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Jonathan Allard to begin season at 22nd Mini Gold Cup
By Gary Thomas
Chico, CA – March 4, 2008…The old saying “time flies when you’re having fun” certainly applies to Jonathan Allard as the Chico native will begin his fourth season of competition for Oakhurst based car owner Morrie Williams during this weekend’s 22nd annual Mini Gold Cup at Silver Dollar Speedway.
The Mini Gold Cup will be the season opener for the traveling Golden State Challenge King of California 410 Sprint Car Series and will feature a talent laden field of winged warriors. Allard brought home a third place finish behind Tim & Brent Kaeding during the final night of the Mini Gold Cup last season, which marked his career high finish in the event.
The opening night main event at last years Mini Gold Cup also saw him lead all 30 laps to pick up the A-main victory in front of his home town crowd. “It was a little disappointing to finish third last year after winning the opening night, but you have to happy anytime you can get on the podium in a big race like this,” Allard said. “The Mini Gold Cup is no doubt one of the premier events on the west coast and one we’d like to get on our resume. With all the heavy hitters set to compete this weekend, it would mean a lot if we could go out on Saturday and pick up that 6 grand.”
Allard is coming off a season that saw him capture eight overall victories at Silver Dollar Speedway and score a finish of seventh place in the track point standings, despite running only 14 of the 18 Feather Falls Casino point events. “Silver Dollar has always been home to me and whenever we sign in at the back gate, we know we’re going to be fast,” Allard commented. The 2002 track champion also finished fifth in the Pacific Sprint Fall Nationals, an event for winged 360 sprinters that saw 90 cars in competition at the track.
Perhaps his most impressive weekend of the season at the ¼ mile bullring last year however, came during the 54th annual Gold Cup Race of Champions. The 31 year-old came into last years Gold Cup trying for years to win a World of Outlaw race and on opening night he came out swinging with a strong evening of action.
After qualifying seventh quickest in the field, Allard proceeded to dominate his heat race after having to fend off Outlaw champ Donny Schatz on a couple of restarts. He then drew the pole for the dash and walked away from the field to pick up the win before going on to dominate the 30 lap A-main for his first victory with the traveling series. “Winning that Gold Cup prelim last year was really a dream come true,” the former GSC King of California said. “I’ve wanted to get an Outlaw win for so many years and to get one at the Gold Cup was pretty cool.”
Allard then came back and sat on the front row of the 40 lap A-main on Saturday night. After battling among the top few cars early in the race, Allard slid Sammy Swindell for second on a lap 15 restart and set his sights on leader Joey Saldana. The driver of the Kasey Kahne Racing machine had dominated the race up till that point, but on lap 18 Allard began to quickly close in and on lap 21 he slid underneath Saldana to claim the lead.
Unfortunately a red flag happened shortly thereafter and the driver of the Williams Motorsports No. 0 was forced to move back to second for the restart. “It was tough to have to go back to second behind Joey for that red flag, because these guys will very rarely make a mistake to give another opportunity,” Allard said. The rest of the race saw the Chico native chase Saldana and run in the top three until a flat tire on the final lap pushed him back to a 10th place finish.
Despite the Gold Cup misfortune it was a very good season for Allard and the Williams Motorsports team that also included a tie for fourth place in the final Golden State Challenge Series standings. Along the way he won four main events, including his first career triumph at the Calistoga Speedway, which came in what looks to be the final Tribute to Gary Patterson at the historic ½ mile dirt track.
Allard also had a strong showing at the Dirt Cup in Washington where he was attempting to become the first driver in the 36 year history of the event to win three years in a row. Starting on the outside of the front row during Saturday’s finale, “JA” led 34 straight laps until an incident in lapped traffic just six laps shy of the checkered took away his bid at a three peat. He went on to finish second, but the disappointment was apparent for everyone on the team as it looked like he had the race in hand and was going to pull off the three-peat as the race wound down.
This season Allard and the Williams Motorsports team will look to lock down as many wins as possible and reel in the ones that got away this past season. The three-time winner of the Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial looks forward to this season with anticipation, “I’m just really looking forward to getting the season started. It’s been a long winter and even though I went to Australia we’ve been eagerly anticipating the start of the year in California.”
The 22nd Mini Gold Cup goes green this Friday night March 7 and concludes Saturday March 8. All seating will be general admission during the weekend with adult tickets costing $25 on Friday and $30 on Saturday. A number of big name drivers are set for the event making it the most stacked field the Mini Gold Cup has seen in a years. For more info on the event log onto http://www.johnpadjenmotorsports.com
For more info on Chico, CA driver Jonathan Allard visit http://www.allardmotorsports.com
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