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Photo by Johns Racing Photos
Stephen Allard drives Main Motorsports No. 35a to 8th place finish on Friday with GSC
By Gary Thomas
Chico, CA – July 29, 2008…An eighth place finish on Friday night at the Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico highlighted the final weekend of the Golden State Challenge Series season for defending track champion Stephen Allard.
For the very last weekend of the GSC season Allard hopped back aboard the H.A.M. Construction, JP’s Paint & Body No. 35a sprinter to do battle against an extremely talented field of race cars.
Opening night on Friday was sponsored by Specialized Parts Planet and saw 39 cars on hand for the next to last race of the King of California season. Allard came out early in the order on Friday and ripped off the fourth fastest lap of the night in qualifying. He then started sixth in his heat race and was running in a transfer spot until the final lap when he got into the turn two cushion and fell to fifth putting him in the B-main.
The 35 year-old racer lined-up third in the semi a made a terrific move on the start to steal the lead from little brother Jonathan and hold him off every step of the way to claim victory in the 12 lap race. “SA” then started from the sixth row in the 30 lap main event and brought the Lee Watson wrenched, Medi-Pro Billing JEI home in the eighth position after a hard fought feature.
Coming back on Saturday for the annual Tribute to Gary Patterson Allard drew a very late number and came out next to last in the qualifying order. With the drying track surface he was able to muster a 12.310, which placed him thirteenth overall in the 32 car field. The Chico driver went on to finish third in his heat race and then draw a front row starting spot in the night’s six lap dash.
Allard was looking for a strong starting spot in the main event with the good dash draw, but got out a of shape with just a couple laps left and fell to eighth, putting him in the fourth row of the main event. The track had widened up for the feature and made for some good racing when traffic came into play. Allard was battling among the top 10 when another car got loose in front of him, leaving the No. 35a machine nowhere to go and resulting in him getting upside down in turn two.
It was a tough way to end the weekend but “SA” will move on and look for good things at his next scheduled race, which will be on August 15 at Watsonville’s Ocean Speedway. For the night he’ll be back behind the wheel of the David Key Trucking No. 86 sprinter as he gets tuned up for the Johnny Key Classic. During his last event at the Ocean Speedway Allard drove the 86 machine to a 10th place finish with the Golden State Challenge Series on July 18.
For updates on future races for Chico’s Stephen Allard log onto http://www.stephenallard.com
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Stephen Allard wheeling the Main Motorsports No. 35a JEI around the Silver Dollar Speedway bullring. Photo by Graph X Designs
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