Photo Credit: Ashley McCubbin
After crashing during the first feature, Sean Cronan rebounded to post a third place finish in the second feature.
Cronan started off the night by time trialing third quickest with a lap of 15.127 seconds. Cronan spent the early portion of the 35-lap feature running third, till he made the pass on Tom Walters for second at Lap 8. A quick caution behind him set up a restart with him to the outside of Nick Goetz.
The restart fared his way as he put the No. 84 GreenSteelRoof.ca and Red Line Apparel Late Model out front on Lap 11 ahead of Goetz and Ryan Kimball. Cronan wasn’t able to escape the field, as Goetz was then able to get back alongside Cronan at Lap 13, taking the lead two laps later before the caution.
The restart saw a battle for the lead once again between Goetz and Cronan. This time, it didn’t fare out too well as Cronan got loose down the backstretch, getting into Goetz, sending the pair up into the outside wall. Behind them, other drivers would make contact with them, getting damage. As a result, Cronan was done for the first feature.
“I don’t really know what happened there,” he said. “I think partially it was part of that drift car that they had here, the rubber compounds are different and I got shoved up a bit on the restart. I think I got into that and it sent the car around. I watched two other cars tonight – the 25 (Mike Wilkinson) and (Mike) Bentley did the same thing. At least it wasn’t just me. Feel bad for everybody in the first one that got involved in that, again.”
Notably, it’s the second straight week Cronan has been involved in a big wreck as on June 11, he got turned into the turn three wall following contact.
“That’s two times in a row that I’ve been in front of the field looking out my windshield my passenger window looking at the field coming at me, and it’s not a good feeling,” he added.
Between the two features, the Cronan Motorsports team, along with help from other teams, put the late model back together for the second feature.
Starting in the 18th starting spot, he was able to move up to the 13th spot by Lap 13 in the event, followed by up to 11th at Lap 24. Continuing to avoid incidents and make some passes, the progress continued, with Cronan breaking into the top-five with four laps to go. He was then able to avoid an incident ahead of him, moving up another two spots into third with two laps to go.
Cronan got a good final restart, maintaining the track position to cross the finish line in the third spot.
“Wild night again at Sunset Speedway. All in all, I’m happy,” he said. “That was a race of attrition again. Finished third – I was just trying to save the car. We didn’t even take our tools to the infield; we were just trying to see if it was straight. It felt good so I started racing it. I guess all in all, I’m happy.”
Despite the adversity the team has faced so far this season, it marks the second top-five and fourth top-10 of the 2016 season.
“I say let’s get this string of bad luck out of our way and get back to doing what we do best, and that’s not wrecking stuff,” he commented. “Anyways, all in all, I’m happy.”
Sean Cronan and Cronan Motorsports thank GreenSteelRoof.ca and Red Line Apparel for their support this season. Additionally, the team thanks Mike McColl and the group at McColl Racing Enterprises for a great car, and an excellent experience fixing the car.
Press Release by Ashley McCubbin – ashleymccubbin17@gmail.com
