This message was edited on
June 14, 2007 at
12:34:26 PM by Gary Thomas
Jonathan Allard runs 2nd in Medford
By Gary Thomas
Medford, OR - June 13, 2007...With the 36th annual Dirt Cup on the horizon, Chico’s Jonathan Allard competed with the Golden State Challenge Series on Monday night at Medford’s Southern Oregon Speedway. Jonathan was once again in the thick of things and brought home his seventh straight finish of second or better, although early on it looked like he might have brought home another victory.
Jonathan started the 30 lap main event on the outside of the second row aboard the Williams Motorsports, K & N Filters, Karsten Homes, Red Line Oil No. 0. He moved into third at the waving of the green flag and you could tell early on that he had a great car as he could get through the corners better than anyone. On lap two JA slid under Brent Kaeding to move the GT Trends, BR Motorsports, Chris Jones Racing No. into second. He then quickly closed in leader Roger Crockett and was right on his back bumper by lap five.
JA waited patiently and got under Crockett on lap nine to take the lead of the race. Crockett came back at him the next time around, but as traffic got crazy thick in turn two he and Billy Nutter came in contact. It sent Nutter upside down and gave Crockett a flat right rear tire. Officials decided to open the red flag and it took forever to get back going green following an incident with a push truck running over another car. By this time the track had changed and it became faster as the Medford air cooled of when the sun went down.
As the green flag came back out Jonathan scooted away from Kaeding, who had moved up to second when Crockett changed the tire. When JA entered traffic, a bunch of the lappers were running side by side and Jonathan tried to make a move to the outside in turn two, but slid high and allowed Kaeding to close in. The next time around BK was able to slip under Jonathan to take over the lead. JA didn’t let him get away, however, and stuck to the rear of the 69 machine for the remainder of the race.
With about seven laps to go it looked like Jonathan had the opening he needed as Kaeding got strung out on the high side of turn two and had a lap car directly in front of him. Unfortunately for Jonathan, just as soon as he got below Kaeding, the lapper moved to the bottom and blocked his line. After that Jonathan couldn’t make up all the ground he lost and had to settle for a second place finish, just a couple car lengths behind Kaeding.
"We lost the power steering pump during the race and I had a heckuva time steering the thing," Jonathan said. "We’ll take a second though and I can’t thank the guys enough for all their hard work."
Jonathan and Williams Motorsports will be right back in action tomorrow as the 36th annual Dirt Cup at Skagit Speedway begins with prelim night #1. To keep up with Jonathan’s progress at the Dirt Cup log onto http://www.allardmotorsports.com
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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