From Peterson Media
During the inaugural running of the ‘Tribute to Baylands’ it was only fitting that Willie Croft picked up his fourth win of the year driving the Tri-C Motorsports No.3c, a car that visited victory lane on many occasions at the Baylands Raceway Park.
“Our goal was to win four or five race this year, and to have four right now is really special,” Croft said. “This racecar is awesome, and I’m so excited to get the Lamar’s in victory lane again.”
Taking to the 3/8’s black gumbo of the Petaluma Speedway, Croft opened his night up by timing his Tri-C Machine/JRI Shocks/NAAKE backed entry in fifth fastest.
Lining up in the second row of his heat, Croft held his position in the third spot on the greasy track, and maintained, putting him in both the dash and feature event.
Finding himself on the front row after the draw, Croft would score a second place finish in the dash, and put his Holey Smokes BBQ/Christian Stover Foundation/ButlerBuilt backed entry on the front row for the 30-lap A main event.
When the green lights flickered, Croft got the jump on Jonathan Allard, and simply checked out on the field.
Pacing the field, Croft was slowed on the fifth lap as he got into traffic due to a red flag.
The ensuing restart saw Jonathan Allard get a great jump, it turned out to be too good, but Croft slipped into the second spot, and went to work on the reigning series champion.
On the eighth lap, Croft got under Allard to grab the lead spot, and worked the tacky track to near perfection.
A pair of late restarts did not phase the Sacramento, CA driver as he was flawless in picking up his second series win of the year, putting him 21st on the all time series win list as it was his fifth career win.
“My guys worked their buts off night in and night out,” he said. “I’ve never driven a car this good, and hopefully we can move on to Reno, NV next week and do it again.”
Friday night, Croft and his team were in action at the Silver Dollar Speedway, where he and Allard opened their weekend up again by putting on a battle for the lead.
Jumping out to an early lead on the lightning fast track, Croft led the first half of the race, until he slipped back to the second spot behind Allard in lapped traffic, and finished in the second spot.
“Overall it was a really good weekend for this team,” he said. “To end up with a pair of top-two finishes is awesome.”
With his second place finish on Friday, Croft sits second in track points, 15 markers behind Sean Becker.
The Tri-C Motorsports team would like to thank Tri-C Machine, JRI Shocks, NAAKE Suspension, Holey Smokes BBQ, The Christian Stover Foundation, ButlerBuilt, Arai, Brown and Miller, Sander Engineering, FK Rod Ends, Hinchman Indy, Schoenfeld, K&N, Smith Precision Products, A.R.T., Kaeding Performance, Dan Olson Products, Vortex Wings, AIC Powdercoating, and GUTS for their support in 2013.
2013 BY THE NUMBERS: Races-19, Wins-4, Top 5’s-8, Top 10’s-11.
ON TAP: Croft and his team will now head to the Reno Tahoe Fernley Speedway in Fernley, NV this Friday and Saturday for a two-night KWS event.
STAY CONNECTED: Stay connected with Willie Croft Racing by visiting www.williecroftracing.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @wcroft29.