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Jonathan Allard leads GSC points after eventful Hanford weekend
By Gary Thomas
Hanford, CA - March 19, 2007... A pair of very promising nights ended with finishes that weren’t indicative of just how well Jonathan Allard and Williams Motorsports ran during the Golden State Challenge Series double header at Kings Speedway in Hanford this past weekend. Ashley Smith and the crew had the No. 0 machine going good both nights and both ended with top 10 finishes, but unfortunately for JA and the team, there was potential for more.
The weekend started on Friday with Jonathan qualifying sixth quickest overall with a lap of 13.613 aboard the Williams Motorsports, K & N Filters, Red Line Oil No. 0. JA then lined up fifth in the second heat race and ran in fifth for most of the it before making the move around Jim Skinner on lap eight to take the fourth and final transfer spot. Jonathan pulled away from Skinner the last couple laps and went on to finish fourth, which transferred him into the dash where he started fifth. The track had remained fast but had developed some rough spots, which made it a bit tricky. Jonathan improved one position in the dash to give himself an outside row two starting spot for the 30 lap feature.
Jonathan was on the move early in the feature and on lap three he executed a beautiful slider in turn three to take second from Kyle Hirst. The Weld Racing, Sharp Insurance, Butler Built, Bell Helmets, Kistler powered J & J was hooked up and Jonathan closed in on leader Brad Sweet. As traffic came into play Jonathan seized the opportunity and made the move under Sweet in turn one to take the lead.
Unfortunately the pace of the race began to slow as numerous cautions started to appear and made it so traffic didn’t come into play for very long periods of time the rest of the race. A lap 20 restart saw Sweet get under Jonathan to re-take the lead and three laps were completed before the red flag came out to stop the race again. On the restart Jonathan dove under Sweet in turn one but couldn’t get by and one lap later another caution came out, which gave JA another shot. Once again Jonathan dove to the inside of Sweet, but Bradley had the momentum up high to hang on to the stop spot. If the race hadn’t already gone on for long enough, yet another caution came out on lap 25 to set up another restart. This time Jonathan had a huge run on Sweet out of turn four but Bradley didn’t get as good of run off the corner and JA had nowhere to go and got into the back of him, which allowed the No. 6 machine to get away. Roger Crockett was able to take advantage of Jonathan having to get out of the throttle and was able to get by for second. JA didn’t give up that easy though and passed Crockett back on lap 27 but Crockett came back in turn two and re-took the spot. As the white flag waved Jonathan was out of fuel and had to nurse it around to make it across the line. He ended up falling from third to seventh on the final lap to put an end to the night.
Saturday’s track started out much slicker than Friday as the warm day time temps took its toll on the 3/8 clay oval. Jonathan came out 28th in the qualifying order and was still able to turn a great lap of 14.115, even with the track having gone away considerably since the start of the session and ended up third overall.
The track was extremely slick for the heat races and in his heat, Jonathan gave a clinic on how to get around the speedway. JA lined up the Chris Jones Racing, Graph X Designs, Platinum Powder Coating No. 0 outside row three in heat three. Jonathan sat in fifth when a caution appeared on lap two. JA made the move into fourth on the restart and then took third on lap four. He then went to work on Jason Statler and passed the ‘04 King of California on lap five to take second. Jonathan began to reel in leader Garrett Ishii and on lap eight he threw a slider on him in turn three to take the lead. JA led the last lap to pick up the win and gain five points towards the championship.
Jonathan lined up sixth in the dash and got a great start in the first set of corners. Lady luck wasn’t shining down on him however, as Danny Faria Jr. spun around in turn four and left Jonathan nowhere to go, which resulted in Jonathan hitting Faria and getting upside down. Damage was too severe to continue and Jonathan had to settled for an eighth place finish.
The car was put back together and Jonathan started the 30 lap A-main outside of row four. JA made some nice moves early and got up to fifth by lap 10. He then began to have a good battle with Statler as the pair traded fifth a couple times before they made contact, which resulted in Jonathan suffering a flat tire and having to go into the pits to get a fresh one put on. The crew made the tire change and Jonathan charged forward the last half of the race to finish in eighth place.
It was a nice recovery for Jonathan in what could have been a big blow in the points race and after four races Jonathan leads the Golden State Challenge Series point standings by three digits over Sean Becker. GSC now heads to Placerville Speedway for Round #5 next Saturday. Last year Jonathan picked up a win and second place finish in the two GSC events in Placerville.
For more news and info on Jonathan Allard and Williams Motorsports visit http://www.allardmotorsports.com
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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