Story By: A2DPR / KYLE REINHARDT RACING – ABBOTTSTOWN, PA – Kyle Reinhardt hauled his Capitol Renegade, Capitol Custom Coaches & Trailers, Coors Banquet Beer, Henry’s Wrecker No.91 to his home state of New Jersey to kick off a four-race stint with the All Star Circuit of Champions on Thursday night, June 25th, at Bridgeport Motorsports Park.
Going home is always nice and in this case, it seemed to do a lot of good for Reinhardt. He put together a very solid night that ended with a runner-up finish. He was looking to continue that trend as the series rolled into central Pennsylvania for the holiday weekend.
With twenty-seven cars on hand Thursday night, Reinhardt clicked off the 5th fastest lap overall to get his night started on the right foot. The qualifying effort put Reinhardt on the pole of the night’s third and final heat race.
Scotty Thiel shared the front row for the heat race. He dove hard under Reinhardt going into turn three on a tenacious opening lap but Kyle was up to the challenge. He turned back under Theil in turn four to take command. He never looked back and went on to win the race by 1.6 seconds over Anthony Macri.
Reinhardt drew the number four pill for the dash. He would finish in that 4th spot, giving him the outside row two starting spot for the 30-lap A-main.
The Neptune City, NJ native held a solid grip on the 3rd spot for much of the main event after a heated early batter with Hunter Schuerenberg. A restart with twelve laps remaining saw Reinhardt get by Freddie Rahmer for 2nd but Rahmer battled back in turn four. The exchange almost led to a spin by Reinhardt but he gathered the No.91 back up and rejoined the battle.
The near-disaster left Reinhardt in 6th on lap twenty. Three laps later he was back up to 3rd and was clearly on a mission. He wrestled the runner-up spot away from Schuerenberg with three laps remaining, then began to close the gap on leader Tyler Courtney.
Reinhardt was 3-tenths of a second quicker than the leader but there wasn’t enough time left to mount a challenge without the aid of a caution. He crossed the line with a 2nd place finish.
“Should’ve won that race. I had a really good car.“, Reinhardt said. “After that restart when Freddie (Rahmer) and I exchanged sliders, it took the air off my nose and I almost spun. I dropped a few spots and had to spend a few laps getting that track position back. Ran out of time to try to catch Tyler (Courtney).“
The finish was a fine way to celebrate Reinhardt’s 100th career All Star main event start.
Back in Pennsylvania at Williams Grove Speedway for a Friday night show with the All Stars, Reinhardt recorded the 6th quickest lap in Group A qualifying. The lap left him with a bit of a hole to dig out of for the night.
The challenges continued in the heat race when Reinhardt was unable to improve his position, slipping back one spot to a 7th place finish and landing in the B-main.
Reinhardt found some of his speed in the B-main, leading wire-to-wire and winning the last chance race to put his Capitol Renegade, Capitol Custom Coaches & Trailers, Coors Banquet Beer, Henry’s Wrecker No.91 in the show.
In the 30-lap A-main, Reinhardt continued his rebound, advancing from his 21st starting spot to a 14th place finish.
“We have had good speed here at the Grove all year, so I was a little disappointed we didn’t qualify better tonight. We finally got going later in the night and salvaged something out of the night.“, Reinhardt commented.
Back in early April, Kyle Reinhardt made a trip to Port Royal Speedway and recorded a top ten finish, so there was reason to come into the two-day Bob Weikert Memorial with some positivity that the struggles of the last couple seasons at ‘The Speed Palace’ were behind him.
There were 40 teams signed in Saturday night and the night started off reasonably well for Reinhardt when he turned the 17th best lap in qualifying. Things went a little off track in the heat race however, as he faded from his 4th starting spot to finish 9th.
The night ended early for Reinhardt when big adjustments for the B-main yielded similar results, a 9th place finish from a 7th place start.
Sunday was a new day and a new approach for Reinhardt.
An unfavorable draw set Reinhardt as the 36th of 40 cars to hit the track for the single-flight qualifying. His lap put him 25th in the results.
Reinhardt started on the front row of his heat race and was able to lead the opening lap before ultimately winding up 3rd.
The Bob Weikert Memorial uses a qualifying and passing points system to set the field. Reinhardt’s total after the heat race ranked him 20th overall, good enough to lock into the A-main.
At the end of the 29-lap finale, the distance set in honor of the legendary car owner’s long-time number, Reinhardt finished 20th.
“The good news is we made the race tonight (Sunday). We were terrible last night, but we made some gains tonight. Port Royal has been a challenge for us the last couple years. We’re getting closer.“, Reinhardt shared.
BAPS Motor Speedway is Reinhardt’s lone destination this week. On Thursday, June 1st he will compete in the Greg Hodnett Foundation race at the York Haven, PA speedway before taking the weekend off.