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Photo's courtesy http://www.graphxdesigns.com
Jonathan Allard races to victory in opening Feather Falls Casino Point Race & scores runner-up in Antioch
By Gary Thomas
Chico, CA – April 6, 2009…Chico, CA's Jonathan Allard kicked off the Feather Falls Casino 410 season in style on Friday night at the Silver Dollar Speedway as he charged to his 36th career victory at the track, putting him past Jimmy Sills and into the fifth spot on the all-time win column.
The opening Feather Falls Casino Friday night point race saw Allard originally line-up from the third row in the 25 lap main event, but a false start by the pole sitter moved the Williams Motorsports, K&N Filters, JP's Paint & Body No. 0 up to the inside of the second row. As the green flag waved the 32 year-old driver quickly moved into second after a few laps and then began to close in on leader Bobby McMahan.
Allard found the high-side of turns three and four to his liking and was visibly faster than McMahan, but with the track still being very hooked up it made passing tough in the open track. With McMahan running nearly mistake free "JA" played it safe and followed him closely around the speedway as he waited for lapped traffic to make a move. That chance came around lap 12 and Allard wasted no time getting right up to McMahan's rear bumper.
With the leader pinned in by lapped traffic the Chico driver charged hard to the bottom of the speedway and sliced underneath him to take the lead coming off turn four. After this Allard had no problems and drove away from the field to easily pick up his first win of the California season. "We've been fast this year and it's nice to come out and win on opening night at my home track," he said. "Bobby was doing a great job out front and I knew he wasn't going to make a mistake so I had to be patient and wait for traffic."
GSC Round 2/ Antioch Speedway-
On Saturday Allard and Williams Motorsports traveled to the newly revamped Antioch Speedway for the second round of action with the Golden State Challenge Series. After qualifying ninth fastest in the field the two-time & defending King of California brought home runner-up finishes in both his heat race and the dash to give the Red Line Oil, Platinum Powder Coating, Butler Built Performance No. 0 a front row starting spot in the feature.
When the 30 lap Golden State Challenge Series main event got underway Allard jumped into the lead heading into the first set of corners. The Ashley Smith tuned sprinter was on a rail early on as a long green flag run was seen that allowed competitors the chance to race in lapped traffic for an extended period of time. Allard was doing a fantastic job in traffic as he led more than half of the feature for the second week in a row with the traveling 410 sprint car series.
With just around 12 laps remaining however, Los Angeles racer Tyler Walker closed in and made it a battle for the lead. The final caution of the event then happened with 19 circuits completed and it set-up an 11 lap shootout on the Antioch Speedway bullring. When racing got back underway Walker was all over Allard as the pair put on a tremendous show for the packed grandstand.
As traffic came into play however, the lapped cars were running side by side, making things very difficult and looking as if second place was the spot to be in. Allard looked to the bottom of the speedway on lap 26, but with a lapped car there it slowed his momentum for the slightest second and Walker took advantage as he rocketed around the outside for the lead. Allard then had to fight off Tim and Brent Kaeding for second as the final pair of laps clicked off.
With just a couple of laps left Allard gave it one last shot and made a great move up high in turns one and two, which shot him by a few lapped cars and put him right on Walker's bumper. The green 24 machine never faltered though and Allard settled for a second place finish coming up just shy of back to back wins. "It's tough to lose a race after leading so many laps, but sometimes it's better to be running second when traffic gets that jammed up," he said. "But we've been really fast and we'll move on to Chico and Tulare and try to get this thing into victory lane next week," Allard concluded.
For more info on Chico, CA driver Jonathan Allard visit http://www.allardmotorsports.com
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Chico's Jonathan Allard will head next for the $3,000 to win Bill Brownell Memorial at the Silver Dollar Speedway on Friday night. Following that he will head south to the Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway on Saturday for the third round of competition with the Golden State Challenge Sprint Car Series
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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This message was edited on
April 06, 2009 at
12:25:19 PM by Gary Thomas
Jonathan Allard last year finished fourth at the inagural running of the Bill Brownell Memorial and will look for the $3,000 top prize this Friday night during the second running of the event. Photo courtesy www.johnsracingphotos.com
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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