Photo courtesy http://www.johnsracingphotos.comAfter Tulare Outlaw event Jonathan Allard ready to kick off GSC season in Placerville
By Gary Thomas
Tulare, CA – March 23, 2009…An 11th place finish on opening night at Tulare's Thunderbowl Raceway highlighted the double-header weekend with the World of Outlaws this past Friday & Saturday for two-time & defending King of California Jonathan Allard.
With the World of Outlaws format putting such a premium on qualifying in the correct spots to make it into the dash, it makes every bit of time extremely crucial. Never more was it seen than on Friday night, when despite fighting a motor that didn't seem to have the power he would have liked early on, Allard missed making the heat race inversion by just a thousandth of a second.
The top 16 qualifiers make the inversion with the World of Outlaws and the difference between a front row starting spot in the heats on Friday was Allard's time of 13.063, which put him 17th quick, and Jason Sides clocking of 13.062, which put him 16th and on the front row of a heat. With the track very fast early in the evening Allard scored sixth in his heat, before making a motor change prior to the b-main.
The Chico driver was then able to hold off 20-time Outlaw champ Steve Kinser in the "last chance showdown" to lock up the fourth and final transfer spot to give the Williams Motorsports, K&N Filters, Sharp Insurance No. 0 a 17th place starting position in the feature. Early on in the 35 lap contest Allard stayed right around where he started, but when the track began to dry out a bit he started to turn up the heat as the laps ticked down.
Allard put the Ashley Smith tuned machine on the tip top of the track and blew around a handful of competitors to move up to 12th with about 10 laps remaining in the race. He then charged around three-time WOO champ Donny Schatz in turns one & two to claim 11th, but Schatz drove hard & aggressive down low to slide back underneath Allard in turn three.
"JA" wasn't intimidated however, and cut the car back underneath Schatz's machine to take the spot right back from the Tony Stewart owned sprinter. Allard then tried hard to get by Joey Saldana for a top 10 spot during the final circuits, but Saldana didn't make a mistake and he had to settle for an 11th place finish at the Willie Williams' checkered flag.
Despite just finishing outside the top 10 Allard was happy with the way the night ended. "The motor at the start of the night didn't want to seem to run so we had to swap it out and that seemed to help," Allard said. "We're also still learning what kind of set-ups to throw at this new A.R.T. car and we finally got it running good over the last 10 or so laps of the feature. It was also a lot of fun to be able to run that hard with guys like Donny Schatz & Joey Saldana," he concluded.
Coming back on Saturday Allard was able to qualify 11th fastest in the field and score a front row starting spot in the heat race, which he parlayed into a victory to earn a spot in the dash. The 32 year-old started from the third row in the eight lap race and held his spot all the way to finish sixth and put him in the third row of the 35 lap feature.
Allard would hang around in the top five over the first number of laps, but would eventually fight the car on the extremely slicked off surface. He had an exciting wheel-to-wheel battle with Jason Meyers at one point, before both drivers dropped back in the order with Allard crossing the stripe in 15th at the finish.
Golden State Challenge Series kick off this weekend:
This Saturday night Allard will begin his King of California title defense when the 2009 Golden State Challenge Sprint Car Series opens up at the Placerville Speedway. The always action-packed red-clay bullring has been a place of great consistency for Allard ever since he joined Williams Motorsports in 2005.
In eight GSC starts at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds facility since 05, Allard has tallied six finishes of second or better, including a victory in May of '06, with his only finish out of the top five being a 10th place result where he was running in third early on, only to suffer a flat tire after contact with another competitor. Last season he scored finishes of second and fourth in the two series events at the track.
With Allard picking up his second King of California championship last year it allowed him to join Campbell's Brent Kaeding & Fresno's Steve Kent as just the third driver in GSC history to posses multiple series titles. This season he'll be looking to surpass Kent, a fellow two-time champ, to become the second driver to reach three King of California titles.
With recent success at the Placerville Speedway Allard is looking forward to this Saturday. "We're certainly ready to kick off the GSC season and Placerville has been pretty good to us lately so hopefully that trend will continue and we'll come out of it in pretty good shape," Allard said. "Placerville is no doubt a driver's track and getting through traffic is always a key with how tight the racing usually is there."
After winning one main event with GSC last year Allard's goal will definitely be trying to get into victory lane a little more frequently in 2009. "We'll be trying hard to get some wins early on in the season to set the tone, because guys like Tyler Walker & Brent Kaeding will be tough as always and then you throw in a youngster like Kyle Larson, who does a great job as well and it has the makings of being pretty competitive up front every week" Allard concluded.
For more info on Chico, CA driver Jonathan Allard visit http://www.allardmotorsports.com
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Jonathan Allard will kick off the '09 Golden State Challenge Series season this Saturday night at Placerville Speedway. The front gate will open at 5pm with adult tickets costing $16, juniors $11 and children $5. Qualifying is slated to start at 6:30. Photo courtesy http://www.stevesracingphotos.com
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