This message was edited on
March 09, 2008 at
10:40:25 PM by Gary Thomas
Jonathan Allard brings home pair of top 10’s at Mini Gold Cup
By Gary Thomas
Chico, CA – March 8, 2008…Jonathan Allard’s bid at a first Mini Gold Cup victory didn’t come to fruition, but the weekend as a whole turned out to be a success in the grand scheme of things as the Chico racer brought home a pair of top 10 finishes, including a fast time award on Saturday night.
The 22nd annual Mini Gold Cup at Silver Dollar Speedway saw one of the most stellar fields the event has seen in many years as a number of traveling drivers were intermingled with all the top local entrants in California. Opening night on Friday saw Allard qualify third fastest in the 65 car field aboard the K & N Filters, Red Line Oil No. 0.
A strong third place finish in his heat race put the 31 year-old driver into the dash where he moved from sixth to fourth to give the Ashley Smith prepared machine an outside row two starting spot in the 30 lap main event. At the waving of the green flag Allard settled into the third position as the racing groove was very tricky for drivers because of a thin ledge that had developed around the outer portions of the ¼ mile bullring.
Lap 12 saw Allard slip by Brad Sweet to claim the runner-up spot and he then set his sights on leader Paul McMahan. The driver of the Williams Motorsports No. 0 was all over McMahan for a number of laps before he was able to get bite down low and pull side by side with him in turn two on lap 21. McMahan was able to motor down the back stretch and retain the lead as Allard got a bit loose exiting the corner, which caused him to lose ground and eventually be re-passed by Sweet for second.
The 26th circuit saw the top three nose to tail before a yellow for Brent Kaeding waved on the speedway. The final four laps saw Allard give it hard run at Sweet but he couldn’t make it stick and had to settle for a third place finish. “We had a good race there with Bradley and Paul and I thought I had the lead at one point, but it just wouldn’t stick off of two,” Allard said.
Saturday night’s Mini Gold Cup finale featured a total of 64 cars and in qualifying Allard was able to blister the speedway in 11.820 seconds, setting fast time and being the only driver to turn an 11 second lap during the weekend. A third place finish in his heat for the second night in a row put him into the dash where he started from the front row.
Allard settled into third on the start behind Paul McMahan and Jason Meyers, but he quickly reeled Meyers back in and on lap three went flying by the No. 14 machine to take second. The pair battled it out over the final few laps and coming to the checkered Meyers was able to squeeze back by for the position. The third place finish put Allard on the inside of the second row for the 40 lap main event where he went on to finish in the seventh spot after loosing a few positions early in the race.
Jonathan Allard and the Williams Motorsports team will now look for season win number one next Friday at Watsonville’s Ocean Speedway during Round 3 of the Golden State Challenge Series season. Allard's best finish at Ocean Speedway last season came in June when he finished runner-up behind Brent Kaeding.
For more news on "JA" and Williams Motorsports log onto http://www.allardmotorsports.com
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