair of strong World of Outlaws outing at Eldora as well.

In a month that will culminate with Clauson’s third Indianapolis 500 effort, another four events are on tap over the course of three nights this weekend beginning with Friday night’s World of Outlaws card at Indiana’s Plymouth Speedway that also includes USAC Indiana Midget action.

Action resumes with more WoO competition at Haubstadt’s Tri-State Speedway on Saturday before shedding the wings for Sunday night’s King of Kokomo event at Kokomo Speedway.

Race 49

Eldora’s #LetsRaceTwo double-double began with USAC Sprint Cars on Friday night.  While Clauson had reached Eldora victory lane in Midgets and Silver Crown cars, Friday’s triumph aboard the Cancer Treatment Centers of America/Jonathan Byrd’s Restaurant & Hospitality Group No. 63 Non-Wing Sprint Car was his first in USAC Sprint Car competition.

“It was good to get that monkey off my back, we had been close several times before.  It was also a big win career-wise reaching 75 overall USAC National wins, that’s a big milestone win to reach.”

Race 50

Clauson reached 25% complete of Circular Insanity with Friday’s World of Outlaws feature in the Elk Grove Ford/Cancer Treatment Centers of America No. 17w Sprint Car.  Slipping back from the 13th starting position early on, Clauson gained ground late to claim 11th at the line.

“We started 13th, fell back a little early and drove back up to 11th.  We drove by some good cars on the way.  We probably could have used a caution to get some more spots.  We went forward at Eldora which is always good, the car had good balance, we could go wherever we needed to go.”

Race 51

Saturday’s portion of #LetsRaceTwo at Eldora found Clauson recovering from early issues to post a sixth-place finish in the USAC Sprint Car portion of the evening in the Cancer Treatment Centers of America/Jonathan Byrd’s No. 63 Non-Wing Sprint Car.

“We went to a backup straightaway, that threw a little kink in the night.  We started eighth and moved forward, then we got caught in someone else’s mess and had to go to the tail.  We were able to get back up to sixth.  It was one we just had to grind out, seemed like a caution came out every time I passed a car.”

Race 52

#LetsRaceTwo wrapped up with Saturday’s World of Outlaws portion of the card with Clauson working his way forward from 22nd to finish 12th in the Elk Grove Ford/Cancer Treatment Centers of America No. 17w Sprint Car.

“We started 22nd and got to 12th, it was a good night going forward.  The second half of the race we really got going well, hopefully it’s something we can build on for Kings Royal.”

Another four races in three nights this weekend leads into a busy slate of Indy 500 preparation over the remainder of the month with other races mixed along the way.

2016 Circular Insanity Tour Quick Stats:  52 races, 12 wins, 25 top-fives, 37 top-tens.

Up Next:

Friday – World of Outlaws Sprint Cars and USAC Indiana Midgets at Indiana’s Plymouth Speedway (Elk Grove Ford/Cancer Treatment Centers of America No. 17w Sprint Car and Dooling Machine/Cancer Treatment Centers of America/Jonathan Byrd’s No. 63 Midget)

Saturday – World of Outlaws Sprint Cars at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, IN (Elk Grove Ford/Cancer Treatment Centers of America No. 17w Sprint Car)

Sunday – King of Kokomo at Indiana’s Kokomo Speedway (Cancer Treatment Centers of America/Jonathan Byrd’s No. 63 Non-Wing Sprint Car)

Keep Track:  Keep track of Bryan Clauson’s 2016 Circular Insanity Tour at www.bryanclauson.com, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/bryanclausonracing/?fref=ts and on Twitter at @bryanclausoninc.

If you would like Bryan Clauson “Circular Insanity Tour” 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.