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Tough luck & qualifying plague Stephen Allard at Mini Gold Cup
By Gary Thomas
Chico, CA - March 12, 2007... The 21st annual Mini Gold Cup kicked off the 2007 racing season for Stephen Allard and 1m Racing this past weekend at Chico’s Silver Dollar Speedway. Stephen and the team battled the car early on and once they got it comfortable come A-main time Saturday, an accident on the start put an end to the opening weekend.
The Mini Gold Cup began on Friday night and Stephen brought out the 1m Racing J & J second in the qualifying order. His lap of 12.750 put him 31st overall out of the 44 cars that took time. With the time it put Stephen behind the inversion in the heat races and he started from the seventh spot in the third heat. The former Silver Dollar Speedway track champ got his elbows up in the heat however, and drove forward to put himself in the fifth spot as the laps wound down in the 10 lap contest. SA was wheeling the heck out of the 1m machine and had a devil of a time keeping the front end of the car onto the surface as the track was extremely hooked up and tacky. Even with that he moved in and put heavy heat on Johnny Gray for the fourth and final transfer spot. As the white flag waved Stephen gave it one last shot as he got a nice run through turns one and two before trying to power to the high side in three and four, but Gray moved up to block the attempt and SA had to settle for fifth. Stephen was set to start eighth in the B-main but an issue with the engine forced him to pull off before the start and put an end to opening night.
Saturday came and qualifying was a bit better to begin the night as Stephen’s fastest lap of 12.472 put him 26th quick, but it was still behind the 24 inversion for the heat races. Stephen started his heat this night on the inside of row seven. He got into fifth on the start and waited patiently before capitalizing on a mistake by young lion Brett Miller in turn four to move into the fourth and final transfer spot where he would go on to finish and transfer into the main event.
The track had become pretty much one lane around the bottom in turns three and four by A-main time and on the second attempted start, cars bunched up in turn three and it saw Stephen get upside down along with Jon Maiwald. Stephen came back out onto the track but pulled off soon after and he was scored with an official finish of 18th.
Next up for Stephen and 1m Racing will be the Kings Speedway in Hanford for another two day show with the Golden State Challenge King of California Series. Kings Speedway was the site of Stephen’s first GSC win, which happened in April of 2005.
1m Racing is also pleased to introduce Superior Dairy Products as an added sponsor for the Hanford and Tulare races attended this season. Superior Dairy has been family owned and operated in Hanford since 1929 and is located in the Hanford area at 325 N. Douty Street. Superior Dairy offers delicious Ice Cream Cones, Creamy Thick Milk Shakes, Banana Splits, Ice Cream Sundaes and more at its retail location. They also offer their products in many local food stores. The weekend weather for Hanford is projected be in the mid 80's so if you are going to attend the races at Kings Speedway this weekend, be sure to stop by Superior Dairy to support a company that supports 1m Racing. If you make a visit to Superior Dairy, we’re sure it will become a regular experience.
For more news and info on Stephen Allard and 1m Racing log onto www.stephenallard.com
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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