By Gary Thomas
Petaluma, CA – April 17, 2010…Since 410 sprint car racing returned to the Petaluma Speedway in 2005 none have been more successful than Chico’s Jonathan Allard and on Saturday night the former two-time King of California continued his strength at the 3/8 mile clay oval by scoring his fourth career Golden State Challenge Series victory at the track.
The win was Allard’s third in the first four GSC races of the 2010 season as he continues his torrid pace to begin the campaign. “I’m just 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, whose fourth career series win at Petaluma Speedway since ’05 is tops among all drivers. “We got a little lucky with getting that second start, but that’s how it goes sometimes and I want to thank everyone for coming out tonight, because we love coming here and the fans are always great.”
The initial start of the 30-lap Golden State Challenge Series feature saw Campbell’s Brent Kaeding get the jump on the field aboard the Al’s Roofing Supply, High Five Pizza No. 69, but a four-car pile-up in turn four made it all for naught and created a complete restart. On the next start Allard, who earned the pole by way of winning his third dash of the season, got a much better launch off the bottom of the speedway and shot ahead of Kaeding to claim the lead heading into the first set of corners. Easton’s Tommy Tarlton quickly moved into third from the fifth starting spot and over the early rounds would hound Kaeding for the runner-up position.
As it often seems to do in Petaluma things became much tighter when traffic came into play around lap 10 and it saw Allard, Kaeding, Tarlton and Kyle Larson, who had gotten by Zach Zimmerly on lap nine, bunch up while they tried to pick their way through the slower cars. With the leader boxed in Kaeding looked to take advantage and charged to the bottom of the track to get side-by-side with Allard, but just when that happened the red lights flashed on for Zimmerly, as the Northwest youngster reportedly got into a wheelie on the hooked-up surface, which resulted in him bicycling and flipping off the second corner. Prior to the stoppage with 12-laps complete the top-four drivers on the speedway appeared to be headed for a tremendous duel, but the restart saw clear track ahead for the leaders.
When flagman Brian Azevedo waved the green flag again Scotts Valley’s Evan Suggs made a nice maneuver to slice under Larson and move the Suggs Racing, Lucas Oil No. 33e into fourth by the time another caution came out on lap 13. Following a couple more stoppages Suggs continued his march forward on a lap 15 restart by carving his way under Tarlton to take third and also looking to bring Larson along in fourth, but the driver of the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino, Corporate America Lending No. 21 fought back by Larson to maintain fourth momentarily. The 17-year-old from Elk Grove however, quickly figured out the high side in turns one and two as he blasted around the 3/8 mile clay oval and proceeded to put on a relentless charge toward the front.
Showing no fear at all Larson put his Stadelhofer Construction, Peppermill Casino No. 99 on the ‘ragged edge’ of the Petaluma Speedway and rocketed around both Tarlton and Suggs in consecutive circuits on lap 19 and 20 to claim third. With the race winding down Allard continued to maintain a safe advantage over Kaeding, but with seven laps remaining “JA” would have difficulties getting by a slower car, which allowed “BK” the chance to close in. With Kaeding fast approaching Allard had to make quick movement and he did just that to get around the lapped car and earn the breathing room needed to stretch the lead back out and cross under the checkered flag for his 22nd career Golden State Challenge Sprint Car Series victory.
Kaeding charged under the flag stand in second to score his third podium finish in the first four GSC events of 2010, as he continues to search for his first Petaluma Speedway win since 410 racing returned to the track in ’05. “We just couldn’t get to traffic after that one time early in the race and I felt like we had the fastest car tonight in the main event, but it was just really tough in the open track to do anything with Jonathan,” said the former 13-time King of California. “He just got me on that second start so we definitely wanted the first one to stay green, but it was a good night overall and we got two team-cars on the podium with Kyle up here as well so we can’t complain.”
Larson made a valiant charge to get up to the leaders with a handful of circuits remaining, but ended up running out of laps and crossed the stripe in third to round out the podium. “I was running a real good line in turns one and two and would have liked to get a caution or some traffic late in the race to see if we could have done anything with Brent and Jonathan,” said Larson, who also began the night by earning the fast-qualifier award for the second time in his Golden State Challenge Series career. “I’m satisfied with third though because it was a good point night and I really have to thank my whole crew and all our sponsors for helping out.”
Completing the top-10 in the 30-lap feature were Suggs, Tarlton, Elk Grove’s Bobby McMahan, Campbell’s Bud Kaeding, Roseville’s Colby Copeland, American Canyon’s Matthew Davis and Penngrove’s Alissa Geving. The remainder of the field was rounded out by Rio Vista’s Danielle Simpson, Rio Vista’s Dan Simpson, Chico’s Brad Bumgarner, Zimmerly, Graeagle’s Jim Richardson, Grants Pass, Oregon’s Erik Trask, Nevada City’s Pat Harvey and Grass Valley’s Jason Statler. Statler came into the night fourth in points, but was involved in the initial four-car pile-up on the first start of the race and suffered too much damage to continue on.
Larson’s quick-time to open the evening was a 12.982 and was the only driver to break into the 12-second bracket during the session. The three 10-lap heat races were captured by Allard, McMahan and Zimmerly with Allard also winning the six-lap dash. Full results will be available at http://www.goldenstatechallengeseries.com
Next Saturday night the Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series will head for the Ocean Speedway in Watsonville, California for Round five in the fight for the King of California title.