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Jonathan
Allard back in victory lane at Petaluma Speedway
by Gary Thomas
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Petaluma, Ca - June 11,
2006... For the second consecutive weekend in Golden
State Challenge Series competition it was the Robert
Ballou and Jonathan Allard show, however,
this time it was the GT Trends, Katie’s Country
Kitchen 0 of Allard who utilized a mid race pass to
claim victory at Petaluma Speedway and score his series
leading fourth win of the year. The win marks Allard’s
10th career Golden State Challenge Series
victory and moves him into a tie with Jason Meyers for
sixth on the all time win list.
The 30 lap feature lined up with Kevin Pylant and Robert
Ballou on the front row.
The first attempted start was brought back for a caution
because of a tangle by Garrett Ishii, Jon Maiwald and
Billy Wallace in turn two. The second start was exciting
in the fact that Pylant and Ballou ran side by side for
virtually the whole lap, but before they could cross the
line another melee ensued, this time between Jason
Botsford, Carl Droivold, Brian Azevedo and Norm Johns.
On the third complete restart Pylant got the jump out of
turn four but as they raced off of turn two Ballou
powered to the outside in exciting fashion and drove the
car deep into turn three to claim the lead. The third
lap saw Petaluma Speedway regular and former GSC driver
Dave Lindt lose his steering in turn three and hit the
wall to bring out another caution. When they went back
to green, six more laps were completed before Jim
Skinner stopped in turn four because of a broken stop.
The restart saw Kyle Hirst bounce through turns three
and four and get into the wall which forced officials to
throw the red flag and allow teams to add fuel because
of the extreme amount of caution laps already ran.
Jonathan Allard would turn up the heat after going back
to green and took advantage of Ronnie Day getting out of
shape in turn two on lap 11 to move into third. A lap
later Allard would make a beautiful move under Kevin
Pylant to take over second.
Lap 13 saw Jon Maiwald pop a huge wheelie going down the
back stretch which resulted in several cars tangling and
included Maiwald, Stephen Allard, Norm Johns and Jim
Skinner.
The last 17 laps of the event were ran caution free and
featured some terrific racing on the fast and hooked up
3/8 mile speedway. Ballou
got a nice jump on the restart but Allard methodically
closed back in on the young gasser and as they entered
traffic, he was there. Allard made the move under Ballou
on lap 18 and that was all she wrote as he pulled away
in traffic and left the drivers running second through
fifth to battle it out. Ronnie Day moved into third on
lap 22 and closed in on Ballou
as the race was getting near completion. Day and Ballou
put on a great show for second as they went side by side
off of turn two on the final lap, but going into turn
three the two made contact which resulted in Day
flipping across the racing surface right into the path
of Brent Kaeding who was running in fourth place at the
time. Kaeding had nowhere to go and got into Day which
resulted in the 12 time King of California also not
taking the checkered flag. It was a tough break for the
driver’s sitting second and third in the Golden State
Challenge Series point standings coming into Petaluma.
The final lap incident caused a tad bit of confusion but
there was no doubt about Allard who picked up the season
sweep of the GSC Petaluma events and increased his
Golden State Challenge Series point lead.
Robert Ballou hung
on to finish second in the Garedemeyer, Finish,
Carpentry 12 and continued the recent string of great
runs for the 17 year. He has now finished second or
better in the last four races and dating back to May 20th
in Tulare, has scored five top five finishes in the last
six races.
Kevin Pylant officially ended up third in the Riley
Collins Body Shop 14p and garnered his second
consecutive top five finish in GSC action. The Redi-Green
Motorsports 1k of Peter Murphy moved up to fourth at the
finish with the Katie’s Country Kitchen 0k of Dennis
Moore Jr. completing the top five. Drivers rounding out
the top ten were the Pheasant Run Shopping Center 00 of
Jason Statler, the Jessee Heating and Air 71 of John
Gray, the G-10 Motorsports 31 of Brian Azevedo, the
Elite Landscaping 1 of Ronnie Day and the Al’s Roofing
Supply 69 of Brent Kaeding.
The B-main was picked off by the Wright Process Systems
99 of Kyle Hirst who executed a terrific high side pass
of Stephen Allard early in the race. Allard finished
second with Garrett Ishii, Brian Azevedo, Carl Droivold,
Norm Johns and Jason Botsford also transferring to the
A-main.
For the second event in a row it was Kevin Pylant
picking up the win in the dash to earn the pole position
for the feature. Finishing behind the Santa Cruz veteran
were Robert Ballou,
Ronnie Day, Peter Murphy, Dennis Moore Jr, Jonathan
Allard, Brent Kaeding and Dave Lindt.
Jon Maiwald in the Klub K9 #6m dominated the night’s
first heat race en route to his second heat win of the
year. Ronnie Day started sixth in the second heat race
and powered to the outside of the speedway on the first
lap to move into second and during a restart later in
the race made the move up high around John Gray to take
the lead and drove away to the win. The third and final
heat race went to Robert Ballou.
Fast time and a new track record was turned in by Brent
Kaeding in qualifying. Kaeding toured the 3/8 mile in a
quick 12.60 seconds and earned his first quick time
award of the season.
The Golden State Challenge Series will be right back in
action on Monday night at the Southern Oregon Speedway
in Medford, Oregon.
Unnoficial Results
Fast time- Brent Kaeding 12.60 (New Track Record)
Heat 1: Jon Maiwald, Brett Rollag, Brent Kaeding, Kevin
Pylant, Dave Lindt
Heat 2: Ronnie Day, John Gray, Dennis Moore Jr, Peter
Murphy, Billy Wallace
Heat 3: Robert Ballou,
Jim Skinner, Jason Statler, Jonathan Allard, Jason
Macintosh
Dash: Kevin Pylant, Robert
Ballou, Ronnie Day, Peter Murphy, Dennis
Moore Jr, Jonathan Allard, Brent Kaeding, Dave Lindt
B-main: Kyle Hirst, Stephen Allard, Garett Ishii, Brian
Azevedo, Carl Droivold, Norm Johns, Jason Botsford
A-main: Jonathan Allard, Robert
Ballou, Kevin Pylant, Peter Murphy, Dennis
Moore Jr, Jason Statler, John Gray, Brian Azevedo,
Ronnie Day, Brent Kaeding, Brett Rollag, Jim Skinner,
Garret Ishii, Carl Droivold, Stephen Allard
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