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Good night turns sour for Jonathan Allard following multi car wreck/Busy stretch upcoming
By Gary Thomas
Chico, CA – August 22, 2008…Chico, CA’s Jonathan Allard looked to be on way to a good night of racing at the Silver Dollar Speedway on Friday until being involved in multi car wreck, which ultimately put him out of contention during the final main event of the Feather Falls Casino weekly 410 season.
Returning to California racing action on Friday night at the Silver Dollar bullring, Allard and the Williams Motorsports team were looking to get laps at the track while testing out a new car prior to the 55th running of the Gold Cup Race of Champions.
While celebrating his 32nd birthday on Friday Allard kicked off the final Chico point race of the season by turning an 11.665 in qualifying to place the K & N Filters, Platinum Powder Coating machine second fastest out of 30 cars. Following qualifying however, an engine change was needed for the No. 0 and after swapping motors Allard had a lightning fast car in his heat race and brought home a third place finish.
When fast qualifier Tyler Walker pulled the number eight pill for the inversion it then put Allard in the fourth row for the 25 lap main event. The track was racy, yet very fast which made for some exciting, action packed moments throughout the pack on the quarter-mile speedway. Allard's Ashley Smith tuned sprinter got faster as the race went on and just when it looked like he was beginning to make his move towards the front, disaster occurred.
The driver running second had gotten together with a lapped car and sat sideways in turn two, resulting in a big log jam that ended with a number of cars getting together and being put out of the race, with Allard being one of them. All of the drivers were running very close together, making it nearly impossible for everyone to avoid the pileup and it was a dramatic turn of events as it put a number of top drivers out of the running.
Ready to embark on busy stretch:
Allard and the Williams Motorsports team will now make the haul north to compete next Friday and Saturday with the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaw Sprint Car Series at the Skagit Speedway in Alger, Washington. The Chico driver has had a lot of success at the 3/10 mile clay oval over the last few years as he scored back-to-back to victories at the Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup in 2005 and ’06, as well as a runner-up finish in ’07.
This season Allard won the second prelim night at the Dirt Cup, but got upside down as he was navigating through lap traffic while running in the third position during Saturday's 40 lap main event. The two-time King of California is looking forward to getting back to Washington to try and get some redemption after the disappointing Dirt Cup. “The Dirt Cup certainly didn’t end how we wanted it to and are definitely ready to get back up to Skagit to try and put this car towards the front of the field,” Allard said. “I love running Skagit and we’re always fast there so we can’t wait till Friday night to try our luck running with the Outlaws.”
After the two-night show in Skagit Allard is scheduled to head over the Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash to compete in an ASCS Northwest 360 Series event on Sunday night August 31. On Monday night Sep 1 “JA” will remain in Elma to run with the World of Outlaws Series, before the team makes its way south to compete in another Outlaw event on Tuesday night at the Cottage Grove Speedway in Oregon.
All of the many events in this span are a lead up to the 55th annual Gold Cup Race of Champions at the Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, which will see the opening prelim night kick off on Thursday September 4. The huge event will be highlighted by the 40 lap $50,000 to win main event on Saturday that will crown the ’08 Gold Cup champion. For all the updates from the busy stretch ahead for Jonathan Allard and Williams Motorsports stay glued to http://www.allardmotorsports.com
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Jonathan Allard will look for a solid Northwest swing to help build momentum towards the 55th annual Gold Cup Race of Champions, which is coming up in less than two weeks. Photo by http://www.GraphXDesigns.com
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