From Gary Thomas, photos courtesy of John’s Racing Photos
Tulare, CA – Hoping for a good run to put a cap on his Northern California sprint car season Chico, CA’s Jonathan Allard looked to be on way to a strong effort Saturday night at the 16th annual Trophy Cup, until getting upside down in the second corner to put an end to his charge this past weekend at the Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway.
Going into the prestigious two-night event Allard was searching for his first career Cup victory, but things got off to a little bit shakier of a start than he would have wanted as issues in qualifying left him 28th fastest in the 68-car field. “It definitely wasn’t the way we wanted to start the weekend, but the one good thing is that it was pretty much the only time all of Trophy Cup that this car wasn’t a rocket ship because we were locked down really good after that,” Allard said. “Even though the weekend didn’t end how we would have liked it to either, we were really fast and have to be happy about that at least.”
Restarting at the rear of the field Allard once again got his “elbows-up” and began to carve his way back through the field as every pass meant more valuable points towards the Trophy Cup title. Charging high and low on the 1/3 mile clay oval “JA” maneuvered his Williams Motorsports mount all the way back up to seventh and was quickly closing in on Tim Kaeding and Cory Eliason when the checkered flag was waved by starter Willie Williams. “It was a nice rebound in the feature and it would have been cool to see what we could have done with five more laps,” said Allard, who also turned the second fastest lap of the main event on lap 25. “After the spin I knew I had to get back up as far as I could and I have to thank my guys for giving me a great car because this thing was on a rail.”
Coming back on Saturday Allard found himself sitting 10th in the overall Trophy Cup standings and with the eight invert in the heat races it put the Sharp Insurance, K&N Filters, A.R.T. Chassis No. 0 sprinter on the inside of the fourth row in his heat. A hooked-up yet racy track was present for the heats and the two-time King of California put the car on the very top of the racetrack as he put on a crowd-pleasing performance blowing around a number of drivers to get up to second by the finish. The performance was good enough to move him up to seventh in the event standings heading into the main event and it put him in the 18th starting position with the total invert.
When the green lights came on for the 50-lap contest Allard continued right where he left off in his heat race as he put the Ashley Smith prepped No. 0 machine on the ragged edge of the Thunderbowl Raceway clay and charged by a number of drivers in the early stages. “JA” was clearly the fastest car on the track and around lap 13 would make the move under Kyle Hirst to claim sixth, but couldn’t hold it off the exit of two and Hirst was able to get bite down low to re-claim the position heading down the back stretch. Lap 15 then saw a yellow come out and officials decided to make it the mandatory stoppage for fuel and adjustments so teams could make it the full 50-laps without issues.
During the red flag, points were added up and at that time of the race sitting in seventh, Allard had made up enough positions to be the high-point driver in the field up till that part of the race, but when things got back underway disaster struck in-between turns one and two as the Chico driver bicycled and got upside down to put a tough end to the main event. The second corner had claimed a number of drivers during the weekend and someone in fact had jokingly called it the “Bermuda Triangle.” Allard was officially placed 22nd in the main event run-down and finished the overall Trophy Cup 18th in the standings.
This weekend was to see Allard and a handful of other California drivers in action at the 22nd annual O’Reilly Short Track Nationals in Little Rock, Arkansas however, Mother Nature has pushed the event back one week and it will now be held on November 5-7. The $15,000 to win event will see Allard behind the wheel of the Bobby Spark’s owned No. 91 and he looks forward to competing at the prestigious three-night show. “I’m ready for the Short Track Nationals because we were pretty quick when I was out there driving for Bobby Sparks a couple weeks ago in Texas,” said the 33-year-old veteran. “We had some problems that took away better finishes that weekend, but I think we’re going to have a good run at the Short Track Nats and just hope the weather cooperates next week.”
More news on two-time King of California Jonathan Allard can be found at http://www.allardmotorsports.com