Amerikote now offers Thermoplastic Coatings.

Amerikote now offers Thermoplastic Coatings.

Thermoplastic coatings are a new powder-coating process that melt to form a fusion bonded coating, and then cool to produce superior physical properties from traditional powder coating. Traditional coatings use a process of applying powder material and heat to the melt the powder to the object.

Thermoplastic coatings offer excellent corrosion resistance. This property makes these coatings especially suited to protection of metal structures near the sea and marine environments.

AIC is the only coating facility in Northern California who provides thermoplastic coatings.  We will soon be posting a gallery of our thermoplastic coated pieces.

Need a new shirt or drink holdder?

New Willie Croft Racing merchandise is now available on the website.. check it out!! www.williecroftracing.com

Croft Conquers Marysville

Saturday night in Marysville, CA, Willie Croft returned to the track he competed at regularly early in his career and capped off a very strong night by parking his Holy Smokes BBQ/Amerikote/A.R.T. in victory lane for the first time in 2011.

After lining up outside of the first row, Croft quickly began working on early race leader Jonathon Allard, as they quickly pulled away from the field. The slicked off racing surface made passing ultra tough, but Croft continued to hound Allard until the caution waved of the fifth circuit.

After getting back underway via a double file restart, it was apparent the Holy Smokes BBQ No.29 was faster then the leader as he was now all over Allard. On the eighth circuit, Willie was able to slide under Allard, and quickly distance himself from the rest of the field.

After a long green flag run, that saw Croft reach lapped traffic, the 29 car picked through it to perfection as he was never seriously challenged for the top spot, until the caution flag waved on lap 21, bunching the field up for a double file restart.

As the race got underway, Croft was able to rocket away from the field, and roll the slicked off surface to near perfection. One final caution flew on lap 28, once again bunched the field up, setting up a green-white-checkered shootout, but Willy would not be beaten on this night as he cruised to his first victory of 2011.

“This was absolutely a great night all around,” said a jubilant Croft. “We qualified with a new track record, ran second in both out heat and the dash, and got out of here with our first KWS win of the season. I have to thank all my guys for everything tonight, and we will take this momentum to Chico, and the Bradway next week.”

To kick off the night, Willie timed his Amerikote/A.R.T. No. 29 in with the quickest lap in the history of Marysville Raceway Park. Croft then proceeded to charge through his heat after coming to a stop early, and finishing second, before charging from fourth to second in the dash.

Willie and his Amerikote Racing/team twenty nine crew will be back in action Saturday May 7, 2011 at the Silver Dollar Speedway for the annual Dave Bradway, Jr Memorial.

For more information, including the latest merchandise please visit www.williecroftracing.com.

Golden State King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series at Marysville Raceway Park goes to “Double Down” Willie Croft

Marysville, CA – April 30, 2011…After opening the night with a bang on Saturday at the Marysville Raceway Park Willie Croft ended the evening in that same fashion, making a pass of Jonathan Allard early in the feature and then cruising to his first Golden State King of the West Sprint Car Series victory of 2011. 

Previously in his career Croft had picked up Golden State 410 wins at Chico’s Mini Gold Cup in 2004 and at the American Valley Speedway in Quincy during the ’07 year. On Saturday the Sacramento gasser also set a new track record in qualifying at Marysville Raceway Park aboard his Holey Smokes BBQ, AIC Powder Coating, MRO Inc. No. 29 mount. 

“Wow it’s just great to come here and put this car in victory lane at Marysville tonight,” Croft commented. “We’ve always ran pretty good here and I have to thank everyone that helps us out. We made the decision to come and race with the King of the West Series this year and it’s been really fun the first four races.” 

Extremely gusty day-time winds had left the track surface very dry and tricky for the main event and when the green flag waved it was Dash winner Jonathan Allard of Chico getting the lead. Early on Allard looked to be in control of the 30-lapper, but would soon feel pressure from Croft, who hounded the rear bumper of the Williams Motorsports No. 0 sprinter. 

A couple of restarts over the first handful of laps saw Allard maintain control of the top-spot, but Croft quickly stepped up his challenges and on lap-eight he would slice to the inside and impressively steal the lead away. The driver known as “Double Down” then checked out from the field and built up a fairly large advantage, before the caution lights flashed on with 13-laps complete. 

It created a double file restart and when the field came back for green current KWS point leader Tim Kaeding of San Jose made the most of it and got to the inside of Allard to grab second. He then looked to close on Croft, but the Sacramento driver wasn’t having anything of that and once again pulled away from the pack. 

The remaining distance saw Croft work the track, as well as lapped traffic to perfection and despite a late-race double file restart he would go on to take the checkered flag and record a huge victory. In addition to setting fast time he also scored second place finishes in both his heat race and the dash to put together a strong evening of competition. 

