{"id":62694,"date":"2019-06-07T06:28:13","date_gmt":"2019-06-07T13:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=62694"},"modified":"2019-06-07T06:28:13","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T13:28:13","slug":"will-cronkrite-looks-back-at-a-career-among-race-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/will-cronkrite-looks-back-at-a-career-among-race-cars\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Cronkrite Looks Back at a Career Among Race Cars"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of car enthusiasts nicknamed the Coffee Clutchers meets for breakfast once a month to eat and bench race. The group has no Roberts Rules of Order, no dues, no newsletter – no nothing, except fun. Typically, 30-50 people show up for the breakfasts, which are usually held in small-town cafes and overwhelm the wait staffs.<\/p>\n

The April 2019 gathering was at Wolf River Diner, a restaurant with a \u201850s theme and a decorating motif that\u2019s half old-time rock-and-roll and half postwar \u201cfinmobile\u201d cars. The throwback items there include old 45-rpm records, spinner hubcaps and vintage license plates. Added to the mix in April was Will Cronkrite, who hails from South Carolina.<\/p>\n

\"Will
Will Cronkrite at the Wolf River Diner.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Will said he worked in NASCAR from 1970-1993 as a crew member, chief or car owner for Dale Earnhardt, Sr., Donnie Allison, Dick Brooks, Joe Frasson, Janet Guthrie, Bobby Issacs, Benny Parsons, Ricky Rudd, Greg Sacks, Neil Bonnet, Cecil Gordon, Greg Heller, Mark Martin, Elliott Forbes Robinson, Randy Ogden and Richie Panch.<\/p>\n

Cronkrite built show cars like Bill Elliot\u2019s Coors car that\u2019s in the Henry Ford Museum, Buddy Baker\u2019s Crisco car, Sterlin Marin\u2019s Kodak car, Richard Petty\u2019s STP Pontiac (now in the Smithsonian), Elliott Forbes Robinson\u2019s Jolly Rancher car, Mike Skinner\u2019s Precision Tune car and Earnhardt\u2019s Wrangler car. Most of the cars Cronkrite built wore one of two numbers: either 86 or 96.<\/p>\n

At the breakfast, Cronkrite gave out promotional postcards showing the No. 96 Cardinal Tractor Co. Ford, which was one of Dale Earnhardt\u2019s first NASCAR rides in 1978. The story goes that Charlotte Motor Speedway President Humpy Wheeler entered Willy T. Ribbs in the 1978 World 600 at Charlotte. Ribbs was a great driver, but after he skipped two practice sessions and got arrested for evading police after driving the wrong way down a one-way street, Cronkrite decided to replace him with Dale Earnhardt, Sr.<\/p>\n

\"Will
Cronkrite gave out postcards showing the No. 96 Cardinal Tractor Co. Ford.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cronkrite also provided racing cars and pit equipment for the 1982 Kenny Rogers film \u201cSix Pack\u201d and the 1994 Burt Reynolds movie \u201cStroker Ace.\u201d He has written an as-yet-unpublished book about vehicle chassis dynamics that includes fascinating stories of the old “research and design” days and the amazing ways that builders of past eras pushed the envelope when it came to following racing rules.<\/p>\n

These days, Cronkrite is involved with restoring antique Fords and operates Mantiques Restoration Services (www.mantiquesresto.com<\/a>) in Rock Hill, S.C. He is involved with both the Model A Ford Club of America (MAFCA) and the Model A Restorers Club (MARC) as a Fine Points Judge. He completed the restoration of a Model A wide-bed pickup truck that received 481 points out of a possible 500. That resulted in his winning “The Henry Ford” award, the “MARC of Excellence” award and the “Raymond H. Matthews” Award for commercial vehicles at a 2005 meet in Indianapolis, Ind.<\/p>\n

At a MARC meet in Grand Rapids, Mich. the pickup got 482 points and at a MAFCA National event in Mansfield, Mass., it garnered first place and 483 points. It also received an Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA) First Junior award in Ashville, N.C.<\/p>\n

Cronkrite attends MARC technical seminars and is actively involved in studying the details and authenticity of procedures used in the production of Model A Fords and their components. He is a member of the MARC Judging Standards Committee.<\/p>\n

\"Will
A model of Dale Earnhardt\u2019s Cardinal Tractor Co. car was made.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Will Cronkrite worked in NASCAR from 1970-1993 as a crew member, chief or car owner for many of the biggest names in racing.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":62696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3424,3470,5029],"tags":[4135,304,127,41,1632,1728,6868],"class_list":["post-62694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","category-news","category-racing","tag-dale-earnhardt-sr","tag-john-gunnell","tag-nascar","tag-news","tag-racing","tag-racing-history","tag-will-cronkrite"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/RJ185-Will-Cronkrite-Photo-03-min.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-gjc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62694"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62698,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62694\/revisions\/62698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}