PETERSEN MEDIA
– Returning back to action with the Cancen Oil King of the West Series, Willie Croft scored a fourth place finish Saturday night at the Antioch Speedway.
With 28 cars in the pit area, Croft kicked off the night in style as he timed his Holey Smokes BBQ/Christian Stover Foundation/ButlerBuilt No.29 in with the fastest lap in qualifying.
Starting fourth in the first heat, Croft was able to work his Brown and Miller/Sander Engineering/FK Rod Ends backed entry up to the second spot at the finish comfortably putting him in the feature event, and with his qualifying time he also transferred into the dash.
A seventh place finish in the dash put Croft in the fourth row of the feature, and the Citrus Heights, CA driver had a very eventful main event.
As the race went green, Croft held back in the sixth spot as laps clicked off at a quick pace on the 1/3 mile track.
Narrowly avoiding a mid race fiasco that took out four of the front- runners, Croft was able to work up into the top five due to the incident.
In fifth, Croft nearly saw his night end abruptly as he and Andy Gregg got together late in the feature and ‘Double-Down’ thrilled the crowd with a 360-pirouette, and was able to remain under power.
Croft dodged a bullet as a caution waved for a different incident and he was able to hang on to his spot.
Croft would grab the fourth spot at the finish.
“It was a crazy feature again,” Croft explained. “A lot of crazy stuff happened much like it did when we were here back in June. Fortunately we were able to dodge some of the chaos and got out of here with a top-five finish.”
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 and his Twent Nine team will head to the Placerville Speedway on Wednesday night to take on the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour during the Second Annual Bullring Nationals.
STAY CONNECTED: Stay connected with Willie by visiting www.williecroftracing.com or following @WCroft29 on Twitter.