As it turns out I have a few spider cracks in that same place 0n the street side as well and they are directly above the curve in the inside wall of the small closet.
In as much as the anchor point for the top mechanism is in line with that I would suggest that the
weight of the top, perhaps aided by some rocking in the wind may have caused the problem.
Personally, I would look at opening a flap in the fabric on the inside of the closet or
Refrigerator compartment and slipping in a 4" wide strip of metal in there to distribute the pressure over a wider area, and then make a cosmetic repair on the outside.
Another idea that might help is to run a strip of metal under the lift support mechanism the full length of the roof opening, with additional attachments along the way, to take the
weight off of that one point.
Also, I think that I will not be as inclined to leave the top up unnecessarily in the future so as to prevent stressing that area.