Sean Cronan picks up heat win, scores third place finish in feature

By: Ashley McCubbin – Sean Cronan kept his string of consistent finishes going on Saturday night at Sunset Speedway with a third place finish in the 50-lap feature.

Cronan kicked off the night by scoring his second heat win of the season, before finishing a solid fourth in the ‘Dash for Cash’.

When it came time for the feature, Cronan would start 13^th per the random draw involving the top qualifiers. The feature didn’t start off smoothly as Tom Walters would get sideways in front of him, resulting in Bruce Rankin spinning behind. Cronan would slow up to avoid getting into Rankin, though Paul Maltese would not get slowed up in time, getting into the back of Cronan, raising Cronan’s back wheels off the track. The tow truck crew would get all the cars separated and miraculously, no damage was done and Cronan was able to continue.

Due to not being involved as the initial cause, Cronan would get rejoin the field where he qualified for the complete result, though moved up a pair of spots with Walters moved to rear of the field. Once the green flag waved again, the action was hot all the way around the 1/3 mile oval as Cronan began making his way to the front, running eighth when the second caution waved for an incident on the backstretch.

Cronan survived the pair of restart-cautions that directly followed, moving into seventh with a pass on Dario Capirchio before the fifth caution waved. On the restart, the climb to the front continued as Cronan quickly got by Joshua Stade, before passing Steven Wilson on lap 20 to crack the top-five. He would then chase down Taylor Holdaway and pass him for fourth before the halfway mark.

With the leaders spread out as they battled through lap traffic, Cronan began working on tracking down the top three runners, getting to Dwayne Baker’s bumper for third before the caution flew with 10 laps to go.

On the restart, Cronan and Baker battled side-by-side with Cronan making slight contact with the outside frontstretch wall before clearing Baker with seven laps to go.

The third place finish marks Cronan’s second straight top-five finish following a fourth place finish last weekend, and his best finish of the season to date. In the three limited late model races this season, Cronan’s worst finish is a sixth that came in the Spring Derby 100.

Special thanks to The Lockeroom Sports Bar and Grill, McLaren Equipment, Craighurst Auto Pro, Spira Fire Protection and Fox’s Bakery and Deli for their continued support.

Be sure to join us at Sunset Speedway next weekend for another night filled with lots of action. Stay tuned to the Cronan Motorsports website (http://www.cronanmotorsports.com) for updates all season long. Also, be sure to join our Facebook Group (http://www.facebook.com/groups/194634000549656/) while following Cronan Motorsports on twitter @cronanmotor.