By Gary Thomas
Medford, OR – June 13, 2011…Despite various tough finishes recently Chico, California’s Jonathan Allard put that all behind him on Saturday night at the Southern Oregon Speedway and scored his second Golden State King of the West Sprint Car Series victory of the season in front of an overflowing crowd of 4,000 people.
Allard was able to make a beautiful move to get under San Jose’s Tim Kaeding with just eight-laps left in the race and tally his first ever Southern Oregon Speedway 410 sprint car win. It was a nice rebound for Allard, who had led the first 19-laps in the feature the night before at Silver Dollar Speedway, until contact took him out of the top-spot.
“Lately we haven’t been having the greatest luck so to come out here tonight and win in Medford is pretty special,” said Allard in victory lane. “I have to really thank my car owners Morrie & Katie Williams and this whole team for sticking with me. We haven’t won in Medford before and to do it like this is just awesome.”
The 30-lap main event started out with Allard leading the field into the first corner, but Tim Kaeding was able to charge his way by and take command. With one-lap down Grass Valley’s Jason Statler got upside down to bring out the red flag. He was okay though and restarted the race at the tail of the field. On the restart Kaeding charged into the lead once again aboard the Roth Motorsports No. 83.
A number of yellows and reds slowed the flow of things in the feature, but all along Allard stalked Kaeding trying his best to get by for the lead of the race. A well prepared track was offered to competitors and during green flag racing the action was very good all throughout the field. As Kaeding sat out front Allard was cutting the bottom of the speedway to perfection and ran as close as possible to his rear bumper for much of the contest.
With just under 10-laps left in the race Allard finally got the momentum he needed and charged under Kaeding to steal the lead of the race, but a yellow flag negated the pass and forced him back to second. That didn’t deter Allard however, and just after the restart he was able to duplicate the move and once again slice his way to the lead.
One final caution would come out with five laps remaining in the race, but “JA” didn’t hesitate on the final restart of the night and charged off for his second KWS win of the year. T. Kaeding crossed the line in second to continue his consistent season and Australian Ian Madsen finished third to keep up his impressive results since joining the KWS tour in early May.
Scotts Valley’s Evan Suggs had another solid night to finish fourth and Campbell’s Brent Kaeding rounded out the top-five to cap a consistent weekend for the 13-time champ. Completing the top-10 was Sacramento’s Willie Croft, Fort Jones, CA’s Dan Menne, Jason Statler, Everett Washington’s Jayme Barnes and Elk Grove’s Bobby McMahan.
The 12-lap Last Chance Qualifier was an exciting one that saw Stockton’s Brad Furr make a last lap pass for victory while racing through heavy traffic. Jonathan Allard picked off the Dash as well as the night’s opening heat race. Other heat race wins were taken by Roger Crockett, Tim Kaeding and Ian Madsen. Hoseheads/ Grant’s Fine Art Rookie of the Year contender Kenny Allen began the night by setting his first ever KWS fast-time with a clocking of 11.360 seconds.
Everyone involved with the Golden State King of the West Sprint Car Series would like to thank promoter John Skinner and his staff for being very gracious hosts on Saturday night. It was a great evening of racing and was really nice to see so many people in the stands for the event.
Some KWS teams will now continue north on I-5 to take part in the non-sanctioned Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Washington on June 16-18. The 40th annual event will pay $40,000 to the winner of Saturday night’s 40-lap A-main.
The Golden State King of the West Sprint Car Series will now get a couple weekends off, before resuming competition at the Ocean Speedway on July 1 and 2 for the inaugural Howard Kaeding Classic.
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