From Peterson Media
Making a late decision on when to open his 2013 season, Willie Croft elected to load up his Willie Croft Racing No. 29 machine and head to Tucson, AZ to compete with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour, and in doing so, he scored a seventh place finish on Saturday night, after getting off to a rough start on Friday.
“Driving for Clyde Lamar in 2013, I decided to make the trip to Tucson in my car, and I had an issue that set us back on Friday, but Saturday I learned a lot, and ended up with a pretty good run,” he said.
Prior to his Friday night heat, the Sacramento, CA pilot had an issue with his throttle linkage, and he exited the speedway, and did not make the call for the heat, earning him no points, and putting him in an up hill battle.
“We had a loose bolt in our throttle linkage, and that forced us to the pits, and unable to race,” he said.
Starting eighth in his Friday night B, Croft struggled to move forward aboard his Holey Smokes BBQ/Christian Stover Foundation/ButlerBuilt backed entry.
On the track that was coming in very late in the evening, Croft worked up to a sixth place finish, but would not transfer to the feature event.
Starting fresh on Saturday night, Croft and his Brown and Miller/Sander Engineering/FK Rod End backed entry lined up on the front row of his heat, which he proceeded to win, and put himself in the nights redraw.
“It was a great way to start our night after Friday, and our car was really good early,” he said.
Pulling the three pill, Croft would line his Hinchman Indy, Schoenfeld/K&N Products entry up in the second row of the 30-lap finale.
On what was a very tricky track, Croft got off to a slow start, as he slipped back into the eight spot, while battling against some of the top drivers in the country.
After an early stoppage, the race clicked off 25 straight green flag laps, and Croft was able to work into the seventh spot, as passing was very tough on this night.
Closing out the weekend, Croft would be pleased with his seventh place finish.
“Overall we learned a ton about our car,” Croft said. “It’s a good and a bad thing, because we wont run this car a lot, but it’s good in case we do get a couple open weekends.”
Willie Croft Racing 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 2013.
2013 BY THE NUMBERS: Races-2, Wins-0, Top 5’s-0, Top 10’s-2
ON TAP: With a race in Marysville, CA next Saturday, Croft will make a decision this week about competing aboard his car, if not he will debut with his Tri-C Motorsports team on March 8-9th at the Silver Dollar Speedway.
STAY CONNECTED: Stay connected with Willie Croft Racing by visiting www.williecroftracing.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @wcroft29.