Allard 7th at Trophy Cup

Jonathan Allard overcame a late race mishap on Friday night to score a fifth place finish in the Saturday night feature event to finish seventh in the 2013 Trophy Cup standings.

“We got a little free on Friday night, and I pushed it and made a mistake,” Allard said. “In this race you have to think about everything, and I put us behind the eight ball.”

With 81 cars on hand for the marquee event, Allard timed his Williams Motorsports entry in 21^st fastest, putting him in the second row of the third heat race, which he won.

Transferring into the feature event, Allard sat sixth in points, and lined up seventh, as the 12 highest point earners inverted the field.

When the race went green, the Chico, CA driver jumped to the top of the speedway, as he quickly moved into the second spot as he hounded race-long leader, David Gravel.

Running second most of the race, there was a pair of restarts that put Allard on his tail, but he wasn’t able to get to him, as he continued to run the wall.

On the 25^th lap, Allard slipped back to the third spot, and on the 28^th lap, he got into the wall and got two flat tires, and his night was essentially over.

Being credited with a 23^rd place finish Allard sat 20^th in event points.

Back in action on Saturday night Allard started fifth in his heat race, and scored a third place finish at the stripe, propelling him to 13^th in the points, and putting him 12^th in the feature event.

Allard had a great start, and jumped into the seventh spot by the time the yellow flag flew on the fourth lap.

Still in 7^th on the 11^th lap, the red flag flew, and with extensive fence damage, the red was opened and crews were allowed to make changes to the car, and Allard and his team took advantage and made a few tweaks.

When the race went back to green, Allard jumped into the top five, as the next 26 laps went off with no stoppages, and Allard worked the Tulare cushion.

Bouncing off the wall on the 45^th lap, Allard slipped back to the seventh spot, but worked back up to the fifth spot, when the caution flew on the 47^th lap.

The last three laps were exciting, as Allard ran inside the top five. Getting up into the third spot, Allard checked up on the last lap as the leaders wrecked, and lost a few spots thinking the red or yellow would waive, but the checkered was out, and Allard wound up with a fifth place finish, and seventh in the standings.

“We were pretty good on Saturday, and rebounded nicely after I made a mistake on Friday night,” Allard said. “We lost a few spots at the end of the feature because I saw a wrecked car, and checked up, as I wont race past a car that’s vulnerable.”