Coming into the 16th annual Pacific Sprint Fall Nationals, Chico’s Jonathan Allard was looking to break out and pick up his first career win at the event. After a hard fought weekend it didn’t end up how we would have hoped, but Jonathan did turn in his 13th and 14th top five finishes of the year at Silver Dollar Speedway and tied his personal best finish in the Fall Nationals.
The event for winged 360 sprint cars began on Thursday and it saw Jonathan set fast time out of the 33 cars in attendance aboard the GT Trends, K & N Filters, Red Line Oil No. 0. A fourth place finish in the opening heat race followed by a third place finish in the dash put Jonathan in the third row for the 30 lap preliminary night feature. The track remained very fast which made passing tough to do in the main event and with a number of yellow flags, it made rhythm a tough thing to find. Jonathan ran in the top five throughout the contest and brought the Williams Motorsports machine home in fourth place at the checkered flag.
After a new crop of drivers hit the speedway on Friday night, points were tabulated and Jonathan found himself sitting in the fourth position out of a field of 91 cars. Saturday night saw all main events and Jonathan didn’t have to hit the track until A-main hot laps which were held just before the B-main event. JA was the fastest driver during the A-main hot lap sessions and looked to be good to go, but the track changed by the time the 40 lap main event rolled around.
The traditional four abreast led up to the final winged sprint car main event of the season at Silver Dollar Speedway and the 1/4 mile bullring was in great shape with multiple grooves for drivers to utilize. Jonathan spent the first few laps battling with older brother Stephen for the fourth spot before he went to work on Shane Stewart for third. JA hounded Stewart for a couple laps before sweeping around him on the high side during lap nine. The pair battled it out for a few laps before Stewart was able to get back underneath for the position.
Jonathan remained on the top but got off the edge at one point and had fallen back to as far as 10th. He didn’t give up though and remained composed before giving it another charge back to the front. The slick track made for some dicey moments and he had a three wide battle going into turn one late in the race with Brad Furr and brother Stephen. JA was able to get the position and brought the Chris Jones Racing, JP’s Paint & Body, A.R. T. Speed Equipment, Platinum Powder Coating No. 0 home in fifth place for the third time in his career at the Fall Nationals.
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