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The Texan World of Outlaws regular backed up his victory in Friday night’s Classic Preliminary by again streeting the field to take out the Classic in front of a packed Warrnambool crowd.
“I know the significance of this race – the Classic is our Knoxville Nationals equivalent, so this is mega,” Reutzel said.
“We tried to win it last year but we weren’t great, but I told the guys if I could get some momentum we’d be a serious shot at winning the weekend, so this is huge.
“Even my wife back home in the States commented today on the phone how nervous I was, which just goes to show what a big deal this weekend is to me.”
Reutzel made it a clean sweep of Classic weekend for the travelling Americans. He won Friday and Sunday at Warrnambool whilst his countryman Sheldon Haudenschild won last night’s preliminary, plus Thursday’s Kings Challenge at Mount Gambier.
The Saller Motorsport driver becomes the first USA winner of the event since Kyle Hirst in 2015.
He celebrated in style, performing a series of donuts to the raucous crowd, before leaping on top of his car to perform a wing dance.
Reutzel beat home defending Classic champion Brock Hallett as former Classic winner Lockie McHugh rounded out the podium.
Jamie Veal and Jock Goodyer drove through the field from B-Main starts to finish fourth and fifth respectively.
The grandstand moment of the $40,000 to win, 40-lap Classic finale belonged on lap 10, when pole sitter and early race leader Haudenschild slammed the wall in turn three.
It catapulted his car back into the chasing pack, narrowly missing Reutzel but collecting Australian Outlaws star James McFadden who was running third.
It took both out of contention and heavily damaged the car of the incredibly unlucky McFadden, who looked the best of the local hopes across Classic weekend to take it to the dominant US drivers.
“Unfortunately that’s racing, but it’s bloody disappointing,” McFadden said.
“It’s been a tough summer where not much has gone right for our team, but I was confident we had the car to win this, so it’ll hurt for a while this.”
In a brutal final, Supercars star Cam Waters was another to struggle, making heavy contact with the turn one wall which ended his race.
The Sprintcar festival continues in Victoria’s south west on Wednesday at Avalon Raceway with the rescheduled Presidents Cup, before racing resumes at Warrnambool on Australia Day Friday with the two-day Australian Championships.
