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Buzzie Reutimann, The Legend Continues To Win
by Bill Green, From Behind The MIC
Buzzie Reutimann had every fan on their feet Saturday night at East Bay Raceway
Park. Starting eighth, outside row four, the local racing legend drove to the
front with a renewed since of enjoyment normally seen in a much younger
competitors eyes.
Climbing out of the car in victory lane the very fit 66 year old Reutimann, ever
the jokester said with a huge smile, "Was that a hundred laps?" Pause, breath...
"It sure felt like it!" The crowd laughed with him.
Winning his second race of only three he has been able to run in the young
season, seems to have put a new-found spring in his step and a fresh twinkle in
his eyes.
"I tell you what, there is a lot of competition here at East Bay in this class."
said Reutimann, father of NASCAR racer David Reutimann. "The car was really
working on the bottom and I knew a lot of the guys like the 27 (John Bradley)
and the 22 (Dale Kelly) were going to have to run the top side, (laughing) so I
figured the shortest way around was the bottom."
Reutimann's crew chief Terry Peters enjoyed this win as much as any other.
"He bent the right front wheel in the heat race, but the only one we had to
replace it with was bigger in diameter. Buzzie and I talked and we really wanted
to keep the front stagger the same. So we decided to leave the bent wheel on."
said crew chief Terry Peters. "It worked!"
When asked about his rising popularity this late in his racing career, Buzzie
was very modest.
"It's quiet an honor for the Reutimann family, all our lives we have raced
because that's what we enjoyed doing," said Buzzie "I raced all those years and
really you don't think about how many people's lives you've touched. Like when I
was injured at a race in New York and broke my back. All the notes, letters and
well wishes you get from fans that have never come down out of the grandstands
to see you. I mean, I was sure I'd met every fan I'd ever had, more than once
(he laughed), but in the last couple years it has been a great compliment to
feel the admiration and have them still recognize me for what I have done in
racing."
As we talked about son David's struggles in NASCAR's top ranks, Buzzie was proud
of the fact that there was some opportunities to give back.
"With him (David) being in the "Big Leagues" so to speak, it has given our whole
family a chance to give back to racing and our community," he said. "David's
charity golf tournament and auction raised over $100,000 last month."
His only frustration of the 2008 season was the fact that David had to leave the
#00 for the #44.
"One of my biggest disappointments was that he had to give up the double-zero,
but David wasn't happy about having to give up his points either. He and I
talked about it and the opportunity to go with UPS was a great one." Buzzie
said. "He's already got the car back in the top 35 and no one really realizes
how much pressure those driver's are under to make the show. When you have a
corporate sponsor like UPS, it's unbelievable. You can walk from the Nationwide
garage into the Cup garage and feel the tension rise."
Spending time with Buzzie, his sister Joy and the extended family that has
become Reutimann Racing, you're reminded that there's still fun to be found in
the pits on a Saturday night.
Buzzie closed the night with one last attempt to make you laugh, while sneaking
in a sales pitch for his son, "Don't forget we've got David Reutimann, UPS
shirts for sale at the trailer, too!"
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