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Hot start to 2010 continues
for Jonathan Allard at Petaluma Speedway Saturday night with third Golden State
Challenge Series win in four races
By Gary Thomas
Petaluma, CA – April 18, 2010…Success has been a common theme at the Petaluma
Speedway for Jonathan Allard over the last five-years and the Chico, California
driver continued that on Saturday night with the Golden State Challenge Sprint
Car Series by winning his heat race, the dash and then leading every lap in the
main event to pick-up his third victory of the season.
The Golden State Challenge Series brought 410 racing back to the Petaluma
Speedway in April of 2005 and that initial event also marked Allard's very first
night of competition in the Williams Motorsports No. 0 sprint car. "We've been
really good at Petaluma ever since the first time we went there as a team back
in '05 and for whatever reason the track just seems to suit my driving style,"
Allard said. "We finished second the first night I drove for Morrie Williams
five years ago and my crew chief Ashley Smith always has the car real
comfortable so that's definitely been a big reason for why we've been so good
there."
Going into this past Saturday's event Allard sat on top of the GSC standings by
six-digits over Brent Kaeding and began the night by qualifying seventh fastest
in the field aboard the K&N Filters, Sharp Insurance, Platinum Powder Coating
machine. It then put him on the pole for his heat race and the two-time King of
California dominated the contest, winning by a huge half-lap margin to move into
the dash, where he proceeded to draw the number two pill. At the waving of the
green flag in the six-lapper Allard shot into the lead and pulled away to easily
score victory and earn the pole for the feature.
When the 30-lap main event got underway it was outside front row starter Brent
Kaeding of Campbell getting the jump, but a four-car pile-up in the fourth turn
made for a complete restart and this time Allard hammered the throttle and
rocketed into the lead. The Chico drivers' biggest challenge of the race came on
lap 12 when traffic forced him to get out of the gas and move up the track
slightly, which allowed Kaeding the chance to get underneath him and make it a
side-by-side battle down the front stretch. "JA" didn't give an inch however,
and hung onto the top-spot while at the same time seeing the red lights come on
for Zach Zimmerly, who had tipped over in turn two.
In the open track Allard was untouchable and his only real worry came with
seven-laps remaining when he had troubles getting around the lapped car of
Matthew Davis, allowing Kaeding the opportunity to close in yet again. With "BK"
looking for a way by Allard charged around the top of Davis to gain the
breathing room needed and drove off to tally his 22nd career Golden State
Challenge Series win. "I'm very fortunate to drive for this team because my guys
do all the hard work and I'm just a small part of it," said Allard, who has now
led every lap in each of his three wins this year. "We got a bit lucky with
getting that second start, but that's how it goes and I want to thank everyone
for coming out tonight, because we love coming here and the fans are always
great."
Up next for Allard is the scheduled third annual Bill Brownell Memorial at the
Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, which barring any wet weather will be the
season-opener for the Feather Falls Casino/Riebes Auto Parts championship
season. "I really want to get a chance to race at Silver Dollar Speedway this
week because I feel we have a great package to throw at this year," said the
33-year-old. "We've got a lot of confidence going right now and whenever you
have that you definitely want to race as much as possible so hopefully we can
get a couple nights in this weekend and put this car towards the front of the
field again."
On Saturday Allard will make a visit to the Ocean Speedway in Watsonville for
the fifth race of the Golden State Challenge Series season. He came extremely
close to scoring his first ever 410 win at the track last April, until lapped
traffic gave Tyler Walker the chance to steal the win away on the very last lap.
"Watsonville never seemed to be one of our personal best tracks, but we've
gotten pretty good there the last couple season's," said Allard, who re-set the
GSC track record at Ocean Speedway last August with a clocking of 11.496. "We
led all but the final lap last April and just caught traffic at the wrong time
and Tyler did a great job to get by. We really would like to get one there on
Saturday though and we'll be trying hard to do it."
More news on two-time King of California Jonathan Allard can be found at
http://www.allardmotorsports.com
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"Designed
for dirt track racers, by dirt track racers" Thomas Arbogast