Ryan Crane Captures a Win in His First Start of the 2008 Season

Opp, AL 3/5/08- After coming off of a season ending Snowflake 100 win just last December at Five Flags Speedway, who would have thought that the Ryan Crane Racing team would have made as big as an impact as they have so far in the pro late model world? The wave of success continued for the twenty-four-year-old Florida native as he came from the back of the pack on several occasions to claim the Canebreak 125 pro late model race at South Alabama Speedway’s “Rattler” weekend.

Crane was crowned the winner after post race inspection found that the #96 of Stephen Davis was too heavy on the left side weight resulting in his disqualification.

“You never want to win like this, you would much rather win with a great pass or something like that but a rule is a rule, just like they penalized us to the rear of the field for rough driving, so we’ll take it. These pro late model races have been just as tough of competition as the supers and I think you will see even more cars and a higher quality of cars in the future so to be able to win a big race like this to start the year off is just awesome,” said Crane.

The 125 lap pro late model event looked to be more like an endurance race as nine cautions would wave before the halfway point. But for Crane it was a quick way to make his way to the front after having to start in the middle of the pack due to the car being setup for the night time cooler conditions. After battling his way through the slower cars, which seemed at times tougher than the faster ones, Crane made his way to the third position with just ten laps reaming after what played out to be the nights final of many yellow flags. The #10 Honda/Yamaha/Sea Doo of Panama Ford Fusion got around the David Hodges machine in what turned out to be the winning pass with just two laps to go.    

However, after Saturday’s pro late model win there was no time to dwell on a great victory as the Mike Garvey led team had a chance to make history as the only driver to win the pro late model and super late model race in the “Rattler” weekend. The chances looked favorable for Crane as he moved as high as the fourth position during the early stages of the 250 lap race. At lap seventy-five the teams had their chance to make adjustments and bolt fresh rubber on their cars under the mandatory competition yellow flag. After the field went back to green Crane made the decision to ride to help conserve his tires but it was a mechanical problem with the car’s drive train that struck the team around the lap 175 mark resulting in an early exit to what had looked to be a promising run.   

For more information on driver Ryan Crane and to sign up for the “Inside Ryan Crane Racing” mailing list visit his website at www.ryancrane10.com. For more information on sponsorship opportunities or media relations contact Chris Ragle with Tex Motorsports Marketing at 704-706-3666 or via email at cragle02@yahoo.com.