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Photo by Johns Racing Photos
Jonathan Allard rebounds for runner-up finish with Golden State Challenge Series
By Gary Thomas
Chico, CA – July 5, 2008….Following a tough ending to Friday night’s main event at the Silver Dollar Speedway, Chico’s Jonathan Allard and Williams Motorsports came back on Saturday and hung tight to score a second place finish and extend the Golden State Challenge Series point lead in the process.
The 4th of July weekend began with another Feather Falls Casino point race on Friday, which featured a firework show to conclude the event. The night marked Allard’s first time competing aboard the Williams Motorsports machine during a 4th of July show at the Silver Dollar Speedway and looked to be on way to a sure victory until disaster struck just seconds before the checkered flag.
The night started off with Allard setting his sixth fast time of the season at his home track, before driving the K & N Filters, Red Line Oil No. 0 to a second place finish in the opening heat race. The former King of California then drew the number six pill for the inversion to put him on the outside of the third row in the main event. Allard quickly moved up into second as the Ashley Smith prepared Maxim was on a rail right from the get go.
“JA” then chased down early leader Bud Kaeding and after hounding him for a few laps, made the move in traffic to take command of the race on lap 11. After this he did his job through traffic and was able keep Kaeding at bay as the laps ticked off. Allard continued to be in command as the white flag was in the air and nobody was going to catch him on this night, but that however, was until a freak accident occurred in the fourth corner.
As Allard was rounding the final set of corners a few cars got together in front of him, leaving nowhere for the No. 0 machine to go and ending with him making contact with the spun cars and coming to a stop with a brief fire flaring up. He quickly jumped out of the car, but it was extremely frustrating as it seems like the team has been snake bitten during the Friday night point shows this season at the Silver Dollar Speedway.
Putting the night behind him Allard came back on Saturday looking to maintain his lead in the Golden State Challenge Series point standings during the 17th race of the season. He proceeded to qualify third fastest in the 37 car field and bring home finishes of fourth in the heat and second in the dash to put him on the front row of the 30 lap main event.
The track surface was well prepared as it had slicked off in spots and formed a big curb up top creating a pair of different racing grooves. At the waving of the green flag Allard fell to third and quickly found the high line to his liking. Early on a number of cautions slowed the flow of the 30 lap feature, but once the action really got going some great racing was put on for the fans.
Allard battled it out on the treacherous surface as he tried his hardest to run the cushion during the majority of the feature. By the time a caution came out on lap 16 he had fallen back to sixth, but when the green lights came back on he got his elbows up and charged forward with authority. The 31 year-old was able to make passes of Kyle Hirst, Tyler Walker and Bud Kaeding to move the JP’s Paint & Body, Platinum Powder Coating No. 0 up to the third position.
The final 10 laps saw Allard use traffic to move in on front runners Brad Sweet and Brent Kaeding to try and make it a three car battle for the lead. He closed up on Kaeding as the white flag waved and as the pair came around for the checker Allard made a great move to slice underneath the black 69 to take away second as they crossed the stripe. “We definitely wanted to win tonight but we’ll take a second and keep on trying to put this thing in victory lane,” Allard said.
It was a great way to rebound after the disappointment on Friday and turned out be a good point night as Walker slipped back to seventh by the end and allowed Allard to add on more points to his lead with just five races remaining in the season. Next Saturday night will find the Golden State Challenge Series in competition once again at the Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico. Allard will go into the event with the point lead at just around 50 and will be gunning get into victory lane with the series come Saturday evening.
For news, pictures and more on Jonathan Allard and Williams Motorsports visit http://www.allardmotorsports.com
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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