Lonnie Wheatley, TULSA, Okla. (November 12, 2023) – At long last, the newest rendition of Tulsa Speedway was finally christened by the first full card of 410-ci Sprint Cars.
And it was Aaron Reutzel notching his name into the record books by scoring the $7,000 victory in the season-ending POWRi 410 Sprint Car Series “Dirt Down in T-Town” 30-lapper atop the high-banked, ¼-mile clay oval.
It marked the second win in as many nights for Reutzel aboard the RSR No. 8x after taking a $12,000 winner’s share the previous night at Tri-State Speedway near Fort Smith, Ark.
“This is a great way to end the year,” Reutzel commented after his 14th overall feature win of the season. “We kind of thought our season was done a couple of weeks or so ago and then found out about these races and made over $20,000, so we’re happy with that and looking forward to next year.”
After earning the pole position for the feature event, Reutzel set the pace all 30 circuits around the new oval to 410-ci Sprint Car racing.
“This is a fun place, hopefully they’ll have us back,” Reutzel commented in victory lane. “Seth (Bergman) was here helping out some tonight and he’s raced a 360 here and told me the key was getting the car to rotate and we were able to do that.”
The wire-to-wire victory didn’t come without a tense moment, as a spinning car directly in front of the leaders nearly cut Reutzel’s race eight laps short. Reutzel glanced off the car and stayed under power to maintain the lead on the final restart and raced to the stripe with a 1.096-second advantage over teammate Cory Eliason with youngster Brenham Crouch filling out the podium in third.
“I almost stalled it, I’m not even sure how I kept it going,” Reutzel said of the near miss in the closing circuits.
While Reutzel picked off his second win in a row, Eliason crossed the stripe in second for his third podium in as many nights with IRA champion Crouch filling out the podium in third after challenging for the win the previous night.
With a pair of Texans and a Californian on the podium, Blake Hahn represented by the local scene by racing to fourth with Indiana’s Zane Devault rounding out the top five.
Missouri’s Ayrton Gennetten put the finishing touches on the POWRi 410 championship with a sixth-place finish as Riley Goodno, Joe B. Miller, Jace Park and Bryce Norris completed the top ten.
Aside from the caution after 22 laps, the only other interruption occurred after two circuits when a scramble exiting turn four left J.J. Hickle capsized with race-ending damage.
Eliason capped off qualifying as the final car by establishing a new track record of 12.527-seconds with Crouch and Reutzel victorious in heat race action.
POWRi 410 Sprint Cars
Tulsa Speedway (Tulsa, OK)
November 12, 2023, Results:
A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 8X-Aaron Reutzel[1]; 2. 8-Cory Eliason[2]; 3. 1-Brenham Crouch[3]; 4. 52-Blake Hahn[5]; 5. 6Z-Zane DeVault[6]; 6. 19-Ayrton Gennetten[8]; 7. 22-Riley Goodno[7]; 8. 51B-Joe B Miller[14]; 9. 87J-Jace Park[4]; 10. 37-Bryce Norris[9]; 11. 79-Gage Montgomery[16]; 12. 17GP-Cole Duncan[10]; 13. 17-Landon Britt[15]; 14. 16TH-Kevin Newton[12]; 15. 53-Brett Wilson[13]; 16. 12-Jeffrey Newell[18]; 17. 3-Bubba Hunt[17]; 18. 22X-JJ Hickle[11]
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 1-Brenham Crouch[2]; 2. 8-Cory Eliason[4]; 3. 22-Riley Goodno[1]; 4. 19-Ayrton Gennetten[5]; 5. 6Z-Zane DeVault[3]; 6. 22X-JJ Hickle[8]; 7. 51B-Joe B Miller[7]; 8. 17-Landon Britt[6]; 9. (DNS) 3-Bubba Hunt
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 8X-Aaron Reutzel[4]; 2. 52-Blake Hahn[2]; 3. 87J-Jace Park[3]; 4. 37-Bryce Norris[1]; 5. 17GP-Cole Duncan[5]; 6. 16TH-Kevin Newton[6]; 7. 53-Brett Wilson[8]; 8. 79-Gage Montgomery[7]; 9. (DNS) 12-Jeffrey Newell
Qualifying 1: 1. 8-Cory Eliason, 00:12.527[18]; 2. 8X-Aaron Reutzel, 00:12.699[16]; 3. 6Z-Zane DeVault, 00:12.883[5]; 4. 87J-Jace Park, 00:12.974[10]; 5. 1-Brenham Crouch, 00:13.032[9]; 6. 52-Blake Hahn, 00:13.077[12]; 7. 22-Riley Goodno, 00:13.144[17]; 8. 37-Bryce Norris, 00:13.189[7]; 9. 19-Ayrton Gennetten, 00:13.218[15]; 10. 17GP-Cole Duncan, 00:13.236[1]; 11. 17-Landon Britt, 00:13.237[14]; 12. 16TH-Kevin Newton, 00:13.467[3]; 13. 51B-Joe B Miller, 00:13.468[13]; 14. 79-Gage Montgomery, 00:13.492[4]; 15. 22X-JJ Hickle, 00:13.539[2]; 16. 53-Brett Wilson, 00:13.543[11]; 17. 3-Bubba Hunt, 00:15.353[6]; 18. 12-Jeffrey Newell, 00:22.678[8]