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Photo by http://www.graphxdesigns.com
Jonathan Allard sets fast-time to open 56th Gold Cup Race of Champions & finishes it off with 4th place finish Saturday night
By Gary Thomas
Chico, CA – September 14, 2009…After a career best third at the Gold Cup Race of Champions last year Chico, CA's Jonathan Allard came back this past weekend and put together another impressive showing to score his second straight top-five finish in the prestigious World of Outlaw Sprint Car Series sanctioned event at the Silver Dollar Speedway.
Prior to the Gold Cup Allard had shown speed with the World of Outlaws in Washington and Oregon, but the finishes weren't exactly indicative of the true performance that the Williams Motorsports team had been experiencing. "We were really fast during the whole West Coast swing and even though the results weren't what we wanted up north, a fourth place finish at the Gold Cup will definitely make up for it," Allard said. "We couldn't be happier with the way Gold Cup went and were glad to represent California well with a top-five."
Coming into the 56th annual Gold Cup Race of Champions the former two-time King of California had won four main events this season at Silver Dollar Speedway and also had confidence after his first career podium effort at the event last year. Allard was part of the Thursday preliminary night and he opened it up by blistering the quarter-mile in 11.681 seconds to set his 13th overall quick-time of the season at the helm of the Village Green Resort, Karsten Homes, Platinum Powder Coating No. 0 sprinter.
Allard then scored a third place finish in the opening heat race and a fourth in the dash to set himself up with an outside row two starting spot in the 30-lap prelim main event. When the green flag waved the 33-year-old settled into the fourth position and ran among the top-five for much of the contest on the well prepared SDS surface. Just around the midway point he would have an entertaining battle with Tim Kaeding as the pair exchanged positions multiple times, putting on a great show for the huge crowd on hand. Kaeding would get the better of it after a handful of laps and Allard would then lose a spot late in going to a fast moving Craig Dollansky to finish sixth on opening night.
When Saturday night came Allard had earned enough points to put the K&N Filters, Red Line Oil, JP's Paint & Body machine on the outside of the third row for the $50,000 to win Gold Cup Race of Champions main event. When racing got underway it was apparent that the former Silver Dollar Speedway titlist had a strong car as crew chief Ashley Smith and the Williams Motorsports team put a great set-up underneath him. The opening lap saw Allard make a pair of great moves to get underneath both Sammy Swindell and Tim Kaeding to move his way into third, before closing in fast on second running Joey Saldana.
Allard then had his hands full with Jason Meyers and on lap 15 the former California regular made an aggressive move to slide underneath the 0 sprinter and force "JA" to get on the brakes hard to avoid getting knocked off the second corner. Allard would remain composed though and on the next lap would give Meyers some of his own medicine and put a thrilling slide-job on the 14 car in turn one to reclaim the spot. A yellow flag flew shortly after however, and Meyers was awarded the third position for the restart. When the green came back out Allard ran strongly in fourth, until a red flag came out on lap 28, which turned into an open red to give teams the chance to make adjustments.
On the restart former WOO champ Danny Lasoski got under Allard for fourth in turns one and two, but in the next set of corners the Chico driver made a bold move to rip around the high-side and take back the spot, before another caution came out to slow things down once again. The final 12-circuits saw Allard run comfortably in the fourth position and after 40-laps of racing he crossed under the checkered to score his second career top-five finish at the Gold Cup Race of Champions. "It's really an honor to be able to run up front with these guys because they are truly the best in the business," said Allard, who finished behind only Joey Saldana, Jason Sides and Jason Meyers, all of whom are top-five point competitors on the Outlaw tour.
"I have to thank Morrie and Katie Williams and my whole team for giving me this opportunity and even though we maybe haven't won as many races this season as we've wanted to, it has definitely been one heck of a year for us. The car has been fast every night and we've been right in the thick of things all season long," Allard said. "I also want to thank all of our sponsors and supporters because we really do appreciate everyone that helps out on this team and gives us the chance to be out here."
Allard was also very appreciative of everyone who helped make the 56th Gold Cup one of the best in recent memory. "I want to give props to Alan Handy and Handy Racing Promotions for giving us an awesome track at the Gold Cup and it made it a lot of fun. I think it was also great to have our regular track announcer Troy Hennig up stairs on Saturday. Sitting in the car on the front stretch during driver intros you could just hear how much he got the crowd pumped up and that was really cool. I really believe this event is just going to get bigger and better as the years go on and definitely hope the fans and everyone enjoyed this one. It was amazing to see so many people in the stands and the pits during the week and hope everyone comes back for the Fall Nationals in a few weeks," Allard concluded.
For more news and info on Jonathan Allard and Williams Motorsports visit http://www.allardmotorsports.com
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Chico, California's own Jonathan Allard scored a fourth place finish at the 56th annual Gold Cup Race of Champions on Saturday night at the Silver Dollar Speedway. The former two-time King of California also opened the $50,000 to win event by setting his 13th fast-time of the season behind the wheel of the Williams Motorsports, Butler Built Performance No. 0 sprint car. Photo by http://www.stevesracingphotos.com
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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The next scheduled event for Jonathan Allard in the Williams Motorsports No. 0 will be the 18th annual Pacific Sprint Fall Nationals, which will be held at the Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico and is coming up fast on October 1, 2 and 3. Last season "JA" started 13th on the grid Saturday night and charged forward on a rough-and-tumble surface to record his first career Fall Nationals victory. Allard pictured after the big $6,000 win last year. Photo by http://www.johnsracingphotos.com
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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