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Photo by Steve's Racing Photos
Jonathan Allard takes Golden State Challenge Series point lead at Antioch
By Gary Thomas
Antioch, CA – April 5, 2008…Continuing his strong pace at the start of the year Chico’s Jonathan Allard brought home a podium finish Saturday night in Antioch and by doing so took over the top spot in the Golden State Challenge King of California Series point standings.
Allard and the Williams Motorsports team started off the weekend by competing in the opening Feather Falls Casino point race at Silver Dollar Speedway. A solid field of 29 sprint cars signed in at the back gate and Allard clocked the fourth fastest time in qualifying. He then put on an impressive charge in his heat race to pick up the win from sixth aboard the K & N Filters, Red Line Oil Maxim.
The 31 year-old driver started from the second row in the 25 lap feature and had some great battles in the top five early on in the race. The Silver Dollar Speedway clay had remained hooked up like the Chico of old and Allard moved into third on the ninth circuit before setting his sites on the top two. Just as the top few cars were nose to tail in traffic a red flag appeared on the speedway.
Following the red flag Allard had company on the restart from San Jose’s Tim Kaeding and the pair ran side by side down the backstretch, but a lapped car was directly in front of them in turn three and neither gave an inch. What resulted was both making contact with the lapped car and Allard was unable to keep the motor lit. He then went to the work area and got back out on the speedway and was making progress when another car contacted his left front tire. JA spun to a stop and it put an end to what looked like a promising night.
Allard and the team put Chico behind and headed for the Antioch Speedway on Saturday, which marked the sixth race of the Golden State Challenge Series season. A total of 25 cars showed up at the quarter-mile bullring and the former King of California kicked off the night by timing in second quick behind Tim Kaeding. Allard then ran a strong heat race for the second night in a row to pick up the win and then proceeded to finish second in the six lap dash.
Starting from the front row in the main event Allard blasted into the lead at the waving of the green flag, but a red came out after just one lap could be completed. On the restart however, JA slid a little high in turn three, which allowed Tyler Walker and Brent Kaeding to get by. He lost a bit of ground to the top two, but was able to catch back up around lap eight when traffic came into play. A couple times it looked like Allard might be able to make the move around Walker and Kaeding, but a yellow on lap 12 gave the leaders an open track.
The bottom groove was the place to be and Allard motored on over the final 18 laps to bring home a third place, tying his best result of the season with GSC. “We had a good car and I can’t thank this team enough,” the driver of the Chris Jones Racing, Sharp Insurance No. 0 said. “I just gave it away over in turn three early on as the track was real tough to make moves on in the main event. We’ll take it though and come back next week and try to get ‘em.”
The Ashley Smith prepared machine was fast all weekend long and Allard has now finished in the top five at all but one event with the Golden State Challenge Series this season. The third place finish in Antioch allowed Allard to take over the GSC point lead as the series heads for Watsonville’s Ocean Speedway next Saturday. JA and the Williams Motorsports team will go into the event with a nine point lead over second place Tim Kaeding and a 41 point cushion over third place Mike Henry.
In addition to the event in Watsonville Allard and the team will be back in Chico on Friday for the rescheduled Tribute to Bill Brownell night that will pay $3,000 to win.
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