PETERSEN MEDIA
– Willie Croft seems to have a flair for the dramatic, and the Citrus Heights, CA driver was full of excitement on Saturday night as he overcame a blown engine in his heat race to fight back and score a seventh place finish in the feature.
Croft was fast out of the box, as he kicked off the night by stopping the clocks with a lap of 11.513 seconds, giving him the quick time award.
Starting fourth in the first heat, Croft made it a few laps until his Holey Smokes BBQ/Christian Stover Foundation/Butlerbuilt entry went up in smoke, and his heat race was over.
Back at the trailer, Croft and his twenty-nine team went to work as they quickly changed engines to get Croft out for the B-main.
Starting on the pole of the B, Croft quickly motored away from the field, as his fresh power plant showed plenty of power as he won the ‘B’ convincingly and put his Brown and Miller/K&N Products/FK Rod Ends machine in the fifth row of the feature event.
When the feature got underway, Croft was marred in the middle of the pack as he searched the high-side of the speedway for traction on the very technical track.
On the eight lap, Croft lost the handle on his machine, and did a quick 360, only loosing a couple spots as he kept his machine under power.
Slipping back to the 11th spot, Croft took advantage of two late cautions, as he worked his way up to the seventh spot at the stripe.
“We had a great car all night, it’s just unfortunate to lose a motor,” said Croft. “I have to thank everyone for the help getting our motor changed, and to end up with a top ten is a decent way to salvage the night.”
Willie Croft would like to thank Holey Smokes BBQ, The Christian Stover
Foundation, ButlerBuilt , Brown and Miller, Sander Engineering, FK Rod Ends, Hinchman Indy, Schoenfeld, K&N, Smith Precision Products, All Pro Cylinder Heads, Shark Racing Engines, A.R.T., M.R.O. Industrial Supply, Redline Oil, Kaeding Performance, PaPa’s Beef Jerky, Dan Olson Products, Vortex Wings, AIC Powdercoating, Les Schwab, and GUTS for their support in 2012.
ON TAP: Willie Croft will now return to action on Saturday July 21st at the Antioch Speedway in Antioch, CA.
STAY CONNECTED: Stay connected with Willie by visiting www.williecroftracing.com or following @WCroft29 on Twitter.