Forum: Northern California Sprint Car (go)
Moderators: StuDeedooo

Photos by Johns Racing Photos

Jonathan Allard finishes 7^th in Trophy Cup points

By Gary Thomas

Tulare, CA - November 19, 2007... It was an up and down main event Saturday night at the 14^th annual Trophy Cup for Jonathan Allard, but after all was said and done it finished with a ninth place result after starting 19^th, good enough to place him seventh in points to end the weekend.

The 14^th annual Trophy Cup at Tulare’s Thunderbowl Raceway kicked off on Friday night with a stacked field of 82 cars taking to the timing lights. Jonathan came out rather late in the qualifying order but was able to crack off a 13.724 placing the GT Trends, K & N Filters, Red Line Oil No. 0 seventh fastest.

Utilizing a great move early in the second heat race, Jonathan was then able to bring home a third place finish to transfer into the night’s 30 lap feature. Going into the preliminary main event he sat fourth in points and it placed him on the inside of row five for the start. A caution plagued 30 laps of action was seen and JA ended up eighth at the checkered flag. After points were tabulated from the opening night of action, the Williams Motorsports No. 0 sat fifth in the standings.

Coming back on Saturday the action got started off to a bit of a delay as the track surface was reworked following the first couple flights of hot laps. After the prep was done however, it turned out to be really good and the racing during the heat races was spectacular as a wide surface was seen that gave drivers multiple lines to work with.

Line-ups are based on points during Saturday night at the Trophy Cup and qualifying isn’t held so the racing began directly with heats. Jonathan was in the fifth and final heat race where he lined up eighth due to the high point drivers being inverted by eight for the heats on Saturday. There were no transfers from the heats as they were just used to add more points to the totals from the first night to decide the line-up of the totally inverted main event held later in the night.

Jonathan was aggressive early in the heat race and had made it up to fourth by the time a caution came out on lap one. The Chico native was on the hammer and after carving his way into third, JA closed in on the leaders. He hounded the top two for a few laps and just as he was getting ready to sweep to the high side of the pair in turn one, a caution came out slowing down the pace of the intense action. The restart saw Jonathan try a dive bomb in turn one on second running Roger Crockett, but going into turn two the Williams Motorsports Zero machine slowed to a stop with a rear wheel issue. After pitting and getting the problem fixed Jonathan came back out and charged back through the field to finish sixth.

The cornerstone of the Trophy Cup is Saturday night’s totally inverted 40 lap main event and Jonathan started it way back in 19^th place aboard the Sharp Insurance, Chris Jones Racing, Spy Otic No. 0. The surface started out very slick but had taken a considerable amount of rubber by the end of the feature. Jonathan got a great start and moved forward quickly, but then lost a few spots to be sitting in the 14^th position when a caution appeared at the half way point. Following the restart Jonathan moved forward again quickly and got up to ninth by lap 26, but once again he got loose exiting the second corner and fell back to 12^th by the time the final caution of main event came out.

The final nine laps of the main event saw Jonathan get into a groove and make some nice passes to finish out the 40 lap contest in the ninth position. When the final points were tabulated Jonathan and the Williams Motorsports team finished seventh in the final results out of 82 cars that competed during the weekend. Jonathan was definitely looking to finish a little higher but you can’t argue with a top 10 finish with a high caliber field such as the one that was seen during the 14^th annual Trophy Cup. The Ashley Smith tuned Maxim was fast all weekend long and it put a good end to the 2007 racing season. Jonathan ends the year with 12 wins, which marks the third straight season he and the Zero team have reached double digit victories.

The off-season is now here and we’d like to thank all of the sponsors and people who have supported us all season. We hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and we’ll look forward to a strong 2008 season. Visit http://www.allardmotorsports.com for news during the Winter.

-----------------------------

www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com

Jon Allard has become one of my favorite racers. He is always soo friendly after the races and very appreciative of his fans! I hope he has a fun offseason and I look forward to seeing everyone at the banquet or next season I like that hang loose picture!

Looking forward to the new Golden State King of the 
West series schedule! 

Winged sprintcars = the fastest and most exciting 
racecars on dirt! 

BIG JONATHAN ALLARD FANS HERE!!! I THINK ALISSA WORE HIS SHIRT OUT...... CONGRATULATIONS JONATHAN!!!!!