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Photo by Johns Racing Photos
Hard work pays off for Jonathan Allard & Williams Motorsports at Petaluma
By Gary Thomas
Petaluma, CA – June 7, 2008…Hard work, perseverance and a little good luck along the way is a good recipe for winning championships and this past Saturday night at the Petaluma Speedway current Golden State Challenge point leader Jonathan Allard raced to a top five finish during a night that had the makings of being a tough one for the Williams Motorsports team.
Allard went into the Petaluma Speedway holding a 46 point lead over Tyler Walker in the Golden State Challenge Series standings with eight races remaining until the King of California is crowned. The 3/8 mile clay oval has been a very good track for the Chico driver over the last few years as he’s won three times at the speedway and has scored top five finishes in all but one of the events at the track since joining Williams Motorsports in 2005.
The 31 year-old racer started the evening by clocking the third quickest lap in qualifying aboard the K & N Filters, Red Line Oil No. 0. It set him up to start in the third row of his heat race and this is when things went awry. As Allard was racing in the second corner on the opening lap, another car came up slightly and forced him to take evasive action, which resulted in him popping a wheelie and getting into the turn two marbles.
He tried his best to save it but was carrying too much speed and lambasted the turn two wall, severely damaging the right rear of the car and putting him out of the heat race. The Williams Motorsports team then went to work fixing the damage during the remaining heat races and were able to get it done in time for the night’s 12 lap semi.
As starter Willie Williams waved the green flag on the B-main Allard put the Sharp Insurance, Bell Helmets Maxim into the lead and would hold onto it all the way to pick up the win and transfer into the main event. Starting 10th in the 30 lap feature he dropped back a couple spots early on and with Tyler Walker running in second, it made things crucial for him to find a way to pass cars.
A lap three restart saw leader Tim Kaeding break and another car running in the top 10 get upside down, which moved Allard up to 10th and Walker up to the lead. Just as soon as it looked like Walker might have a shot to chop away at the point lead, things turned the opposite within a blink of the eye. As traffic came into play on lap six Walker got together with a lap car and spun to a stop. This now gave Allard the opportunity to maintain the series point lead and he didn’t let the chance get away.
“JA” got up on the wheel and moved forward on the challenging track that had become tough to pass on during the feature. Allard moved up to fifth at the midway point and ran conservatively over the final laps and brought the Platinum Powder Coating, Butler Built No. 0 home in the fifth position.
He was happy with the result and focused on hitting his marks knowing that a good finish could help out in the points. “I poked my nose out a couple times late in the race to try and get by Kyle Hirst, but I just kept telling myself to play it safe and focus on finishing,” Allard said. “I have to thank this whole team for working hard after the heat race crash and we did what we had to do tonight to maintain our lead in the points. This is what it takes to win championships and I’m very proud of our team,” he concluded.
Allard also competed on Friday night at the Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico where he brought home a close second place behind winner Sean Becker in the main event.
The Golden State Challenge Series will now take a couple weekends off before resuming action on June 28 in Tulare. Allard and Williams Motorsports are now scheduled to head up to the Skagit Speedway in Washington this coming weekend to get a head start on the 37th annual Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup, which is less than two weeks away.
Allard will be in competition next Saturday night during a local 410 point show at the Skagit Speedway as the team gets everything tuned up for the $25,000 to win Dirt Cup the following weekend.
More news and info on current Golden State Challenge King of California Series point leader Jonathan Allard please visit http://www.allardmotorsports.com
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