From Peterson Media
Jonathan Allard’s title defense did not go as planned Saturday night, as the reigning series champ had a few hiccups in the feature event that saw him finish 13th on Saturday night at the Antioch Speedway in Antioch, CA.
“It was a frustrating night, that is for sure,” he said.
Allard’s night got off to a great start however, as the Chico, CA driver timed his Williams Motorsports entry in with the fastest lap of the night during qualifications.
A fourth place finish in his heat race, put Allard in the Dash per his time trial time, and after shuffling his pill during the ‘Grudge Draw’, Allard found himself with the six pill, putting his machine in the third row.
In the Dash, Allard was able to make up considerable ground, as he worked his way to a third place finish, putting him in the second row for the feature event.
In the feature event, Allard’s night quickly went south, as he came to a stop on the front stretch, while cars were lining up for an attempted restart with no laps in.
Making the call before the ensuing restart, Allard found himself in the back on a very tough race track.
Working his way up inside the top 10, Allard came to a stop again on lap 23, after getting up towards the wall.
Restarting with seven laps to go, he was able to recover and salvage a 13th place finish.
“We had some things go wrong on our car before the race really got started and that put his to the tail,” he said. “We had a good car, we were able to move through the field, but it was too tough to start in the rear and expect to make up much ground.”
Friday night the team was at Allard’s home track, the Silver Dollar Speedway, where he had a great night going, until contact with Sean Becker late in the feature knocked him out of the top three.
“We were good at Chico,” he said. “We were second fastest, started third in the main, and were racing with Sean Becker all night inside the top three. Late in the race me and him (Becker) made the slightest contact, and I lost the handle and wound up ninth.”
2013 BY THE NUMBERS: Races-18, Wins-3, Top 5’s-7, Top 10’s-8.
ON TAP: Jonathan and his Williams Motorsports team will now begin their title defense with the King of the West Series as their opening event is Saturday night at the Antioch Speedway in Antioch, CA.
STAY CONNECTED: For more information on Jonathan, including upcoming events, pictures, and news please check out www.allardmotorsports.com, or follow JA on twitter @Allard0.