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Jonathan Allard finishes sixth in Tulare
By Gary Thomas
Tulare, CA - April 2, 2007... Fresh off the win Friday night in Chico, Jonathan Allard and Williams Motorsports made the drive south to Tulare’s Thunderbowl Raceway for Golden State Challenge Series Round #6 on Saturday. Jonathan came into the night seven points behind Sean Becker for the GSC point lead and looked to close the gap while running one of his best tracks.
Jonathan qualified the Williams Motorsports, GT Trends, K & N Filters No. 0 fifth quickest overall with a lap 13.511 around 1/3 mile clay oval. He lined up fifth in the opening heat race and made a gorgeous move in the first set of corners to place the Red Line Oil, Weld Racing, Graph X Design machine into second before a lap was even completed. JA closed in quickly on leader Jason Statler and hounded him each and every step of the way throughout the heat. Jonathan tried everything and then moved up a lane with about three laps to go and as the white flag waved he had a run on Statler. Going into turn one he powered the Platinum Powder Coating, Chris Jones Racing, Sharp Insurance No. 0 to the top side and drove by Statler off of the second corner and went on to pick up an exciting heat race victory.
He lined up fifth in the six lap dash and moved up to fourth by the finish to put himself in the second row for the 30 lap feature. The track had become one lane by feature time and Jonathan fought the car for the majority of the race.
JA fell back as far as eighth but came forward in the final few laps as he tried the top side to make up some ground. He was able to get side by side with Roger Crockett for fifth with a couple laps to go, but couldn’t complete the pass and had to settle for a sixth place finish. The 0 machine was one of the fastest cars at the end of the race, but unfortunately track conditions didn’t allow him to get up as high as would have liked. A sixth place finish is still good considering how the start of the race went.
The Golden State Challenge Series heads to Antioch Speedway next Saturday for Round #7. Jonathan sits second in GSC points heading into the 1/4 mile bullring. His best career 410 finish in Antioch is second, which he accomplished in July of 2005. Last season he finished 16th in the lone GSC event at the track after getting involved in a crash midway through the main event.
There is currently a 10 point gap between Jonathan and point leader Sean Becker, and just a two point gap back to third place Brent Kaeding in the GSC point standings. Antioch is always an unpredictable track so it will interesting to see how it goes this weekend.
For more news and info on Jonathan Allard visit http://www.allardmotorsports.com
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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