CTS driver, Rick Crawford, will be returning to the Gulf Coast for the running of the 34th annual Snowball Derby at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida. The Snowball Derby is one of the oldest established short track races that is still in existence today. The race started in 1968 has run at the speedway every year since. Crawford, now a veteran of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, won the Snowball Derby in 1989. Many great NASCAR Winston Cup drivers have run laps at the half-mile, high-banked oval at Five Flags Speedway. Donnie Allison and Darrell Waltrip have entered and won the race at least one time each. Rick Crawford will be driving a Ford Taurus fielded by Richie Wauters. Wauters is no stranger to the Snowball Derby. He has fielded cars in the past for drivers such as Jeff Purvis and Scott Hansen. Wauters has also worked as crew chief in the CTS. This will be Crawford’s fourteenth appearance in the famed race. The #5 Taurus will be sponsored in part by Bay City Tool Company of Mobile, Alabama and by Milwaukee Electric Tool. Bay City was an associate sponsor of Rick’s truck team at the inaugural race at Daytona in 2000. Milwaukee Electric Tool, a major producer and seller of high-quality power tools, has sponsored Crawford’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team for the past two years. The team will comprise of crewmembers from Rick’s Truck Series team, Circle Bar Racing, as well as members from Richie Wauters Racing. Rick Crawford’s crew chief from the NCTS, Ray Stonkus, will be with the team as a consultant. Crawford has tested the #5 Ford Taurus at a track in Georgia in preparation for the Derby and was pleased with the results.(Circle Bar PR)(11-30-2001) UPDATE: Rick Crawford and the #5 Ford Taurus had a tough weekend at Five Flags Speedway. In the Snowball and Snowflake races Crawford was unable to finish due to mechanical failure or damage due to a wreck. Crawford qualified second for the 34th annual Snowball Derby. He drove the #5 Ford around the track at a blistering speed, but came up a few one hundredths of a second from taking the pole position for the race. “Starting the race on the front row is nice, but I wanted the pole,” stated Crawford. After battling the competion, avoiding wrecks and just flat out driving the wheels off of the #5 Ford Taurus, Crawford’s day ended on lap 230 when the motor seized up. Crawford had worked his way up to eighth position and was sitting in the catbirds seat, saving his tires and his car for the end of the race. In Saturday night’s Snowflake race, Crawford had the same “tough luck,” as he was knocked out of the race on lap 44 with a broken bracket near the rear axel. Once again, Crawford drove one of the fastest cars on the track. The accident happened when Crawford was driving into turn one and a car on the outside pinched him into the inside wall. One bright note of the weekend’s events, the Milwaukee Heavy Duty Pit Crew won the pit crew challenge. Led by “Gator” Morris, the team smoked the competition by a full two seconds. During four tire pit stops in the Snowball Derby, the team sent Crawford out either maintaining or gaining positions.(Circle Bar PR) Winner: Wayne Anderson’s previous two Snowball Derby races were good-bad. On Sunday, it was bad-good. Anderson came from a lap down to lead the final 35 laps at the 34th annual race before nearly 10,000 fans at Five Flags Speedway. “It’s just a big win for me,” said the Wildwood driver who won the NASCAR All Pro Series title this season. “A lot of big names have won it.” He earned $20,000 in his first Snowball Derby win. The previous six races had been won by repeat winners.(more at www.snowballderby.com (12-4-2001)
