Stephen Allard drives Griffin Racing No. 50 to ninth place finish in Trophy Cup standings

_Uncategorized

From Gary Thomas, photos from GraphxDesigns

Tulare, CA – October 27, 2009…Making a last minute opportunity to compete in the prestigious Trophy Cup pay off Chico, CA’s Stephen Allard claimed a top-10 finish in the overall points during the 16th running of the event this past weekend at the Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway.

Competing in the Jeff Griffin Racing, Abreu Vineyards, Stadelhofer Construction No. 50 special Chicos Stephen Allard drove to a ninth place finish out of 68-entrants in the overall standings at the 16th annual Trophy Cup in Tulare. - Photo coutesy of Graphx design
Competing in the Jeff Griffin Racing, Abreu Vineyards, Stadelhofer Construction No. 50 special Chico's Stephen Allard drove to a ninth place finish out of 68-entrants in the overall standings at the 16th annual Trophy Cup in Tulare. - Photo coutesy of Graphx design
For the two-night event Allard sat behind the wheel of the Jeff Griffin Racing, Abreu Vineyards, Stadelhofer Construction No. 50 sprint car and his ninth place finish the Trophy Cup standings marked the second straight season that he has been among the top-10, after scoring a seventh place result last year. “I have to give a big thanks to Jeff Griffin and the 50 team for giving me a shot to race at the Trophy Cup,” Allard said. “I didn’t think I’d be able to run this year, but thankfully this opportunity presented itself because it’s always a great race and one that everyone wants to be a part of.”

A total of 68 cars showed up on Friday for the start of the $80,000 event, which benefits the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Allard timed-in 30th fastest to begin the night in the extremely stout field. It set him up to start from the outside of the front row in the sixth and final heat race and in the early stages he would duel with IRA driver Mike Reinke as the pair went wheel-to-wheel a couple of different times, before “SA” charged under him to drive away for the victory. He then started from the 11th row in the feature and brought home a 15th place finish on the extremely hooked up 1/3 mile clay oval.

Going into Saturday night the two-time Silver Dollar Speedway track champion sat 16th in the Trophy Cup standings and it put him on the outside of the third row in his heat race, where he would tally a fifth place finish. When points were tabulated following the heats Allard had accumulated enough to make the main event and what followed was one of the most exciting contests in some time. With the track surface slicked off and wide it made for some fantastic racing and at the conclusion of the 50-lapper Allard sat in the seventh position. “We had a real good car and even though I thought we could have finished higher in the points we are happy with how the weekend ended,” said the veteran driver.

The next scheduled event for Allard will be next months Lucas Oil ASCS National Sprint Car Series sanctioned 42nd annual Western World Championships at the USA Raceway Park in Tucson, Arizona. The three-night event will be held on November 19, 20 and 21 and will award $15,000 to the winner of the ASCS National Series main event during the final night. “I’m really excited about going to Tucson to be able to run the Western World this year,” said Allard, who is expected to be aboard the Richie Peterson No. 23n machine, which is the same car he won the ASCS NW Region’s season finale in during the last weekend of September. “We had a great run up in Washington in the 23 car and hopefully we can duplicate that in Arizona. There’s going to be a lot of great cars there so it should be fun”