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Photo by Johns Racing Photos
Jonathan Allard scores 4th at Placerville Speedway
By Gary Thomas
Placerville, CA – March 23, 2008…Battling amongst the first few cars during the main event Chico’s Jonathan Allard brought home another top five finish with a fourth place effort Saturday night at the Placerville Speedway.
The El Dorado County Fairgrounds track had been a home away from home for Allard over the last few years with five finishes of second or better in his last six trips to the bullring. Allard came into the night just 12 points out of the Golden State Challenge Series point lead and he kicked off the evening by qualifying a solid fourth fastest aboard the Williams Motorsports, K & N Filters No. 0.
Cool temps kept the red clay bullring hooked up for much of the night and after bringing home a fifth place finish in the opening heat race, the 31 year-old driver lined up in the third row of the six lap dash. The Ashley Smith prepared machine was on kill and Allard drove it hard the whole way to get into fourth early on and then put the pressure on Jason Statler for third. After taking a couple peaks Allard played it smart the final lap to bring home a fourth place finish, which earned him an outside row two starting spot in the main event.
At the waving of flagman Willie Williams’ green flag Allard ducked into third and drove a smooth and consistent race early in the going. Midway through the race however, things began to heat up as he stepped up the game and closed in on second running Tyler Walker, all the while having to fend off Tim Kaeding who was fast approaching. Allard and Kaeding, both former GSC champs, began to dice it up as the race wore on. The pair put on a great show for the fans as they navigated their way through traffic exchanging the third spot a few different times.
With about six circuits left in the 30 lap contest Allard was able to clear Kaeding and set his sights on Walker for the runner-up spot as both closed in on leader Mike Henry. Allard looked like he might have been able to complete the pass a number of times on Walker, but each attempt was unsuccessful on the tiny bullring. The final lap saw Kaeding close in and on the final corner he was able to slip underneath Allard to steal away the podium spot. Allard tried to cross back over but he didn’t have the momentum and finished about a half a car length behind Kaeding at the stripe.
The fourth place finish marked Allard and Williams Motorsports third top five of the season in four starts and moved the team into the runner-up spot in the GSC point standings. “I was happy with the run as it was a lot of fun battling up front with those guys,” Allard said. "We’ve had some good performance this year and we’ll move on to next week and see if we can pick up our first win of the season.”
Next week will find Allard and the No. 0 team compete on Friday night at the Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico for a special $3,000 to win show to kick off the Feather Falls Casino point season. Then on Saturday it will be down to the Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway for the fifth round of the Golden State Challenge Series season. For more news and info on Jonathan Allard visit http://www.allardmotorsports.com
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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