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Fernley, Nevada - May 7,
2006...Current Golden State Challenge Series point
leader Jonathan Allard of Chico drove the GT Trends 0 to
a 30 lap flag to flag victory Saturday night in GSC’s
3rd race of year. It was Allard’s 8th
career GSC victory and gives him sole possession of 8th
on the all time win list.
Allard was originally
scheduled to start 4th, but after an early
incident took out front row starter Sean Becker of
Oroville, it moved him up to the outside front row and
it was a break he took full advantage of.
The feature started out with
Campbell’s Brent Kaeding on the pole by way of his win
in the evening’s Trophy Dash. On the initial start
Kaeding drove his Al’s Roofing Supply 69 into the
lead, but before a lap could be completed San Jose’s
Jason Statler sat on the backstretch with front end
damage to bring out a caution. Also involved was the 73
of Discovery Bay’s Jim Skinner. This created a
complete restart which featured the race changing
incident.
As the field went into turn
four coming to green, front row starters Kaeding and
Becker got together which resulted in the 35 of Becker
falling back in the pack and contact ensued with
Marysville’s Shain Matthews who couldn’t avoid the
35 as it slowed on the frontstretch. Becker, who has won
the first two point races at Chico’s Silver Dollar
Speedway, was towed to the pits and damage was too
severe to continue.
The next complete restart
saw the 69 of Kaeding with the 0 of Allard to his
outside. At the waving of Jake Vickers green flag,
Allard pulled ahead of Kaeding and proceeded to create a
huge gap between himself and the rest of the field. By
lap eight he had created a full straightaway lead as he
worked lapped traffic. Lap 12 saw the Redi-Green
Motorsports 1k of Australia’s Peter Murphy come to a
stop in turn two and bring out a caution. Murphy was
running in 3rd and had come in contact with a
lap car which broke the front end on his J & J
chassis. The caution took away a nearly half lap lead
that Allard had amassed.
The restart for lap 12 saw
Allard with a three lapped car cushion between himself
and 2nd running Kaeding. After a few more
laps were completed, Jason Statler stopped in turn two
to bring out a caution.
This time Allard had no
lapped cars between himself and Kaeding. The hard packed
3/8 mile track made passing difficult as it became a one
lane expressway on the bottom. However, the racing was
entertaining as lapped traffic came into play late in
the race. On the restart Kaeding stuck right to the rear
bumper of Allard and the two ran nose to tail as they
entered traffic. Allard and Kaeding put on a great show
and kept the fans on the edge of their seat as they both
had to make quick decisions while running through the
extremely thick and hectic lapped traffic.
With a handful of laps left
Allard was able to pull away as Kaeding had difficulty
getting around a couple of lapped cars. Allard took to
the checkered flag to score his 2nd GSC win
of the year. After the races it was reported that Allard
was only running on seven cylinders for the last half of
the feature.
Kaeding hung on to score his
2nd runner up finish of the season with
Grinnel, Iowa’s Dennis Moore Jr scoring his 1st
podium finish of the season. It was a nice charge for
Moore as he started 8th and made several nice
bottom groove passes to move forward. Salinas’s Ronnie
got 4th with Rocklin’s
Robert Ballou completing the top five.
Finishing 6th through 10th were
Steve Kent, Stephen Allard, Jason York, John Gray and
Jim Skinner.
With the short field of cars
no B-main was ran.
The Trophy Dash was picked
off pole sitter Kaeding. Following him across the line
were Becker, Murphy, J. Allard, York, Day, Kent and
Moore Jr.
The three 10 lap heat races
were captured by S.Allard, Gray and Ballou.
Quick time was set by Becker
who toured the dry slick 3/8 mile in 14.730 seconds.
Results-
Quick time: Sean Becker
14.730
Heat 1: Stephen Allard,
Ronnie Day, Jon Maiwald, Sean Becker, Peter Murphy
Heat 2: John Gray, Jason
Statler, Jason York, Brent Kaeding, Jonathan Allard
Heat 3: Robert
Ballou, Dennis Moore Jr, Shain Matthews, Mike
Monahan, Steve Kent
Dash: Kaeding, Becker,
Murphy, J.Allard, York, Day, Kent, Moore Jr.
A-main: J.Allard, Kaeding,
Moore Jr, Day, Ballou,
Kent, S.Allard, York, Gray, Skinner, Eddy Lewis, Carl
Droivold, Jim Richardson, Mark Tabor Jr, Chase Wood,
Maiwald, Pat Harvey, Tom Haxall, Mark Tabor Sr, Monahan,
Statler, Murphy, Becker, Matthews
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