By Ben Smith  

Dale Reutimann was one of the cutest little guys you would ever want to see.  Born in 1955, he was in the garage just about as soon as he could walk. The forth child and third son of Agnes and Emil Reutimann, Dale looked more like the Massey or mother’s side of the family with a head full of white hair.  When Dale could talk well and was in the garage close to race time, he would admonish whichever pit guy who went into the girls rest room to change into our “uniform”.  I can still hear him say, “Don’t go in da dirls”.

            With a father, two brothers and a sister who raced, how could Dale escape the pull of building and racing a stock car?  Wayne remembers that his first car was called a “Hobby” car and was a ‘53 or ‘54 Chevy.  They began Dale’s official driving career at a one quarter mile dirt track in Dade City, nine miles north of Zephyrhills.  Uncle Lowell remembers that Dale was fast from the very beginning.  It seemed that he never lifted from the throttle, but he was a little hard on brakes. 

When Wayne went up north to the lure of big-block modifieds, Dale was given Wayne’s old ride for a Mr. Hahn who had a ‘60 Ford, six cylinder “Early Model”.  The main track was the Golden Gate Speedway in Tampa.  He also raced at Auburndale and Lakeland. 

As expected, Dale was not only a good driver, but he was also a good builder.  Buzzie says that he was a “natural” both at the driving and mechanical end of racing.  In his later teen-age years, he had built and begun to campaign a ‘64 Chevelle “Late Model”. On the picture walls for Reutimann Racing are many pictures of Dale in cars built and campaigned by Dale, Joy and Mr. Reutimann and were ‘55 and ‘57 Chevys.  Both Buzzie and Wayne pay Dale the supreme complement.  “Dale would have been the best Reutimann”.  Now that is saying something!

It’s hard to know just what to say,
When one so young is taken away,
Far too soon he had to part,
His memory forever engraved in our heart.

We only knew him for a short while,
But the life he led made us smile,
He was so handsome and so rare,
Life as they say just isn’t fair.

Only the Lord knows why, on September 14, 1973, a drunk driver crossed the line on Hwy. 301 and ran head-on into the tow truck killing Dale, Dale’s friend Gordon Stone and Mr. Reutimann.

The memories are there, and as you will read in the Third Generation, 

“THE TRADITION CONTINUES”.