Kyle Reinhardt Rallies Saturday, Survives Attica

The kickoff of the Tezos All Star Circuit of Champions points season was delayed one week by Mother Nature.  When the curtain finally went up on the 2022 season, 49 teams showed up to tackle Attica Raceway Park.

Kyle Reinhardt and the Capitol Renegade / Capitol Custom Coaches & Trailers / Champion Hi-Tech Lubricants / J&J Auto Racing No.91 were among them, ready to dive into their sophomore season on the road with the traveling series.  The northern Ohio facility had been a challenging one for the Neptune City, NJ native and his team last season, but they were back with a clean slate and a new opportunity.

April 15th:  Spring Nationals Night 1 / Attica Raceway Park / Attica, OH

      (49 cars, qualifying 4th, heat 3rd, A-main 19th)

This season, the ASCoC format will only use one dash (6 laps), regardless of car count.  Another change to the format for 2022 is that each heat will line up ‘heads up’ in the order they qualified, with the exception of the quick timer, who will start 4th.  

The large car count meant five groups for qualifying (2 laps) and heat races (8 laps).  Reinhardt was the 10th car overall and final car in Group A to take laps under the clock.  He logged the 4th quickest time in the group, slotting him 3rd in the lineup for heat number one.

Reinhardt ‘held serve’, turning in a solid 3rd place finish in his heat race, putting himself into the main event.  In this format, the top four finishers transferred to the A-main, while the heat winner and fastest qualifier to transfer earned a spot in the dash draw.

From his 14th starting spot in the main event, Reinhardt set his sights on his first top-10 at Attica.  It wasn’t to be.  He fought to maintain track position and ultimately slid backward a handful of positions to a 19th place finish.

“Had a solid night going for our No.91 but faded in the feature.  We need to get better with our balance at the end of the night“, Reinhardt said.

April 16th:  Spring Nationals Night 2 / Attica Raceway Park / Attica, OH

      (46 cars, qualifying 4th, heat 5th, A-main 15th)

The same format was deployed for the 46 cars that returned for night number two of the Spring Nationals at Attica Raceway Park.  This time Reinhardt found himself in Group D, but again turned in the 4th quickest lap in his group and took his spot inside row two for his heat race.

The heat race didn’t go as smoothly as hoped.  As the field bunched up off turn four for the green, Reinhardt clipped a tire.  Although he executed a full 360 degree spin and never stopped,  series rules call for a caution in that scenario.  As the reason for the yellow, Reinhardt restarted from the rear of the field.  He worked his way back to 6th but fell short of a transfer spot.

A wild 12-lap B-main saw Reinhardt start 5th, fall back to 6th on lap 5, then charge to 3rd by lap 10.  He held on to that transfer spot, one of four, to the checkered flag.

The best news of the weekend for Reinhardt may have come in the 30-lap A-main on Saturday night.  He was able to climb from his 23rd starting spot to 15th, showing the team was making progress solving the puzzle of Attica Raceway Park. 

“It was an ok weekend for us.  We made both shows, so that’s better than our first trip here last year.  It’s definitely not satisfying though.  We need to race better.  Good news is we moved forward, so we found the track we need to be on.  Glad to get out of Attica in one piece“, Reinhardt shared.

Up Next

Before a 3-race All Star swing through the heart of Pennsylvania, Reinhardt will return to his home state of NJ on Wednesday, April 20th to race at Bridgeport Motorsports Park in their ‘Invasion of the Posse’ 410 sprint car race, where $7,500 will go to the winner.

Reinhardt and the All Star Circuit of Champions will then spend three nights in PA, making stops at Bloomsburg Fair Raceway ($6,000 to win), Williams Grove Speedway ($6,000 to win Tommy Hinnershitz Classic) and Port Royal Speedway ($10,000 to win Keith Kauffman Classic) on April 21st-23rd. 

“I’m excited to get to go back home to NJ to race.  Bridgeport is a fun track.  Bloomsburg will be new for all of us, and we’ve run really well at The Grove this year, so I’m looking forward to those as well.  I’m ready to get some momentum going“, Reinhardt commented.

Season Stats

7 races, 0 wins, 2 top 5’s, 3 top 10’s, 6 top 15’s, 7 top 20’s