Jonathan Allard. - Steve Lafond / Tear Off Heaven Fotos
PETERSEN MEDIA
One week after scoring his first series win of the year, Jonathan Allard returned to action with the King of the West Series for a Memorial Day double-header at the Thunderbowl in Tulare, CA where he climbed to third Sunday, one night after getting upside down in the feature event.
“It was just a wild weekend at the Thunderbowl,” Allard said. “I felt like the 0 on our car was a bulleye, but the Zero Heroes are the best, and kept getting it back together, and we ended up with a third on Sunday night.”
Jonathan Allard. – Steve Lafond / Tear Off Heaven Fotos
With action at the Central California track getting underway on Saturday night, Allard timed his Williams Motorsports entry in second fastest, putting him in the second row of his heat race.
Jumping into the second spot, Allard hooked up in a torrid battle with Willie Croft for the top spot, and eventually took the win, putting his machine in the all-important dash.
The dash draw saw JA score the vaunted eight pill, putting him scratch on the field for the six-lap affair that saw him fight up to the fifth spot, putting him in the third row for the 30-lap feature event.
When the feature event got underway, Allard held the fifth spot, as he chased after Rico Abreu, on the extremely racy track.
Working the high, scary side to near perfection, Allard began really pressuring Abreu on the 15th lap, as the duo began sliding eachother, in heavy lapped traffic.
On the 19th lap, Allard came up to quick on a lapped car, and made slight contact, resulting in his machine getting upside down, ending his night.
“It all happened so fast in traffic,” he said. “One second me and Rico Abreu were racing, the next thing were airborne. My guys did a great job of getting it back together so we could be strong on Sunday.”
Strong on Sunday he was, as Allard became the series’ first repeat fast time qualifier of the season.
Heat race action saw Jason Meyers make contact with Allard, and Allard was forced to the work area with front end issues.
Making the call to restart, Allard made a few laps, before pulling off the track with issues still hampering him from the wreck.
Starting on the pole of the LCQ, Allard picked up the win going away, and started the feature in the ninth spot.
Allard had his elbows up in the feature, as he made some swift moves to carve through the field, as he scored a third place finish.
“It was just one of those weekends,” Allard said. “There was certainly some unnecessary contact, but we kept fighting, and ended up with a decent finish.”
2013 BY THE NUMBERS: Races-28, Wins-6, Top 5’s-15, Top 10’s-16.
ON TAP: Jonathan and his Williams Motorsports team will now assess a few schedules as the King of the West Series is now off until the final weekend of June.
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.
