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Photos by http://www.GraphXDesigns.com
Willie Croft scores podium finish with Civil War at Petaluma Speedway
By Gary Thomas
Petaluma, CA – September 15, 2008…Coming off a fairly solid showing at the Gold Cup Race of Champions during the previous week, Team 292 Inc. driver Willie Croft came back strong once again this past Saturday to score a podium finish with the California Civil War 360 Series at the Petaluma Speedway.
Croft went into the event in Petaluma after making the A-main at the Gold Cup Race of Champions for the second time in his last three attempts and hoped to start building some momentum for the special post season shows that are coming up. The Sacramento driver also had a strong run going during the Civil War Invitational on Wednesday night at the Gold Cup, when an incident with a spun lap car took away his shot at victory while running second.
Croft has always shown the ability to qualify strong and he did it once again at the Petaluma Speedway on Saturday by cutting a lap of 12.582 to place the Holey Smokes BBQ, LRB Manufacturing No. 29, second fastest in the 33 car field. By qualify so fast however, he was stuck in the third row of his heat race and with the track still being very narrow, yet quite fast, it made the start of the heat critical in the outcome. Croft didn’t get the kind of start he wanted and went on to finish in the fifth position, which put him into night’s B-main event.
The driver known as “Double Down” started from the pole in the 12-lap semi and proceeded to dominate the race to easily pick up the win and transfer the AIC Powder Coating, ART Enterprise sprinter into the main event, where he lined-up in the fifth position. A couple of early cautions slowed the early flow, but Croft got a break when the third place starter came to a stop and it bumped the No. 29 machine up to the inside of the second row. When the green lights came on again he moved up into the second spot after a handful of laps and tried his best to chase down leader Sean Becker.
As the race neared the halfway point Becker was stuck in heavy lapped traffic and it allowed Croft to rapidly close in on the rear of the No. 2sb sprint car, but the driver known as the “Shark” was perfect & mistake free navigating through the slower cars, which never gave Croft an opening to get by. A caution with less than 10 laps remaining then took traffic away and gave the leaders an open track to deal with. When the green lights flashed back on Croft held onto second until a fast moving Kyle Hirst was able to make the move by with less than a couple laps left in the race.
Croft remained composed and drove on to bring home a third place finish aboard the GH Plumbing, Direct Shopping Network No. 29. “We would have liked to finish a couple positions higher up but we’ll take a third behind Sean and Kyle,” Croft said. “We had a bit of motor problems during the night and to overcome them for a podium is a good feeling for the whole team.”
Team 292 Inc. driver Andy Forsberg went into Petaluma sitting third in the Civil War Series standings and looked for a solid night to try and gain points with the season quickly coming to a close. In qualifying Forsberg tried a little higher line than most and his quickest lap of 12.783 put the A & A Stepping Stone, GP Development No. 92, fifteenth fastest overall. “Mr. Excitement” then started from the inside of the second row in the third heat race and was able to bring home a third place finish to transfer directly into the main event.
Forsberg lined-up 13th in the feature and had a back & forth go of it as he got by a handful of cars in the early stages, but got a bit too high at one point and dropped some spots to put him back outside the top 10. The Auburn racer re-grouped and put the Basalite Concrete, L & W Stone No. 92 back on the high side to get by a few cars and proceeded to have a great battle with young Kyle Larson in the waning laps. Forsberg tried hard to get by on the outside, but couldn’t get the momentum to make the pass and settled for a ninth place finish at the checkered.
Next up for Team 292 Inc. will be Saturday’s lone California Civil War Series visit of the season to the Ocean Speedway in Watsonville. Forsberg hasn’t competed at the Ocean Speedway since bringing home a sixth place finish with the Golden State Challenge Series in July of 2005 while driving the Family Auto Service No. 98x.
More news and info on Team 292 Inc. drivers Andy Forsberg and Willie Croft can be found at http://williecroft.com/front.html and http://aamotorsports.net/
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Andy Forsberg will bring the A & A Stepping Stone, Red Line Oil No. 92 into the penultimate event of the Civil War season at the Ocean Speedway sitting third in the series standings
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