T. Kaeding came across the line in second to tally his third podium finish in the first four races with the Golden State King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series. The wheel-man of the Roth Motorsports, HR Cattle No. 83 mount will maintain the KWS point lead going into Chico next week. 

“It’s good to be back up here on the podium” Kaeding said. “I want to thank Dennis & Teresa Roth and my guys for giving me great stuff and have to thank everyone for coming out tonight and supporting 410 sprint car racing in Marysville. We’ll go on to the Bradway next week and try to get another victory and put on a show for all you fans.” 

A wild final couple of laps in the main event ended with Placerville’s Andy Gregg shooting by a few cars and bringing the Bret Ervin Racing, 7-Industries No. 53 home in third place to score his first podium finish of the season with KWS. 

“It feels really nice to get on the front stretch tonight,” Gregg commented. “It’s an honor just to be up here with a guy like Tim Kaeding and I definitely want to congratulate my buddy Willie Croft for winning. We’ve been getting better each week and I’m excited for the Bradway next Saturday.”

After leading early in the main event Allard slipped to fourth at the conclusion, with Fremont’s Brent Bjork having a strong run in the Bjork Construction No. 7b to finish fifth and score his first career top-five with the Golden State King of the West Sprint Car Series. Bjork has been very impressive the past couple weekends and it has been great to see after suffering a dislocated elbow at the season opener. 

Princeton’s Mason Moore made his first Golden State King of the West Sprint Car Series start of the season and had a solid outing in the main event to finish sixth, even despite having to go to the rear of the field at one point. After winning the LCQ Campbell’s Brent Kaeding came home in seventh, with Chico’s Brad Bumgarner in eighth, Elk Grove’s Bobby McMahan in ninth and Yuba City’s Korey Lovell rounding out the top-10. 

Lovell received the PitStopUSA.com hard charger award by coming from 18th to 10th in the feature. It was a nice run for the five-time MRP track champion, who was utilizing a 360 power plant during the night. 

As mentioned Brent Kaeding captured the Last Chance Qualifier with Jonathan Allard winning the KSE Racing Products/ Grant’s Fine Art Dash. Allard, Andy Gregg and Bobby McMahan picked off the three 10-lap heat races. Willie Croft won the Grant’s Fine Art fast-time award by cutting a 12.111 to set a new Marysville Raceway Park track record. 

Next Saturday night May 7 the Golden State King of the West Sprint Car Series will head for its biggest night of the season, with the 21st annual Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial on deck at Chico’s Silver Dollar Speedway. The prestigious event is always one of the most special shows each year and next Saturday is expected to be an action packed night of racing as KWS makes its debut at SDS. To keep up with the latest happenings with the Golden State King of the West Sprint Car Series visit http://www.kwssprints.com or catch us on Facebook and Twitter.

As a note King of the West Tonight will switch to Thursdays starting this week. The show will continue to air live at 7pm pst each week at http://www.kwssprints.com/webcast 

------------------

Golden State King of the West Sprint Car Series Results - Marysville Raceway Park April 30, 2011

25 cars

Fast time Willie Croft: 12.111 NTR

Heat 1: Jonathan Allard, Willie Croft, Danielle Simpson, Kenny Allen, Brad Bumgarner, Dan Simpson, Brent Kaeding, Eli Deshaies

Heat 2: Andy Gregg, Mason Moore, Tim Kaeding, Billy Strange Jr., Mark Barroso, Mike Monahan, Doug Gandy

Heat 3: Bobby McMahan,Jason Statler, Evan Suggs, Brent Bjork, Nick Rescino Jr., Korey Lovell, Brandon Dozier, Pat Harvey

Dash: Jonathan Allard, Willie Croft, Andy Gregg, Tim Kaeding, Evan Suggs, Bobby McMahan, Brent Bjork, Mason Moore

LCQ: Brent Kaeding, Mike Monahan, Brandon Dozier, Korey Lovell, Mark Tabor Jr., Eli Deshaies, Dan Simpson, Pat Harvey, Doug Gandy

A-main: Willie Croft, Tim Kaeding, Andy Gregg, Jonathan Allard, Brent Bjork, Mason Moore, Brent Kaeding, Brad Bumgarner, Bobby McMahan, Korey Lovell, Billy Strange Jr., Jason Statler, Nick Rescino Jr., Evan Suggs, Kenny Allen, Dan Simpson, Brandon Dozier, Pat Harvey, Mark Tabor Jr., Eli Deshaies, Danielle Simpson, Mike Monahan

Amerikote race team summary

The Amerikote team was represented well at race tracks across northern california last weekend.

Ocean Speedway, Watsonville CA. King of the West Sprint Car Series:
Jason Statler - Quick time
Andy Gregg - 5th place finish


Giant Chevrolet/ Kings Speedway, Hanford CA. ASCS Socal Sprint Car Series:
Nick McColloch - 11th place finish

send us your race results or pictures of your projects to wcroft29@aol.com