How many times in a racer’s career are they in position to win a championship? Well, it’s not often enough if you ask the racer. Ryan Crane was in position to take home one of those championship trophies as he headed to fifth and final blizzard series race leading the points over fellow competitors Justin Drawdy and third place Scott Carlson.
During the first practice Crane wheeled the Honda of Panama Ford Fusion to sixth fastest on the time charts, quicker than both Drawdy and Carlson who were 27th and 12th as the session came to a close. With the chance to start the event in the right direction, Crane qualified his Ford Fusion to eighth place, ahead of both Drawdy and Carlson yet again.
As the green flag flew on the 100 lap blizzard finale, Crane quickly made his way to the top five by lap twenty and remained there for most of the night until a caution on lap seventy-one brought the leaders to pit road for tires and fuel. Crane would enter the pits sixth but exited eleventh as the result of a bad pit stop. Now with fresh rubber on the tires, Crane jolted back within the top five when the caution flew again, this time for second place points sitter Justin Drawdy, erasing any hopes for a championship and leaving the battle between Carlson and Crane. It now looked like Crane had his championship when a lap eighty-four wreck collected fellow championship contender Carlson but unfortunately Crane would catch some of the carnage as well resulting in trouble for both.
As Crane pulled the Honda of Panama Ford Fusion to pit road the crew went to work but soon noticed that what looked to be a minor incident for Crane tuned out to be terminal as the car’s suspension had been damaged and resulted to an early exit from the race and a twelfth place finish. However, for Carlson it was the exact opposite, what looked to be an end to his night wasn’t as bad as it looked after he made repairs and returned to the track taking the checkered flag in the sixth position. The six position difference between the two tied both Crane and Carlson for the blizzard series championship but it was Carlson who was crowned the 2007 Blizzard Series champion as his two wins during the season over Crane’s consistency week in and week out gave him the upper hand in the tie.
“It’s tough to put into words how I feel about not winning this championship. I guess if you look at it from a positive side we are locked into the derby, which is good but it would have been great to win that championship, ” stated a frustrated Ryan Crane.
| 
|