PETERSEN MEDIA
With the King of the West Series cancelling their scheduled race at the Reno Tahoe Fernley Speedway early last week, Willie Croft and his Tri-C Motorsports team opted to bolt in their 360ci power-plant and head to the Placerville Speedway on Saturday night for the Mark Forni Classic, where they scored a second place finish.
Croft and his Tri-C Machine/JRI Shocks/NAAKE machine were strong most of the night, and it started off in time-trials, where Croft was the quickest car, and earned fast time honors.
Track prep before his heat race, did not work out for the Sacramento, CA driver, as he missed a transfer spot, and found himself on the pole of the night’s B main event.
In the B, Croft simply dominated, as he had eight lapped cars in between himself and second place, showing all the A Main cars he would indeed be a factor.
Starting 11th in the feature event, Croft took advantage of a few cars getting tangled up in front of him on the first two attempted starts.
When the race finally went green, Croft was strong, as he worked up into the top-five.
On the eighth lap, Croft got into the drain at the bottom of turns one and two, and cut down his left front tire, but Croft stayed hard on the throttle, and remained in action.
Working the bottom of the speedway, Croft was able to get around Andy Forsberg, and Justin Sanders to take over the second spot on the 17th lap, and began chasing after Andy Gregg.
Giving Gregg all he could handle with just three inflated tires, Croft wound up crossing the stripe in the second spot.
“We had an awesome racecar, and had a ton of speed all night,” Croft said. “We got into that drain in turn one that so many people have and cut down the left front, but stayed on the track, and were stuck on the bottom, but had a great night. Congrats to Andy Gregg and his team, they did a good job tonight.”
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-38, Wins-5, Top 5’s-18, Top 10’s-24.
ON TAP: With the King of the West Series on an extended break, Croft and his team will head back to the Placerville Speedway on Saturday night.
STAY CONNECTED: Stay connected with Willie Croft Racing by visiting www.williecroftracing.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @wcroft29.