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Photo's courtesy http://www.pitprincess.com/
Stephen Allard claims ASCS Northwest finale in Yakima with Fall Nationals on deck this weekend
By Gary Thomas
Yakima, Washington – September 28, 2009…Traveling north to make a rare visit to the state of Washington former two-time Silver Dollar Speedway track champion Stephen Allard made the most of it and raced to his first main event victory of the 2009 season during the ASCS Northwest Region's season finale at the Central Washington State Fair Raceway on Saturday night.
The triumph on Saturday was Allard's first win in an American Sprint Car Series sanctioned event and also came during the same weekend that he won Kings Speedway's Cotton Classic last year. "I'm just really happy to finally get a win this season," he said. "It definitely feels like a big weight off my shoulders to get back into victory lane and I have thank this team for giving me the opportunity to be up here this weekend."
The final weekend for the ASCS Northwest Region began on Friday at the Central Washington State Fair Raceway in Yakima where Allard started off the evening on a strong note by driving the Richie Peterson No. 23n sprinter to a third place finish in his heat race from the seventh starting position. It was good enough to put him second in the nights points going into the main event, but the pill draw didn't go quite as well when he got the number six and the drivers drawing the front row happened to be former Outlaw driver Jason Solwold and eventual ASCS NW champ Roger Crockett.
Despite tough track conditions Allard was able to make his way forward and looked to challenge the top two late in the race, until an errant rock came through the hood and knocked off a power steering line, forcing him into the infield with just six laps remaining. "We were really good in the main event so it was shame it had to end like that," Allard said. "It's always tough up here when you get Solwold and Crockett on the front row, but I think we were right there with them so I can't complain because I felt real comfortable in the car."
Coming back on Saturday with confidence from the previous night Allard charged to victory in the third heat race and started the feature from the inside of the second row. When the green flag came out in the scheduled 30-lapper a big pile-up ensued when the pole sitter of the race spun out in turn one and collected a number of cars to bring out a caution. This bumped Allard up to the pole position and on the ensuing restart he would rocket out into the lead.
Following a few more stoppages the lap count for the feature was cut to 20-laps and sticking glued to the bottom of the raceway Allard had no problems pulling away from the field to charge off and claim his first victory of the '09 season. Just getting the night in was also a blessing as a power outage had delayed the start of the event by more than an hour. "I'm really glad we got this thing in tonight," said Allard, who broke a one year winless drought by claiming the ASCS NW Region's Championship Night main event. "I haven't run as much as I've liked to this year so to be able to get a win up here is pretty cool."
Allard will now travel back down to California and prepare for this coming weekend's 18th annual Pacific Sprint Fall Nationals at the Silver Dollar Speedway. For the event the Chico driver will be back aboard the Double-D Motorsports No. 4 sprinter and is coming off a third place finish during his most recent event in the car at SDS. "The Fall Nationals is always a fun race in Chico and one that I've been trying to win for a long time," said Allard whose career best finish at the event is seventh, which he recorded in both 2007 and '04. "We've been pretty quick in the 4 car all season and hopefully we'll have some luck on our side this weekend and have a shot at that $6,000 come Saturday night."
For more news on Chico's Stephen Allard please visit http://www.stephenallard.com
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Chico's Stephen Allard raced to victory during this past Saturday's ASCS Northwest Region season finale at the Central Washington State Fair Raceway in Yakima, Wash.
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