Forum: Northern California Sprint Car (go)
Moderators: StuDeedooo

Photo by Johns Racing Photos

Jonathan Allard charges in Knoxville

By Gary Thomas

Knoxville, Iowa - August 5, 2007...Running at the most famous dirt track on the planet, Chico’s Jonathan Allard was on the hammer all weekend during the 17^th annual 360 Knoxville Nationals at the Knoxville Raceway. The 360 Knoxville Nationals was just the second time all season that Jonathan and Williams Motorsports have competed on a ½ mile track and the results turned in were very impressive for a California team that primarily runs on bullrings. The weekend had makings of being even better, but main event contact sent Jonathan upside down during his qualifying night feature.

The 360 Knoxville Nationals uses a three night format which splits the field in half on Thursday and Friday, just like the Gold Cup in Chico. Jonathan’s night to qualify was Friday and a huge field of 61 sprint cars showed up. Qualifying is always a huge part of multi day events and JA qualified solidly with a lap of 16.512 putting the GT Trends, K & N Filters, Red Line Oil No. 0 11^th quickest overall. A third place finish in his heat race transferred Jonathan into the main event where he lined up from the third position.

Th 20 lap prelim feature saw Jonathan make a great move at the start to take the lead of the race before a lap was completed. JA had the Ashley Smith tuned No. 0 out front until lap eight when Shane Stewart was able to get by. Disaster struck on lap 11 as Jonathan was slid into by another competitor while battling for second and it resulted in the Zero machine getting upside down and suffering major damage. It put an end to the night and unfortunately took away a lot points that could have been garnered for an up front starting position on Saturday night.

The final night of the 360 Knoxville Nationals saw Jonathan doing double duty as a 410 point race was held the same night. For the 360 Nationals portion of the event JA had scored enough points for a sixth place starting position in the B-main. Qualifying was held for the 410 class and Jonathan turned the 24^th fastest lap of the session aboard the Weld Racing, Chris Jones Racing, Spy Optic, Sharp Insurance No. 0. He then started from the pole in heat four and put together a dominating performance to easily pick up the win.

After 410 heats the 15 lap B-main for the 360 Nationals was held and Jonathan moved forward quickly. He got up to as high as third before settling for a fourth place finish to earn the final transfer spot into the 360 Nationals main event.

JA then lined up 19^th in the 20 lap 410 main event but a spin on lap two forced him to restart from 24^th. The 2006 King of California showed maturity and composure as he charged his way back through the pack and got all the way back up to finish 10^th aboard the JP’s Paint & Body, Platinum Powder Coating, Matt & Glass Race Car Bodies, Bell Helmets No. 0.

Following the 410 feature, focus was put back onto the 360 and Jonathan had a long road to go as he started from the 24^th position, dead last on the grid. Just as in the previous main event however, he was able to charge forward throughout the race. The short 25 lap main event didn’t give much time, but Jonathan was on his game and took a beautifully set up sprinter to a 10^th place finish.

Overall the weekend would definitely have to be considered a success. A 10^th place finish in an event that saw over 100 cars compete is pretty solid and it only leaves us to wonder what could have been without the contact on Friday night that set him back so far in Saturday’s feature. That’s racing though and all we can do is move on as the biggest week of the year is coming up. Monday night will see Jonathan and Williams Motorsports head for the 12^th annual Musco Lighting Front Row Challenge at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, Iowa. Last season saw JA finish eighth at the Front Row Challenge and he’ll look to improve upon that Monday night. Then on Wednesday it will be opening night of the 47^th annual Super Clean Knoxville Nationals at the Knoxville Raceway.

For updates from Jonathan’s Knoxville Nationals venture visit http://www.allardmotorsports.com

Photo by Davy Thomas

www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com

Photo from http://www.stevehardin.com/

For a bunch of pictures from the week of action at Knoxville check out Steve Hardin's site. He always does an outstanding job of capturing the Nationals through photographs.

www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com