Reutzel Rallies for Peter Murphy Classic KSW Win
TULARE, Cal. (July 25, 2015) – Aaron Reutzel is making the most of his occasional night off from Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour competition.
On Saturday night, the Clute, TX, racer took advantage of a late restart to rally into the lead and take the $11,000 winner’s share in the King of the West Sprint Series “Peter Murphy Classic” headliner at the high-banked Thunderbowl Raceway.
Running third when a final caution flew with seven laps to go, Reutzel summarized the situation at hand.
“I saw those guys already had their wings all the way back, so I went ahead and put mine back and went for it,” Reutzel said. “I was able to get the jump on Kyle (Hirst) and then wore out the fence getting by Jason (Meyers), I was just hoping I didn’t get a flat and I sure didn’t want to see a caution. It all worked out perfect.”
In just his second King of the West Sprint series start aboard the Dennis & Theresa Roth Motorsports No. 83sr, Reutzel worked forward from the seventh starting position while Meyers and Hirst swapped the lead repeatedly over the opening half of the 30-lapper.
But after the final caution flew after 23 laps, Reutzel blasted past stablemate Hirst for second on the restart and then finally rode the rim past Hirst on the 27th round en route to his first KWS victory and second in 410-ci competition. It was the tenth overall win of the year for the current ASCS National Tour points leader.
Reutzel was chased to the line by Meyers with Hirst, Carson Macedo and Jonathan Allard rounding out the top five.
Dominic Scelzi was transported with back pains following a flip two laps into the feature event.
Matt Mitchell won the accompanying USAC West Coast Sprint Coast feature event after Ryan Bernal took a wild ride from the top spot while Wayne Fegundes took Racesaver 305 honors.
“Peter Murphy Classic” King of the West 410 Sprints Feature Finish: 1. 83sr-Aaron Reutzel, 2. 7m-Jason Meyers, 3. 1nz-Kyle Hirst, 4. 21x-Carson Macedo, 5. 3c-Jonathan Allard, 6. 00-Jason Statler, 7. 0-Bud Kaeding, 8. 3-Craig Stidham, 9. 00j-Cory Eliason, 10. 11-Roger Crockett, 11. 22-Shane Golobic, 12. 88-Tyler Walker, 13. 29-Willie Croft, 14. 69-Brent Kaeding, 15. 15-Blake Robertson, 16. 1r-Ryan Robinson, 17. 25-Bobby McMahan, 18. 88j-D.J. Netto, 19. 12x-Scott Parker, 20. 17v-Danny Faria, Jr., 21. 9s-Landon Hurst, 22. 41-Dominic Scelzi.
