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Photos by Graph X Designs
Jonathan Allard runs 10th in Knoxville 360 Nationals A-main
By Gary Thomas
Knoxville, Iowa – August 2, 2008…Competing on a half-mile track for the first time this season Chico’s Jonathan Allard capped off the 18th annual Knoxville Raceway 360 Nationals by scoring a 10th place finish in the 25 lap A-main event on Saturday night.
Allard and the Williams Motorsports team headed back to the Midwest this past week and began the trip by competing at the most famous dirt track on the planet trying to get some laps on it prior to next weeks 410 Nationals.
The 360 Nationals uses a three-day format that splits the field into a pair of qualifying nights on Thursday and Friday, just like the Gold Cup Race of Champions in Chico. Allard was part of Thursday’s qualifying program where there were 50 cars on hand and he kicked off the road trip on a good note by timing in third fastest in qualifying.
A fourth place finish in the third heat race put the Chico driver into the main event where the K & N Filters, Red Line Oil No. 0 started from the sixth position. As the green flag waved Allard moved forward quickly and shot to third by the second lap, but just as soon as that happened he was re-passed by a pair of cars in turn one to put him in fifth.
After a while he lost a few more spots and crossed the line in eighth at the completion of the competitive 20 lap contest. Although the main event didn’t go exactly how Allard would have liked, when points were tallied after Friday nights event he found himself sitting 10th out of a total of 111 drivers who were on hand for the 360 Nationals.
In addition to the 360 portion of the Nationals on Saturday night, the regular 410 class is also on hand each season and gives teams an opportunity to shake down their cars for next week’s big festivities at the Knoxville Raceway. Last season Allard finished 10th in the “Saturday before the Nationals” main event and hoped to duplicate that performance on Saturday.
In the 410 class only one lap of qualifying was given to drivers and Allard’s lap of 15.761 placed him 25th fastest, which missed the heat race inversion by just one spot. By missing the heat race inversion in the 410 portion of the night it put “JA” in the fourth row of his heat race where finished in the eighth spot to put him into the B-main. He then started fifth in the B-main and had a tough go of it as he slipped back to ninth by the finish to put an early end to the night in the 410.
Focus then shifted back to the 360 car and Allard was able to hang on right around the top 10 for much of the 25 lap feature. At the checkered flag the ’08 “King of California” brought the Platinum Powder Coating, JP’s Paint & Body Maxim home in the 10th position. It marked Allard’s second straight 10th place finish at the Knoxville Raceway 360 Nationals and he’ll look to put the track time to use as we proceed into the biggest week of the sprint car season.
This coming Monday night will find “JA” and Williams Motorsports make the tow to the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa for the 13th annual Front Row Challenge. Last year Allard set fast time at the Front Row Challenge and was up to third in the main event when issues caused by a flat tire put him out of the running.
After the Front Row Challenge Allard and the team will gear up for the “grand daddy” of sprint car racing as the 48th annual Super Clean Knoxville Nationals will go green on Wednesday night at the Knoxville Raceway. Last season the 31 year-old driver finished ninth in the C-main during the final night of the Nationals and he’ll look to put the zero sprinter into the A-main for the first time in his career next week at the $150,000 to win event.
For more updates from the Midwest trip for Jonathan Allard and Williams Motorsports log onto http://www.allardmotorsports.com
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www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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