PETERSEN MEDIA
– Willie Croft spent his weekend competing locally at the Silver Dollar Speedway on Friday night, and at the Placerville Speedway on Saturday night. Though he showed tremendous speed both night, Croft was not able to record the finishes he would have liked at either track.
On a weekend that saw the mercury skyrocket into the triple digits, Croft and his Tri-C Motorsports team braved the elements and headed to the Silver Dollar Speedway on Friday night.
With 23 cars signed in for the inaugural running of the David Tarter Memorial at the Silver Dollar Speedway, Croft timed his Tri-C Machine/JRI Shocks/NAAKE backed entry in eleventh fastest.
Heat race action saw Croft quickly jump into the second spot, as he chased after Jonathan Allard, but a broken birdcage on his rear-end forced Croft to bring his machine to a stop, and he was bound for the B-main.
Croft’s second place finish in the ‘B’, put him in the sixth row for the 35-lap feature event, and Croft was very good through most of the feature event.
Working his way though the field, Croft found himself all the way up in the fourth spot with just nine laps remaining, but the final restart did not go as he had hoped, and Croft struggled to keep his machine straight and slipped back to 10th at the stripe.
“We had an awesome car in the feature, and on the last restart I pulled my wing back a touch to try and gain some spots, but it started bottoming out our car and that’s where we lost so many spots,” he explained. “We didn’t go there to run fourth, so I tried something that didn’t work, and at least we learned from it.”
Saturday night, Croft and hi team returned to the Placerville Speedway, and Croft kicked his night off in style as he set the standard in qualifications.
On a very narrow track during heat race action, Croft’s sixth starting spot was less than desirable, as he was able to get inside a transfer spot, and was forced to make a stop in the B-Main for the second night in a row.
Running second to Andy Forsberg, Croft lined his Holey Smokes BBQ/Christian Stover Foundation/ButlerBuilt backed machine up in the fift row of the feature event.
Hoping to have their car ‘free’ enough to work through the field, the Tri-C Motorsports team got the car a little too free, and Croft had his hands full during the feature.
Hanging to very tough car to drive, Croft would end up with an 11th place finish.
“We took a chance on our car before the feature, and went a little too far,” he said. “We knew we had to be able to get through traffic, but we just missed it, and really made for a tough night.”
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-24, Wins-4, Top 5’s-11, Top 10’s-15.
ON TAP: Croft will follow the California Civil War Series to the King’s Speedway in Hanford, CA on Saturday night.
STAY CONNECTED: Stay connected with Willie Croft Racing by visiting www.williecroftracing.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @wcroft29.