This message was edited on
November 20, 2007 at
12:41:52 AM by Gary Thomas
Photo by M & M Racing Photos
Stephen Allard finishes 5th in Saturday night feature at 14th annual Trophy Cup
By Gary Thomas
Tulare, CA – November 20, 2007…Chico’s Stephen Allard gave it hard run Saturday night at the 14th annual Trophy Cup and very nearly pulled off a victory during his very first time behind the wheel of the David Key Trucking No. 86. Stephen had only competed at the Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway one time this year prior to the Trophy Cup, so it was great for him to get down and be able to compete at the 1/3 mile clay oval.
The ’07 Silver Dollar Speedway track champ led more than half of the main event on Saturday night before getting passed by eventual winner Randy Hannagan, but Stephen didn’t give up and put on a show to give it a last gasp effort at the victory.
The Trophy Cup uses a point format to line-up the races on Saturday night and after not making the feature on Friday night, Stephen found himself on the pole of his heat race. The Chico veteran got the jump on the field and dominated the heat race to bring home the victory. Even with the heat win however, he was still forced to start deep in the field of the nights B-main and with time constraints in place, he would have to go fast from the get go.
Knowing that the whole 20 lap distance of the B-main might not be completed, Stephen got his elbows up and drove right on the ragged edge of the Thunderbowl Raceway clay. Passing two and three cars per lap, SA charged from 12th to 5th by lap four and was up to third on lap six. When a red flag situation occurred on the eighth lap, race officials decided to throw the checkered flag so it would be possible to get the whole 40 laps of the A-main event completed as scheduled.
The Saturday night main event at the Trophy Cup is totally inverted and with Stephen being 24th in points going into it, he started from the pole. At the waving of Willie Williams’ green flag Stephen charged into the lead, but soon had to deal with former WOO regular Brandon Wimmer. Stephen ran his own race and remained focused as Wimmer applied heavy pressure to the rear of the David Key Trucking No. 86. Near disaster occurred however, as Stephen got into the rear of a car while trying to put it a lap down. The Silver Dollar track champ made a great save though and continued on with the lead.
Following a caution on lap 20 Wimmer climbed the fence and flipped in between turns one and two, which put him out of contention. This moved WOO driver Randy Hannagan into the runner-up spot and on a restart with 14 laps left in the feature, he was able to get around Stephen for the lead. As the 11 o’clock curfew loomed ahead, the race wound down and as the white flag was waving, Stephen had a run on Hannagan. While the former King of California was dealing with traffic, SA drove it in hard up top in the final set of turns, but it didn’t stick as he spun a 360 and kept going to cross the line in fifth.
Stephen was happy with the performance from the night and was in a good mood following the race. “We weren’t in the running for points so I figured I’d try and pull something out of the bag on the final lap,” the Chico native said. “I thought I might be able to make it stick, but it got loose and I spun around and thankfully I was able to gas it and keep going. I just got to thank Davey Key for the opportunity to run the car this weekend.”
With the season now over Stephen and the 1m Racing team will be honored this Saturday night during the John Padjen Motorsports awards banquet at the Feather Falls Casino in Oroville. The Silver Dollar Speedway track championship was the first solo title in Stephen’s career and it should be a good night for him to be in the spotlight. For updates from the off-season log onto http://www.stephenallard.com
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Photo by Johns Racing Photos
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