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Allard and Meyers win Cotton Classic features at Kings Speedway
By Gary Thomas
Hanford, CA - November 10, 2007...The rain delayed Cotton Classic returned to Hanford’s Kings Speedway this past Saturday night and when all was said and done it was Chico’s Jonathan Allard and Clovis’ Jason Meyers standing in victory lane. Both Allard & Meyers had each won the Cotton Classic once before in the past and the double division show on Saturday night saw Allard capture the 410 main event and Meyers pick up the 360 portion of the night.
The Cotton Classic was originally scheduled to run on October 27, but an unpredicted rainstorm set in on the Central Valley just as hot laps were underway on that night. The decision was made to re-schedule the event for November 10 and it was a wise choice as a better crowd was on hand as well as a better car count. The 410 main event and 360 feature both saw an inordinate amount of cautions and reds which slowed the pace of each and never really allowed either feature to get any kind of rhythm going. Allard came into the night having won 10 previous 410 main events in 2007 and had last won the Cotton Classic in 2005 during his first year driving for Oakhurst based car owner Morrie Williams. The 31 year-old driver started from the outside of the front row in the 30 lap feature and outgunned pole sitter Ronnie Day into the first set of corners.
Day was sitting behind the wheel of the Roth Motorsports, HR Cattle No. 83jr for the night of action and earned the pole by winning the evenings 410 dash. Early on it became a four way fight for the lead between Allard, Day, San Jose’s Tim Kaeding and Bixby, Oklahoma’s Shane Stewart. Just as soon as the action heated up however, a lap car spun in front of the leaders and Allard narrowly avoided disaster, but Stewart wasn’t as lucky and hit the spun car which sent the Doyle’s Harley Davidson No. 1hd upside down and out of the race.
The restart saw Allard lead the field for a handful of more laps before Danny Faria Jr. suffered an end over end flip in between turns one and two. On the restart Kaeding flung the Tom Rolfe Trucking No. 10 to the outside of Day to claim second. Medford, Oregon’s Roger Crockett then came to play and got around Day on the 18th lap and tried several times to get by Kaeding, but each time the attempt came up short as Kaeding fended off every challenge. Allard spent the last half of the race out front and was able to hold off a last ditch effort by Kaeding through the final turns to pick up the win aboard the K & N Filters, GT Trends No. 0. The win was Allard’s 11th of the season and first since picking up a prelim with the World of Outlaws at the Gold Cup Race of Champions.
Kaeding finished runner-up in the J.F. McCray Plastering No. 10 and looked strong as always. "TK" was coming off a very impressive run at the Oval Nationals last weekend at Perris where he finished second during a prelim night and led many laps of the Saturday feature. He’ll now move on and look to defend his Trophy Cup title next Friday and Saturday at the Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare.
Rounding out the top five were Crockett in the Henderson Motorsports No. 7n, Day in the Roth 83jr and 13th starter Jason Meyers in the Primerica Financial No. 14. Completing the top 10 in the 410 feature were Craig Stidham, Tommy Tarlton, Greg Decaires, Matt Shelton and Jason Botsford. Elk Grove’s Kyle Larson finished 11th, but had an outstanding run to get up and pass veterans Paul McMahan and Decaires to run as high as sixth after starting 14th. The 15 year-old got loose with a couple laps left and spun to the infield, but it was still a very impressive drive for the youngsters first ever night of action at Kings Speedway.
At one time in his career Jason Meyers wasn’t a big fan of the Kings Speedway, but in recent years he has gained a fond appreciation of it and picked up his third career win at the track during Saturday’s 360 portion of the Cotton Classic. The Clovis native spent many years struggling at the 3/8 mile clay oval and didn’t win at the Kings Speedway until a Rebel Cup event in March of 2005 while subbing for teammate Ronnie Day. Last season he won his first career 410 race at the track during the Cotton Classic and came back this year to dominate the 360 main event.
The 360 feature saw pole sitter Willie Croft of Sacramento jump out into the lead aboard the Holey Smokes BBQ No. 29. Croft finished third in this years Golden State Challenge Series points and looked very fast in the early parts of the feature. Meyers showed his muscle though and clearly had the fastest car on the track as he moved into second on lap six with an impressive slide job on Nashville, Tennessee’s Paul McMahan who was driving the Joe Von Schriltz No. 121.
After a red flag around lap 10, Meyers sat on Croft’s bumper during the restart and the World of Outlaw veteran powered to the outside and put the Elite Racing machine into the lead. From there on out it was all Meyers as the ‘07 Short Track Nationals winner pulled away from the field to pick up the win and give himself a lot of momentum heading into the Trophy Cup next week. Meyers finished a close second to T. Kaeding last year at the Trophy Cup and if the Cotton Classic is any pre-cursor, Meyers will be a tough customer to beat next week.
Shane Stewart of Bixby, OK, the driver Meyers passed on the final lap last month to win the Short Track Nationals, charged forward during the last half of the race to finish second aboard the Paul Silva Motorsports, Pro Built Construction No. 57. The talented driver took second from Croft on lap 20 and it would have been interesting to see what he could have done with Meyers had a caution come out. Stewart is another one that looks to be a strong contender for next weeks Trophy Cup as he’s one of the hottest drivers in the world of sprint car racing at the moment.
Rounding out the top five in the 360 feature were the LRB Manufacturing 29 of Croft, Tim Kaeding in the Tom Rolfe Trucking No. 10 and Fresno’s Tommy Tarlton in the Tachi Palace No. 21. Tarlton had his best run of the year in limited starts as he diced it up with several drivers in the top five and looked as good as he’s had in a long time. The top 10 was completed by Paul McMahan, Brandon Wimmer, Andy Forsberg, Garrett Ishii and Kyle Larson.
The 360 division had a B-main and it was won by youngster Myles Bishop. Seven total heat races were held during the night, three for the 410's and four for the 360's. The 410 heats were won by Andy Forsberg, Danny Faria Jr. and Greg Decaires. The 360 heats were picked off by Cory Elliason, Jason Meyers, Shane Stewart and Willie Croft. A pair of dashes were run and the 410 dash was won by Ronnie Day while Willie Croft captured the 360 dash. Qualifying for the 360 class saw 28 cars take to the timing lights and it was Roger Crockett scoring fast time with a 13.507. The 410's had 20 cars qualify and it was Shane Stewart cracking off a lightning fast 12.760 to earn quick time. For more visit http://www.kingsspeedway.net
The Northern California winged sprint car season will come to a close next Friday and Saturday with the 14th annual Trophy Cup at Tulare’s Thunderbowl Raceway. For tickets contact 559-688-0909 and for more info visit http://www.thunderbowlraceway.com
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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Few notes-
Paul McMahan was driving the NMI Construction 24m as a teammate to Decaires in the 410 last night. Paul was running up near the front when something broke with a handful of laps left.
World class crew cheif Brian Cannon made his first career main event start in the 410 feature. I thought he was gonna have a great run in the feature till he pulled off early. Musta been overheating or something.  
Kyle Larson looked really good in the 410 feature, racing with, and passing guys that have tons of experiance.
It was great to have the Cotton Classic run again and although the format was a little odd, there was some good racing and it was nice to get back to Hanford.
Hope everyone has a great week and we'll see ya in Tulare.
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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I must agree on the format being a little odd, I wasn't a big fan of giving the top two qualifiers a free pass to the A main..
other than that it was fun hangin out with everybody, and meeting Even Suggs mom Linda was nice.
Congrats to Jon he ran a great race.
See everyone at the Trophy Cup
S.
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