|
Great opening weekend gives Jonathan Allard GSC point lead
By Gary Thomas
Chico, CA - March 12, 2007... After a rough last half of the '06 racing season, Chico's Jonathan Allard looks to be back on track following the Golden State Challenge Series season opening Mini Gold Cup where he picked up two podium finishes, including his 14th career GSC win.
Jonathan and Williams Motorsports kicked off the 2007 GSC season on Friday night and began the evening by qualifying 10th quick with a 12.193. Jonathan then lined-up outside row two in heat race number two. JA settled into third at the waving of the green flag and he then went after the top two cars. At the midway point Jonathan was right on the back bumper of leader Zach Mason and second place running Ronnie Day. Day went low getting under Mason to take the lead and simultaneously Jonathan powered to the bottom passing them both. Day came to a stop however, and brought out a caution. GSC officials decided to put Jonathan back behind Mason for the restart and with the track being narrow and fast he was unable to get back by and had to settle for second.
The Golden State Challenge Series is once again using a dash that includes the top eight fastest qualified cars who make it out of the heat races. Enough cars failed to make the transfer in their heats, which put Jonathan into the dash where he started from the outside of row two. JA got around pole sitter Jim Richardson early and gave chase after leader Andy Forsberg. Jonathan closed up on Forsberg but ran out of time and took home second to give the GT Trends, K & N Filters, Red Line Oil No. 0 an outside front row starting spot.
Forsberg got the jump at the waving of the green flag but Jonathan stuck right to the rear bumper of the defending Silver Dollar Speedway track champ. As the pair rounded turn four on lap two Jonathan slid to inside of Forsberg to take command of the race. He immediately began to pull away as Ashley Smith and the Williams Motorsports crew has the Kistler powered, J & J Chassis on a rail right around the bottom of the speedway. The only thing that slowed Jonathan the rest of the way was a few more cautions and a minor amount of lapped traffic and he went on to pick up his first win of the season and first since taking 10 grand at the Chowchilla 410 Shootout on October 7 of last year. The victory marked Jonathan's 14th with the Golden State Challenge Series, which moved him to within one of Tim Green for fourth on the all-time win list. Of Jonathan's 14 GSC wins, six of them have come at his home track of Silver Dollar Speedway.
Jonathan and the team came back on Saturday looking to repeat their feat from the previous evening. JA was the third driver to hit the track in qualifying and on his first lap he slid high in turn two, which cost him, but he rebounded on lap two and turned a 12.219 to place the Red Line Oil, Sharp Insurance, BR Motorsports, Graph X Designs No. 0 12th quick overall.
After qualifying Jonathan and Tim Kaeding ran a memorial lap for fallen race fan Dennis Hartung who passed away in February. After gassing it for a few laps around the track, Jonathan was ready for heat race action. He lined-up on the outside of the second row in the fourth and final heat. JA moved into second early on and caught up with leader Greg Decaires near the finish, bit had to settle for second in the heat for the second night in a row.
Many of the higher qualified cars failed to make a transfer so it put Jonathan into the dash where he started sixth. JA did a nice job and moved up to finish third in the Platinum Powder Coating, JP's Paint & Body Works, Chris Jones Racing, Butler Built Performance No. 0 and it gave him a solid starting spot for the main event.
The 40 lap $6,000 to win main event took three starts to get going and on the third one Jonathan settled into third. Early on he took a couple shots at Jason Meyers for second but with the track being one lane on the bottom in turns three and four, it made it nearly impossible to get around him. JA tried to make something work up top in three and four but it allowed Brent Kaeding to sneak by. After that it was a single file affair up front until lapped traffic came into play; but traffic didn't last for very long as cautions continued to run abundant. Just after the midway point, second running Meyers was knocked out of contention by a lapped car and it moved Jonathan up to third. During the last part of the race, leader Tim Kaeding checked out and all eyes were placed on the battle for second between BK and Jonathan. Turns three and four continued to be one lane and turns one and two became more choppy as the laps wore on. Jonathan was a little faster than Brent but every time he got a run down the backstretch, he'd have to lift off and follow him around the bottom in turn three. Jonathan gave Brent a hard run but couldn't get by and ended the race in third.
After the two night's of action Jonathan sits in a tie with Tim Kaeding for the Golden State Challenge Series point lead, but with Tim running with the World of Outlaws, Jonathan is the top GSC regular in the standings. Both TK and JA have 153 points. The next highest driver that's planning on running the full GSC schedule is San Jose's Jason Statler who sits 5th with 140 points.
Next weekend the Golden State Challenge Series will make their first visit since July of 2005 to Hanford's Kings Speedway. The '05 season saw Jonathan have much success at the 3/8 speed-plant as he picked up two GSC wins in Hanford that year including the Cotton Classic and Spanky Matthews Memorial.
The event this weekend will be a two-day affair starting on Friday and concluding on Saturday. For more info on Jonathan Allard and Williams Motorsports visit www.allardmotorsports.com
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
|
