Reinhardt On the Podium at Fremont to Close Out 2022 All Star Season

Coming off a week that included two rainouts and a subpar National Open prelim night, Kyle Reinhardt was more than ready to strap back into the seat of his Capitol Renegade / Capitol Custom Coaches & Trailers / Champion Hi-Tech Lubricants / J&J Auto Racing No.91 and get back to work.

In recent weeks the Capitol Renegade team had been showing glimpses of their old speed again, and you can’t get faster sitting at the shop.  Three opportunities were on the docket last week for Reinhardt.  First up was the Brian Montieth Classic, just a mile or so down the road from the team’s shop at Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown, PA.

October 6:  Brian Montieth Classic / Lincoln Speedway / Abbottstown, PA [36 cars, Qualifying 12th, Heat 1st (2), A-main 5th (4)]

Thursday night’s event used a single group qualifying format for the 36 cars on hand.  Heat lineups would be set by inverting the top four, with the balance of the lineup heads up by time.  The top five finishers from each of four heats would transfer to the A-main, with the top two making the redraw.  If the quick timer in the race could win, only the winner would be in the redraw.

Reinhardt was 27th in line but clocked in 12th quickest in the field, which put him outside the front row for the start of the fourth heat.  He blasted to the lead at the drop of the green, survived a late restart and led all 10 laps, enroute to a 1.5 second victory over Chad Trout.

The redraw produced the number four pill for Reinhardt, placing him outside the second row for the 35-lap A-main.  With Gio Scelzi and Brian Brown leading the field to the green, Reinhardt beat third-starting Dylan Norris to the low side of turn one and claimed 3rd on the opening lap.

The low side was good to Reinhardt for the first five laps, but on lap six, he moved to the high side as Justin Peck closed on his rear bumper.  Reinhardt closed the gap on second place Brian Brown and the trio waged an intense battle until the caution appeared with seven laps complete.

Reinhardt blasted under Brown entering turn one on the restart and immediately put distance between himself and the Missouri driver.  One lap later, the caution appeared yet again.

On the ensuing restart, Reinhardt held a firm grasp on the runner up spot, again pulling away from Brown by two seconds.  Scelzi was even better, putting several car lengths between himself and Reinhardt’s No.91.

Reinhardt began to close on Scelzi when he caught lapped traffic with twenty laps remaining, but he could not quite get close enough to challenge for the lead.  While this was going on at the front, Buddy Kofoid moved into third, with Justin Peck now fourth and Brown fifth.

Kofoid wrestled the spot away from Reinhardt on lap 25 and one lap later Peck got by as well, dropping Reinhardt from 2nd to 4th in the span of two laps.  

Reinhardt regrouped and set his sights on Peck.  Meanwhile, Danny Dietrich had moved into 5th just before the yellow lights flashed on with two laps remaining.  On the ensuing restart, Reinhardt seemed to be set to finish out the night in 4th until the final corner.  Dietrich turned under the Capitol Renegade 91 and drag raced Reinhardt to the line, nipping him by 0.042 seconds.

Despite some frustration with himself for giving up 4th in the run through the final corner coming to the line, Reinhardt was still happy with his team’s effort and results.  He put it in very simple terms after the race.

“Solid night.  We needed that.“

October 7:  Jim Ford Classic – Night 1 / Fremont Speedway / Fremont, OH [38 cars, Qualifying 7th in Group C, Heat 5th (7), A-main 12th (18)]

The final weekend of the season for the Tezos All Star Circuit of Champions (ASCoC) brought the series to Fremont, Ohio for the two-day Jim Ford Classic.  Night one produced a roster of 38 teams to chase the $6,000 winner’s share.

Reinhardt was the 8th of nine drivers in Group C to hit the track for qualifying.  He only managed the 7th best lap in the group, creating a bit of a hill for the Capitol Renegade team to climb.

Starting 7th in the third of four heats, Reinhardt needed to reach the top five to transfer directly to the A-main and avoid racing the B-main to get in.  The 8-lap qualifying race got off on the wrong foot when he slipped to 8th, but Reinhardt soon found his rhythm.  By lap five he had worked his way to 6th and was able to make the pass for 5th on lap seven, putting himself into the night’s finale.

Reinhardt started the 35-lap A-main in the 18th position and patiently waited for the traffic around him to sort itself out over the first five laps.  From there, he used a steady effort to chip his way toward the front, making his way into the top fifteen on lap nine.  

Reinhardt’s machine continued to get quicker as the fuel load burned off.  On the restart following a lap twenty caution, he surged forward into the 13th spot.  As the race reached its final five circuits, he moved up another position.  The late charge ended just 8-tenths of a second out of a top ten finish with Reinhardt in 12th.

October 8:  Jim Ford Classic – Night 2 / Fremont Speedway / Fremont, OH [39 cars, Qualifying 1st in Group 2, Heat 3rd (4), A-main 3rd (6)]

The $10,000 to win finale of the Jim Ford Classic and the 2022 ASCoC season drew a field of 39 cars, once again putting the four qualifying group, four heat format into action.

Reinhardt rolled out 7th in Group B for his turn under the clock and promptly showed the resurgence of his team’s speed as he laid down the fastest lap in the group.

Only needing to transfer by finishing in the top five of his heat race, Reinhardt ran hard from his starting spot outside row two in his 8-lap heat race.  He brought home a third place finish and along with it, a spot in the dash redraw.

Reinhardt drew the 6th starting spot for the 6-lap dash.  On the opening lap he moved up one spot but eventually finished 6th, putting his Capitol Renegade No.91 on the outside of row three for the 30-lap Jim Ford Classic main event.

On lap two, Reinhardt moved into the fifth position.  He held that ground, executing a steady performance, for the next twenty three laps and appeared set to come home with a nice top five finish.

Reinhardt wasn’t done yet though.

A caution slowed the field with four laps remaining and Reinhardt still running 5th.  On the restart, he drove to the inside of Zeb Wise in turn one and took the 4th position away.

Two laps later the yellow lights flashed on yet again, forcing a restart for a green-white-checkered finish.  On this restart, Cole Macedo was Reinhardt’s victim when the former professional engineer turned full time racer slipped underneath the No.18 entering turn one.

Reinhardt held on to 3rd for the remaining lap and a half, closing out the touring series’ portion of his season with his first ASCoC podium of the year and first ASCoC top five since August 24th at Bloomsburg Fair Raceway in Pennsylvania.

“I was trying to save my tire.  I could tell early on the track was probably going to take rubber and tires would be important at the end.  It’s tough to hold back but it paid off in the end.“, Reinhardt shared.

“We had a solid finish to our All Star season tonight.  It’s been a challenging year, but we’ve finally been finding our speed again lately, so hopefully we can continue that in our remaining races and go into the offseason with something positive to build on.  I want to say thank you to all of our partners and everyone involved with our team that got our 91 car up and down the road all season.”

Up Next

Reinhardt and the Capitol Renegade team will take the coming weekend off, then will return on Friday, October 21st at BAPS Motor Speedway for their “The Night Before” event.  The following night, the Neptune City, NJ native will roll back into Williams Grove Speedway for the rescheduled finale of the 60th Annual National Open.

Season Stats

68 races, 0 wins, 7 top 5’s, 17 top 10’s, 33 top 15’s