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Photo by Johns Racing Photos
Third season win highlights weekend for Jonathan Allard in Chico
By Gary Thomas
Chico, CA – July 13, 2008…For weeks Jonathan Allard had been in position to win at the Silver Dollar Speedway and although he had run up front virtually every night the Chico driver hadn’t won at the track since April 18. That all changed this past Friday night as the former track champion took the lead on the 16th lap and never looked back for his third overall main event win of the season.
The event at Silver Dollar Speedway on Friday was the 15th point race of the Feather Falls Casino season and was sponsored by Moore Insurance Services Inc. and Scrubs Carwash. A very early night was planned to be kind to the many firefighters who are stationed at the fairgrounds and with a short field of 19 cars on hand it made that task fairly easy.
Allard began the evening by setting another fast time at the speedway and driving to a third place finish in the opening heat race. He then pulled the number eight pill for the inversion and with the track still being very fast and hooked up, he would have his work cut out for him. “JA” was up to the challenge though and made a number of exciting passes on the fast surface to put the K & N Filters, Red Line Oil No. 0 into the runner-up spot after about 10 laps were completed.
He then proceeded to have a great battle with leader Destiney Hays through traffic, which had the fans on the edge of their seats as the pair ran inches apart while navigating their way through the slower cars. Allard finally got the momentum he needed as he put the car on the top shelf in turn one and drove by Hays off the second corner. After this it was all over as he drove away from the field to easily win his second main event of the season at Silver Dollar Speedway.
Allard and Williams Motorsports then returned to the Silver Dollar bullring on Saturday for another Golden State Challenge event and were looking for a solid night to try and add some points onto the series lead. The 31 year-old racer kicked off the evening by qualifying second quick in the 27 car field before bringing home a third place finish in his heat race. Allard then scored a fifth place result in the dash to give the Platinum Powder Coating, JP’s Paint & Body Maxim a fifth row starting spot in the main event.
The track surface remained very fast and sticky once again, but had developed some rough spots on this night that gave many drivers fits and created one of the longest main events of the season in GSC competition. After a few laps Allard settled into third behind Tyler Walker and Tim Kaeding. The trio has seemed to be near the front all season long and as traffic came into play around lap 13 the action heated up as it became a three car battle for the lead.
“JA” waited patiently and after Kaeding took the lead on lap 17 he looked to make the move around Walker for second, but a red flag on the next lap slowed the action to a halt. When racing got back underway, Brad Bumgarner, who was running in fourth, had lost his brakes and tagged Allard in the rear on the restart resulting in the No. 0 sprinter spinning sideways and falling back to almost the rear of the field. He was able to regroup and pick up a few spots in the final laps to get back up to seventh by the finish.
Bumgarner was extremely classy and professional in his post race interview as he apologized for the contact and commented that he knows “JA” is in a point battle and felt bad for what happened, but honestly had no brakes. It was just one of those things and Allard was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Two weekends left before King of California is crowned:
The Golden State Challenge Series will now move on to a double-header weekend of racing at a pair of the smallest tracks on the schedule. On Friday night it will be off to the Ocean Speedway in Watsonville for the 19th round of action and will mark the fourth to last event of the GSC season. Allard finished fourth during the previous visit to the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds track.
Then on Saturday drivers and teams will make their way to the tight confines of the Antioch Speedway, which is located at the Contra Costa County Fairgrounds. “JA” drove the Sharp Insurance, Butler Built Performance No. 0 to a third place finish at the bullring on April 5 and will look to put it into victory lane this time around.
Allard will go into the weekend holding a point lead at right around 40 digits as the Golden State Challenge Series winds down with just two weeks remaining in the season.
More news and info on Jonathan Allard and Williams Motorsports can be found at http://www.allardmotorsports.com
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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