By Gary Thomas, Steves Racing photos
Placerville, CA – March 27, 2010…A year after finishing runner-up in seven of the 21 races with the Golden State Challenge Series Chico, California’s Jonathan Allard was poised to break that trend right off the bat in 2010 and on Saturday night he did just that by scoring a flag-to-flag victory at the Placerville Speedway during the season-opening event for the traveling 410 sprint car circuit.
The victory for Allard was his first Golden State Challenge triumph since last year’s Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial and marked his 20th career victory with the series, which places him fourth on the all-time win list. “It was a total team effort tonight and I just really have to thank all my guys for giving me a great car,” said the two-time King of California. “A few weeks ago we were in a pretty bad crash and Ashley Smith and the boys put together another car and this thing was awesome tonight so I couldn’t be happier.”
Allard started from the pole in the 30-lap feature by way of his dominating victory in the five lap dash aboard the Williams Motorsports, K&N Filters, Butler Built Performance No. 0 machine. At the waving of the green flag Allard continued where he left off in the dash by quickly distancing himself from the rest of the field. Campbell’s Brent Kaeding immediately shot into second as he got around outside front row starter Bobby McMahan of Elk Grove on the opening lap. The first half of the main event however, was plagued by caution flags, which kept the leaders out of traffic for much of the first 15 laps on the extremely hooked-up quarter-mile clay oval.
Throughout the various stoppages though, Allard sat out front with no worries as Kaeding tried his best to keep pace with the fast moving Chico driver. The final caution of the main event would occur on lap 16 and the final 14-circuits were all about Allard up front, as he checked out from the rest of the pack to easily cross under the checkered flag ahead of Kaeding and McMahan to tally his second career GSC win at Placerville Speedway. “I definitley want to congratulate Brent on getting second and Bobby for finishing third tonight,” said Allard, who has now finished second or better in 9 of the past twelve 410 events in Placerville. “I grew up watching those two so it’s just cool to be out here racing with them and they’re a couple of great guys for our sport out here.”
Although not totally satisfied with second Kaeding was happy with the night overall as he opened the GSC season in consistent fashion at the helm of his Al’s Roofing Supply, High Five Pizza, Kaeding Performance No. 69. “It was kind of tough tonight with the track being real fast and having so many caution flags early on,” said the 13-time King of California. “If we had some traffic early I think we would have had a better shot at Jonathan, but late in the race he was real fast and there just wasn’t anything I could do. Those guys did a great job to come back like this from a tough accident in Tulare so we have to congratulate them on that and we’ll just come back next week and try to get a win in Watsonville and Antioch.”
Coming home in third and having a solid start to the year with the Golden State Challenge Series was McMahan, as he hopes to get out on the road and race more with the traveling 410 tour in 2010. “We’d definitely like to get a win here because I love racing at this place, but finishing behind the two former King of California’s isn’t too bad when you look at it,” said the driver of the Racing for the Troops, C&H Veteran Enterprises, World Environmental No. 26b. “I really miss racing with GSC because I want to race with the best out here and to do that running with Golden State is pretty much the only way to go so we’re hoping to be out here as much as possible this year.”
Rounding out the top-10 in the main event were Elk Grove’s Kyle Larson, Auburn’s Andy Forsberg, Grass Valley’s Jason Statler, Campbell’s Bud Kaeding, Placerville’s Jimmy Trulli, Penngrove’s Alissa Geving and Scotts Valley’s Evan Suggs. As previously noted Allard captured the five-lap dash with Suggs, Trulli and Brent Kaeding scoring the three 10-lap heat races. In qualifying McMahan and Roseville’s Colby Copeland each turned identical 10.140 second laps to tie for fast-time, but with Copeland being first of the two in the qualifying order the youngster was officially the fast-qualifier, which was the first of his career with the Golden State Challenge Series.
The Golden State Challenge King of California Sprint Car Series will now head for the Antioch Speedway next Saturday night April 3.
Full results from the opening night of racing will be available at http://www.goldenstatechallengeseries.com