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Jonathan Allard wins shortened King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series main event at Antioch Speedway Saturday night
By Gary Thomas
Antioch, CA…..Chico, California’s Jonathan Allard continued to be the hottest Winged 410 Sprint Car driver in the west on Saturday at the Antioch Speedway and raced to his fourth King of the West Sprint Car Series victory of the season. It was the third career 410 Sprint Car win for Allard at the track and his ninth overall in 2013 on the west coast.
The main event however, was ended following an incident involving Sydney, Australia native Peter Murphy on lap 14. The fan favorite had battled for the top spot over the first handful of laps and was running in the second position while trying to track down Allard for the lead, when contact with a lapped car sent him upside down just past the flag stand.
As his car came to a stop in turn one he was then struck by another car that had nowhere to go. Medics attended to Murphy in his car for a long period of time and he was then airlifted to the John Muir Medical Center, with reports last night that he suffered a concussion, but luckily was awake and alert. It’s hard to find a better person in our sport than Peter Murphy and we’d like to send all of our thoughts & prayers to Peter for a speedy recovery.
Due to the situation KWS race officials decided to end the feature at that point, as emotions were running high with everyone. The family aspect of our sport really showed last night. At that time everyone’s minds were on the health and well being of Peter Murphy, rather than continuing the race. Thank you to all of the fans for understanding the situation and showing a lot of respect last night.
Rounding out the top-five behind Allard were Fresno’s Craig Stidham, Sacramento’s Kyle Hirst, Elk Grove’s Bobby McMahan and Sacramento’s Willie Croft. Allard also set fast time to begin the night and won the six-lap dash for the second week in a row. Heat wins went to Craig Stidham, Evan Suggs and Bobby McMahan.
Next Saturday July 27 the King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series will make its return to the popular Santa Maria Speedway for the first time in two years. The front gate will open at 4:30pm on Saturday July 27 with qualifying around 5pm and racing anticipated to get underway around 6pm. Adult tickets will cost $25, students, military and seniors will be $23, kids six to 12 will be $6 and kids five and under free.
The Santa Maria Speedway is a one-third mile high banked clay oval located 12 miles inland from the Pacific coast, three miles north of the city of Santa Maria and is located a 1/4-mile north of the US 101/166 interchange on Hutton Road. The facility is one hundred seventy miles north of Los Angeles and 260 miles south of San Francisco. Information on the track & ticket info can be found at http://www.racesantamariaspeedway.com/
King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series Results – Antioch Speedway July 20
22-cars
Fast time: Jonathan Allard 11.980
Heat one: 1. 3 Craig Stidham, 2. 0 Jonathan Allard, 3. 55 Bud Walberg, 4. 00 Jason Statler, 5. 41 Dominic Scelzi, 6. 19m Art McCarthy, 7. 09s Geoffrey Strole, 8. 21j Richard Brace Jr.
Heat two: 1. 33e Evan Suggs, 2. 3c Willie Croft, 3. 69c Chad Compton, 4. 1nz Peter Murphy, 5. 74 Michael Cunningham, 6. 3d Carl Droivold, 7. 52 Dusty Green
Heat three: 1. 25 Bobby McMahan, 2. 83jr Kyle Hirst, 3. 69 Brent Kaeding, 4. 17 Doug Gandy, 5. 26 Sean McMahan, 6. 78 Mark Barroso, 7. 15 Pat Harvey
Dash: 1. Jonathan Allard, 2. Bobby McMahan, 3. Peter Murphy, 4. Craig Stidham, 5. Jason Statler, 6. Kyle Hirst, 7. Evan Suggs, 8. Willie Croft
A-main (Race ended at 14-laps): 1. Jonathan Allard, 2. Craig Stidham, 3. Kyle Hirst, 4. Bobby McMahan, 5. Willie Croft, 6. Evan Suggs, 7. Dominic Scelzi, 8. Brent Kaeding, 9. Sean McMahan, 10. Carl Droivold, 11. Bud Walberg, 12. Chad Compton, 13. Peter Murphy, 14. Jason Statler, 15. Doug Gandy, 16. Geoffrey Strole, 17. Michael Cunningham, 18. Pat Harvey, 19. Mark Barroso, 20. Dusty Green, 21. Art McCarthy
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I really enjoy watching races at Antioch and thought they put on a great show (ok yes I was dissapointmented they didn't play RACEO). I also think it is was the right decision to cancel the remainder of the race due to the severity of Peter's injuries and it was nice to see that no one was complaining about it. I hope everyone has a great time at Santa Maria! I went there 4 years ago and had a great time and it is also fun to make a weekend of it and enjoy going to the beach! Also thanks Gary Thomas or ( Gary Jacob's-ha ha) for being an awesome announcer and for everything you do for the KWS!