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Dominating run in Chico nets season win #4 for Jonathan Allard
By Gary Thomas
Chico, CA - May 5, 2007... What a difference a year makes. Last season it took Chico’s Jonathan Allard until July 14 to win his first race at Silver Dollar Speedway and this season it’s only taken him until May 4 to win his fourth feature of the season at his home track following another impressive performance at the north state 1/4 mile bullring. The Silver Dollar Speedway held up the best it has all year as very fast and racy conditions welcomed drivers and teams to Feather Falls Casino Point Race #6 sponsored by Ashley Furniture.
A very nice field of 28 410 sprint cars signed into the back gate during a night which was in doubt after cloudy and wet conditions reigned supreme during the morning hours. Clearing was seen, however, and other than a breeze that made it chilly during the night, it was perfect racing conditions as beautiful blue skies were seen as cars hit the track for warm ups. The track came in nicely and qualifying was the fastest it has been all season at Silver Dollar as six drivers were able to crack into the 11 second bracket. Jonathan was one of those six and his 11.808 aboard the Williams Motorsports, GT Trends, K & N Filters No. 0 stacked up second quickest overall.
Jonathan lined up on the outside of the third row in the second heat race and he immediately jumped into fourth in the first set of corners. The track had developed a couple different lines and made for some exciting racing on the 1/4 mile. JA was on the hammer and on lap two he made a great power move to the inside of Johnny Gray in turn three to take over the third position. He then closed in on Chris Masters and the next time around made the same move to get under Masters in turn three to put the Chris Jones Racing, Tom Rolfe Trucking, Graph X Designs, Weld Racing, Maxim Chassis No. 0 into second. Leader Brett Miller had a large advantage, but Jonathan cut into the lead quickly and as the heat was nearing the end, JA was right on the back bumper of the youngster. Jonathan was driving the No. 0 machine extremely hard into the corners and put on a great show, but the young 17 year-old was able to hold on and JA settled for a strong second place finish.
Fast qualifier Brad Sweet pulled the number four pill for the inversion for the 25 lap feature and it put Jonathan in the second row for the second straight Friday. Last week Jonathan was able to move into second at the waving of the green flag and he did it once again this week as he got under Andy Gregg to place the Red Line Oil, JP’s Paint & Body, Sharp Insurance, BR Motorsports No. 0 into the runner-up spot behind leader Kyle Hirst. JA stayed close to Hirst and on lap three he got the job done in turn four to take over the lead.
Jonathan was the fastest driver on the speedway in the open track and at one point he was able to get into the 11 second barrier as Ashley Smith, Lee Watson and the boys had the Kistler powered Maxim on a rail. The track was very fast during the main and the only thing slowing Jonathan was lapped traffic which allowed Sweet to close in after he had gotten around Hirst for second. JA handled traffic nicely and he had to fend off the extremely hard challenges from Sweet as the action was hot and heavy up front.
Just after the midway point of the race Sweet dropped out with mechanical issues and from there on out it was all JA. The last restart occurred with four laps left and saw Jonathan have three lapped cars between himself and Hirst. JA took off as the green waved and that was all she wrote as he drove the Spy Optic, Butler Built Performance, Williams Motorsports No. 0 to his fourth win of the season.
Since switching back to Maxim Chassis midway through last month, Jonathan hasn’t qualified worse than fourth at Silver Dollar Speedway and hasn’t finished out of the top five in any main event. With the Maxim he has scored two wins, a third and a fifth place finish. Getting hot right now comes at a great time as one of the biggest racing weekend’s of the year in Northern California occurs next weekend at Silver Dollar Speedway with the running of the annual Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial.
First thing’s first though, as tonight sees Golden State Challenge Series Round #10 which happens at Watsonville’s Ocean Speedway. Jonathan will try to chop away at Sean Becker’s 10 point lead in the GSC standings.
For more news and info on Jonathan Allard log onto http://www.allardmotorsports.com
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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