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May 18, 2008 at
05:45:53 PM by Gary Thomas
Photo by Johns Racing Photos
Stephen Allard tallies 4th place finish at Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial
By Gary Thomas
Chico, CA – May 17, 2008…Competing on a slick and racy surface Saturday night at the Silver Dollar Spedway Chico’s Stephen Allard drove the Main Motorsports No. 35a to a career best fourth place finish in the Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial.
The double header event at Silver Dollar Speedway marked Allard’s third weekend at the helm of the H.A.M. Construction, JP’s Paint & Body, Medi-Pro Billing sponsored sprinter. In the first couple outings aboard the car this season he has shown a lot of speed, which was highlighted by a runner-up finish at the Bill Brownell Memorial in April.
Friday night’s Feather Falls Casino weekly 410 event at the Chico bullring saw Allard win the opening heat race, before driving to a sixth place finish in the 25 lap main event. The weekend was all about Saturday’s Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial however, and Allard proceeded to put together a very strong night en route to picking up his career best finish in the event. To begin the evening there was an amazing amount of money on the line in qualifying thanks to a number of different people and businesses.
A total of $1,500 was on the line to the driver that set fast time and $750 was up for the second fastest driver. A strong field of 43 winged sprint cars was on hand for the Bradway Memorial and Allard was the very first driver to hit the speedway in qualifying. His fastest lap of 12.049 was good enough to hold up for second quick at the end of qualifying, behind only brother Jonathan.
Both brothers made their way to the front straightaway to be interviewed and were able to show the appreciation for their teams and all the people who make the Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial what it is. “I have to thank the Main’s for giving me the opportunity to drive this car and it’s nice to be able to come out here and win some money for being second quick,” the defending track champ said. “I also want to thank the Durica’s, the Hirst’s and everybody who has put in the effort over the years to make this event so special.”
Allard then finished fourth in his heat race and fifth in the dash to give him a third row starting spot in the 40 lap feature. Record high temps during the day had slicked the track off by main event time and a huge curb had developed up top, which made for some great action. Allard looked very racy early on despite losing the front nose wing on the No. 35a machine. He had a clean, smooth line on the bottom of the raceway and after about 10 laps were completed he began to have a dog fight with brother Jonathan.
The two Chico drivers ran side by side, trading the fourth spot numerous times and putting on a great show for the hometown crowd. S. Allard got the advantage after a number of laps and got a big break when he was able to change the front nose wing with an open red occurring on the 18th lap. A handful of circuits after going back green he charged into the third spot and ran there until the lead duo made contact, knocking out one car and bumping him up to second on lap 31.
On the restart Allard slipped off the back stretch and lost a couple spots to fall back to fourth. He tried hard to get back by for a podium spot, but couldn’t make it happen and settled for a fourth place finish at the checkered flag. “We had the wing slider break and that was giving me fits late in the race but I’m happy with a fourth tonight,” the 35 year-old said. “It was a fun race and I’m happy that we had a great track to race on.” The team would also like to give extra special thanks to Barry Jackson of JEI Chassis.
Allard will be right back in action aboard the Main Motorsports machine this coming weekend with two nights of racing at the Silver Dollar bullring. Saturday night will see a non-sanctioned 360 event and the following evening will be a Civil War point’s show, both of which are held during the annual Silver Dollar fair. For more news on Chico’s Stephen Allard log onto http://www.stephenallard.com
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