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Photo by http://www.stevesracingphotos.com
Jonathan Allard runs 10th in Mini Gold Cup finale
By Gary Thomas
Chico, California – March 17, 2009…After transferring out of the semi main event on Saturday night Chico, California's Jonathan Allard raced to a 10th place finish in the 40 lap World of Outlaws Sprint Series sanctioned Mini Gold Cup finale at the Silver Dollar Speedway.
Allard's first weekend of competition for the 2009 season in the United States began on a strong note as he joined Kasey Kahne Racing's Joey Saldana as one of just two drivers to break into the 10-second barrier in qualifying at the quarter-mile track. The historic night saw 17 drivers break the previous all-time track record of 12.203, which was set last June.
The defending King of California kept on rolling after qualifying by scoring a thrilling win as he edged Roger Crockett at the line to claim victory in the evening's second heat race. He then brought home a fourth place finish in the dash to give the Williams Motorsports, K&N Filters, Red Line Oil No. 0 a second row starting spot in the main event.
Early on in the feature Allard ran strong in the top five until getting over the edge in turn four and dropping a couple spots. He was able to regroup though and continued to run strong as he attempted to make up the positions, however in doing so he caught the treacherous turn 3 & 4 rut sending him off the track midway through the main event and forcing him to come to a stop. He would restart, but exit the track with eleven laps left in the race to put an end to a main event that had looked for much it like it might end with a top five.
Coming back on Saturday Allard and the team had a lot of confidence due to the fact that the car was extremely fast on Friday. For the Mini Gold Cup finale the 32 year-old driver clocked the sixth fastest lap out of 54 cars in qualifying, but finished one spot out of a transfer in the heat race, forcing him to run the semi-main where he would tally a third place finish to transfer into the feature.
The track surface had become very slick by main event time, but began to develop rubber making passing opportunities tough to come by. Starting 13th on the grid Allard would drop a few spots in the early stages, but he would stay with it and make passes of Tim Kaeding, Randy Hannagan & Wayne Johnson to get up to 10th by the end of the 40 lap contest.
After completing the Mini Gold Cup Allard is eagerly anticipating this weekend's World of Outlaws Sprint Series double-header at the Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway. The performance level of the Williams Motorsports sprinter was very high in Chico as Ashley Smith and the team had the car running extremely well and Allard showed that the momentum from the end of this past season has certainly carried over.
Last October Allard brought home an eighth place finish with the World of Outlaws at the Thunderbowl and hopes to improve upon that this Friday & Saturday. "Tulare is one of our favorite tracks and with the way this car is running I just can't wait to hit the speedway," Allard said. "The competition is very high this year and everyone is really fast so it'll be a tough event, but I think we have a great shot to run up front and be in position to put this thing into victory lane," he concluded.
For more info on Chico, CA driver Jonathan Allard visit http://www.allardmotorsports.com
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Jonathan Allard charging into turn one aboard the Williams Motorsports, A.R.T. Ent, Kistler powered No. 0 at the Silver Dollar Speedway during the annual Mini Gold Cup. This weekend he'll be in action with the World of Outlaws at the always exciting Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, CA. Photo by http://www.graphxdesigns.com
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