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Photo by http://www.johnsracingphotos.com
Jonathan Allard charges late for 6th place finish in Golden State Challenge Series opener
By Gary Thomas
Placerville, CA – March 29, 2009…Never giving up and showing perseverance is always a good recipe in winning championships and Chico, CA's Jonathan Allard and the Williams Motorsports team certainly exemplified that last season en route to winning the Golden State Challenge Series title.
The two-time & defending King of California showed that determination once again this past Saturday night by fighting back from a mid-race incident while battling for the lead and then charging from the rear of the field to sixth with just 12 laps remaining in the feature. "We would have liked to win the race, but to get back up to sixth after having to go to the rear was a pretty good way to salvage the night," Allard said.
The season opener for the Golden State Challenge King of California Sprint Car Series was held this season at the high-banked Placerville Speedway, which is a track Allard has been very strong at over the last handful of years with a number of podium finishes, as well as a victory that came in May of 2006.
Allard began the 2009 Golden State Challenge Series season by qualifying sixth fastest in the field and then scoring a third place finish in the heat race to put the Williams Motorsports, K&N Filters, Butler Built Performance No. 0 into the evenings dash. The six lap contest saw the 32 year-old driver start from the outside of the front row and when the green flag waved he had an exciting wheel-to-wheel duel with Andy Forsberg heading into turn one.
The action got extremely tight, but Allard kept his foot in it and made a hair-raising move to charge around Forsberg on the high-side and into the lead, which he would never relinquish as he went on to dominate the dash and earn the pole position for the feature. "I knew Forsberg wanted the high side so I had to make sure I was up there going into the first set of corners and it was pretty exciting from the cockpit," Allard said on the front stretch following the dash. "I want to thank everyone with A.R.T. Chassis because this thing is a rocket ship tonight and I also want to thank all you fans for coming out cause it's really nice to see this many people in the stands."
When the 30 lap Golden State Challenge Series main event went green Allard jumped out into the lead, but once traffic came into play it created some hectic racing with the track still being very hooked up, creating difficulties in getting by lapped cars. It allowed Forsberg to close in and the pair put on a great show for the fans while dicing it up amongst the slower cars.
The first 15 laps saw Forsberg put heavy pressure on Allard, but "JA" was able to do a great job getting by lapped cars at just the right moments to keep the Auburn driver at bay. Coming around turn four to complete lap 17 however, it all changed as Allard got boxed in by a lap car and Forsberg made a gutsy move up high to claim the lead heading down the front stretch.
Unfortunately, as Forsberg entered turn one his car got loose and he proceeded to spin directly in front of Allard, leaving the Chico driver nowhere to go. It resulted in Allard hitting the No. 92 car knocking it back straight and both drivers were able to continue on, but on a yellow flag the next lap crew chief Ashley Smith motioned Allard to come into the pits and get the damage fixed.
After pitting to have the crew asses the car Allard pushed back onto the speedway and proceeded to charge forward like a rocket ship over the closing 12 circuits. As the laps ticked off the Williams Motorsports No. 0 was coming forward with authority and was getting ready to pounce on fifth place Evan Suggs when the checkered flag came out with Allard crossing the stripe in sixth place.
Next up for Jonathan Allard and Williams Motorsports will be a double-header weekend of racing beginning on Friday night with the opening Feather Falls Casino 410 Point Race at the Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico. After that the team will be in action at the newly re-configured Antioch Speedway on Saturday night in the second round of competition with the Golden State Challenge King of California Series.
For more info on Chico, CA driver Jonathan Allard visit http://www.allardmotorsports.com
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After salvaging the night in Placerville with a sixth place finish, two-time & defending King of California Jonathan Allard will look for a strong run this weekend as the Golden State Challenge Series makes its way to the Antioch Speedway on Saturday night. Photo by http://www.graphxdesigns.com
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