Going into this past Saturday’s Golden State Challenge finale at the Placerville Speedway Chico’s Jonathan Allard was gunning hard to get back into victory lane with the series and very nearly made it happen, until Los Angeles, CA’s Tyler Walker was able to make a pass with just three laps remaining in the feature to relegate him to another runner-up at the checkered.
The second place effort marked Allard’s seventh runner-up in 21 GSC races this season and the sixth time it has came during a Walker victory. “I gave it a hard run here tonight and Tyler did a great job and just got me again late in the race, but it was an exciting one so hopefully the fans enjoyed it,” Allard said. “I want to thank Morrie & Katie Williams and my whole team for giving me great stuff all year and want to thank all you fans for coming out tonight.”
The final event of the season for the Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series saw Allard time-in third fastest overall and then bring home finishes of fourth in both his heat race and the dash to put the Williams Motorsports No. 0 sprinter in the second row for the main event. When the green lights came on in the 30-lap contest the two-time King of California immediately went to the high-side of the quarter-mile bullring as he settled into third behind leader Kyle Hirst and second place Tyler Walker.
While most competitors ran the bottom of the speedway early on Allard remained up high and on lap six he would make an aggressive move to rocket around Walker and charge into second. The Chico driver would then close in on Hirst and give it a few hard runs through turns one and two, but the cushion was very tricky and hitting your marks was paramount to get around smoothly on it. Allard looked to have more speed, but caught the cushion at the wrong angle a couple of times and it allowed the Loomis driver to escape however, on lap 12 things would change when Hirst contacted a spun lapped car and got upside down.
With Hirst out of the event it set up another classic battle between “JA” and “T-dub” in what has been a trend for much of the season. Allard ran his own race as he tried different lines to get through traffic in an attempt to hold Walker at bay and he was able to do so until the 27th circuit, when he caught the cushion and slowed his momentum just enough to give Walker the opportunity to slip underneath and take command. Allard stayed close to the green 24 over the final couple laps, but couldn’t get an opening to get back by and ended the exciting feature in second.
The top three finishers in the main event were Walker, Allard and Brent Kaeding, who also happened to be the top three in the final Golden State Challenge Series standings in that same order. “I have to congratulate Tyler Walker and his guys because this was a great championship battle right down to the end,” Allard said. “We came up a bit short of the title, but we gave it a great shot and had a lot of fun running with Tyler and Brent for the championship this year.”
Allard ended the Golden State Challenge Series season leading the traveling 410 tour in fast-times with nine, top-fives with 17 and top-10’s with a perfect 21 out of 21. The 33 year-old driver also picked up one victory with the series, with that coming at the Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial in May. “Overall it was a solid season for us, but we were definitely hoping for some more wins so that was certainly a bit disappointing,” said Allard. “We were in position to win a bunch of times and easily could have won five or more, but it just didn’t happen so hopefully in some of the bigger shows coming up that will change.”
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