PETERSEN MEDIA
– Saturday night at the Ocean Speedway in Watsonville, CA Willie Croft had his share of struggles in the feature event as he tallied an 11th place finish during the 3rd Annual Howard Kaeding Classic.
Timing in second quick on a very slick, and abrasive track during qualifications, Croft charged to an impressive heat race win that saw a late race, high-side pass propel him to the dash, where he started in the second spot.
Racing with Kyle Hirst on the second lap, Croft got a little out of shape, and laid his Tri-C Machine/JRI Shocks/NAAKE backed entry on it’s side as he restarted in the last row.
With minimal damage to his machine, Croft was able to work his way up to a fifth place finish, putting him in the third row for the feature event.
As the race got underway, the track began taking rubber in the early stages, and passing was at a premium, and Croft ran in the sixth spot, when the first caution of the race flew on lap 13.
With another caution flying two-laps later, Croft slipped up on the lap 15 restart, as he got out of the rubber, and fell outside of the top-10.
Battling with Peter Murphy, as well as Carson Macedo, Croft did everything he could to get up inside the top-ten, but it was too difficult to pass, and he settled for a disappointing 11th place finish.
“It was a frustrating feature,” Croft said. “We had a caution at the halfway point and I could tell my right-rear had lost some air pressure, and I got up out of the rubber, and dropped back several spots. I tried playing with my wing to see if that could help us get back forward, but we got stuck in line and couldn’t do much.”
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-34, Wins-5, Top 5’s-15, Top 10’s-21.
ON TAP: Croft and the Tri-C Motorsports team will be in action Saturday night at the Antioch Speedway.
STAY CONNECTED: Stay connected with Willie Croft Racing by visiting www.williecroftracing.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @wcroft29.