Jonathan Allard picks up wins at Petaluma and Calistoga over successful Memorial Day Weekend Golden State Challenge triple-header
By Gary Thomas
Calistoga, CA – June 2, 2010…Keeping up his often strong success at the Petaluma Speedway this past Friday night Chico, California’s Jonathan Allard led all 30-laps in the main event to record his fifth win in the past 12 Golden State Challenge Series events at the hooked up 3/8 mile clay oval. The two-time King of California then backed that up by racing to another big win on Saturday evening at the famed Calistoga Speedway half-mile.
The victory on Friday at the Petaluma Speedway was also a nice rebound for Allard after lapped traffic played a big factor in a runner up finish at Hanford the previous week, where he led 29 ¾ laps in the feature until Tim Kaeding snuck by for the win just prior to the finish line.
“I just tried to minimize the mistakes in the feature, because the track was really fast and narrow, but I knew there would be people coming after me and Evan Suggs and Zach Zimmerly did a great job tonight to get up here on the podium,” commented Allard. “We also lost a great guy this week though in Jesse Hockett and it really hit close to home so I definitely want to dedicate this win to Jesse.”
Allard opened the evening at the Sonoma-Marin County Fairgrounds facility by setting his Golden State Challenge Series leading fifth fast-time of the season, before finishing third in his heat and second in the dash to put the Williams Motorsports, Red Line Oil, K&N Filters No. 0 mount on the front row for the main event. When the green waved in the feature the 33-year-old driver jumped into the lead ahead of pole sitter Evan Suggs and the pair would distance themselves from the rest of the field over the first half of the race.
Lapped traffic is always a tricky situation at Petaluma and with the surface being very fast and rough it made things double challenging and with less than 10-laps remaining Allard became bottled up behind slower cars, which allowed Suggs and Washington’s Zach Zimmerly the opportunity to close in. At one point “JA” caught a big rut and bounced up the track, with it appearing to give Suggs a chance, but Allard was able to harness the car back down in time and keep it straight to drive away and tally his second win of the season in Petaluma.
Allard then brought his Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series point lead into the Calistoga Speedway on Saturday and Sunday as he looked to score his second career win the historic half-mile located on the Napa County Fairgrounds. A long delay was seen at the start of the evening in Calistoga on Saturday, as track conditions forced prep crews to re-work the surface prior to hot laps, which forced GSC officials to modify the program. For the first time group qualifying was used and the dash was scrapped in order to make time under the 11pm state mandated curfew.
When cars finally hit the speedway Allard timed in second fastest overall and tallied a fourth place finish in his heat race, before the four pill was drawn for the inversion to put him in the second row for the 25-lap feature. As racing got underway he immediately shot into second and looked to find a way by Bud Kaeding for the top-spot, which he accomplished on lap-four to move the Sharp Insurance, Butler Built Performance, Platinum Powder Coating sprinter into the lead. Once in front Allard’s biggest worry the rest of the race was lapped traffic and a fast moving Tim Kaeding, who got by brother Bud after a handful of laps.
The Chico racer was able to do a great job the rest of the way though and crossed under the checkered for his 24th career Golden State Challenge Series victory and second ever at the Calistoga Speedway. “The track was tough tonight so it was definitely a demanding race and it was pretty difficult getting through traffic,” said Allard. “I really have to thank all my guys for giving a great car again, because they’ve been doing it all year long. I certainly knew Tim was there, but I really tried to just focus on running my own race and thankfully it worked and we came out on top.”
Allard then came back on Sunday night to Calistoga and held off a strong challenge by Evan Suggs over the final few laps to post a third place finish in the feature behind Bud Kaeding, who won his first ever race at the track and Tim Kaeding, who finished runner up for the second evening in a row.
Up next for the Williams Motorsports team will be a double-header weekend in Northern California starting with Friday’s re-scheduled third annual Bill Brownell Memorial at the Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico. So far this year Allard has picked off the two most recent 410 point shows at the track and will be looking to make it three in a row on Friday.
Then on Saturday the No. 0 machine will be headed to the Placerville Speedway for the 13th round of action with the Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series, which also marks half-way in the 2010 season for the traveling club. Coming into the evening Allard maintains a 22-point lead in the series standings over 13-time King of California Brent Kaeding and a 31-point advantage over third place Kyle Larson. When GSC last visited Placerville for the season-opener in March Allard raced to victory in the main event and it also marked his ninth finish of second or better in the past 12 series events at the high-banked bullring.
For more info on Chico, California's Jonathan Allard please visit http://www.allardmotorsports.com
After winning with the Golden State Challenge Series on Friday night in Petaluma, two-time King of California Jonathan Allard backed that up by scoring his second career victory at the famed Calistoga Speedway half-mile on Saturday. The Chico racer then capped the strong weekend with a third place finish in the feature on Sunday at Stoga aboard the Williams Motorsports No. 0 sprint car. Photo by Steve Lamothe of http://www.stevesracingphotos.com
- Gary Thomas on Jun 02, 2010
- Article Date: 6/2/2010