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PLACERVILLE, CA
– Jonathan Allard continued his winning ways in the
Golden State Challenge Series Wednesday night, winning
the fourth round of the series in a special weeknight
event at John Padjen’s Placerville Speedway.
The victory was Allard’s third out of four
events to take place so far in this rain shortened
racing season and will increase his early season point
lead while adding $3,000 to the bank account of his
Morrie Williams owned team.
“I’m
really happy with the way things have been going for us
lately," said Allard. “I really want to thank
everyone that gets this car on the track at every race,
especially tonight because I’m battling a bit of a
cold and my whole team did a great job tonight. But most
of all I want to thank all the fans that came out here
on a Wednesday night, I know its hard to make it here
after work but this is a great crowd here and all of us
thank you for coming out to watch.”
Allard
earned the second position in qualifying Wednesday night
behind Andy Forsberg who earned the
Cold
Springs
Community
Church
, Placerville Speedway fast time award with a 10:087
second lap. In heat racing action Allard finished in the
fourth position which made him eligible for the eight
lap dash midway through the program, an event that
determines the first four starting rows of the feature
event.
After
winning the dash, Allard earned the pole position for
the feature event with Ronnie Day of
Salinas
on the outside and the second row of
Placerville
’s Andy Gregg and Brent Kaeding of
Campbell
starting in the fourth position.
At the
waving of the green flag, Allard wasted no time in
pulling ahead of his fellow 21-competitors in the
A-feature. While Allard ran undaunted several car
lengths ahead for much of the race, the action several
positions deep in the field.
Starting
in the ninth position,
Auburn’s Andy Forsberg had advanced as high as the sixth
position early in the race until a roll over in the
second turn on lap eight sent him to the rear of the
field for the restart. Forsberg rallied back once the
event was restarted but a second spin ended the fast
qualifier’s night early at the 18-lap mark.
Forsberg’s incidents were
just two of many caution periods on Wednesday night. The
repeated restarts prevented Allard from reaching lapped
traffic for much of the event, something the former
Silver Dollar Speedway champion was thankful for.
“The
caution flags saved my rear tonight as far as lapped
traffic goes,” said Allard. “ We were able to stay
out in front and roll around a bit and never really had
to worry about getting caught up in traffic with the
caution flags.”
In the
final laps of the race former King of California
champion Brent Kaeding closed in on second place runner
Ronnie Day with little success. Day, who has returned to
full time racing with the GSC for 2006 maintained the
bridesmaid position in his first event at Placerville
in more than six years.
“It’s
been a long time since I have been up here and it’s
nice to be back running the series,” said Day. “Like
Jonathan said I think we all need to thank the fans
tonight for their support on a weeknight deal like this.
We appreciate everyone coming out to watch us do
this.”
Kaeding
maintained his third place position to the checkered
flag, despite challenges late in the race by Allard’s
teammate Dennis Moore Jr. of Grinell,
Iowa
. Kaeding entered the night second in the series point
standings behind Allard and credited Allard for his
successful season so far.
“Sometimes
its great to be good and better to be lucky,” said
Kaeding. “Jonathan Allard has had both of those things
going on this year. Tonight he got lucky with a good
starting position but on other nights he has started
behind me and passed me because he’s just having a
really good year with a great team. He and Ronnie drove
a great race. It’s nice to run during the week again I
hope maybe next year we can get some of these promoters
to let us have a speed week again. You can talk about Oregon
and everywhere else but
California
is number one when it comes to this sport and I know the
fans would support it again.”
Moore
finished the event in fourth behind Kaeding. Jason
Statler of
San Jose
rounded out the top five finishers in the feature event
ahead of Elk Grove’s Kyle Hirst and Chuck Gurney Jr.
of
Indianapolis
,
Indiana
. In preliminary competition the B-main event was
claimed by Forsberg who finished ahead of Hirst and
Calistoga’s Mike Benson. Heat races were won by John
Gray of
Chico
, Statler and Brad Sweet of
Indianapolis
,
Indiana
.
The
Golden State Challenge Series Sprint cars will return to
Placerville Speedway on Saturday, June 3 for their final
appearance here. This Saturday the El Dorado County New
Car Dealers championship season resumes at
Placerville
with 360 sprint cars, pro stocks and pure stocks. The
three track regulars will compete in their second point
race of the season and will be joined by the Hunt
Magnetos Wingless Spec Sprints for their first season
appearance here.
Action is set
to begin with qualifying at
6:30
for the winged sprint cars. The gates to the speedway
will open at
5 p.m.
Adult tickets will be $11, juniors and seniors will be
$9, children $4 and under six will be admitted for free.
For further information visit www.johnpadjenmotorsports.com
or call the track office at (916) 969-7484.
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