Chico, CA’s Jonathan Allard will begin his King of California title defense this Friday and Saturday at Silver Dollar Speedway’s annual Mini Gold Cup. Last season the Mini Gold Cup fell victim to rain as did many of the first rounds of competition for the Golden State Challenge Series. In fact, the GSC season wasn’t able to get started until April 22nd at Petaluma Speedway in what was supposed to be the 8th round of action for the traveling 410 winged sprint car series.
The Mini Gold Cup has been going on at the Silver Dollar Speedway since 1987 and it originally started out as a World of Outlaws event. Over the years the race has also been unsanctioned and has also held under the banner of the now defunct Northern Auto Racing Club. In 2000 the Mini Gold Cup began its current rain under the sanction of the Golden State Challenge King of California Series and every year since (with the exception of last year) it has opened the season for the west coast’s premier winged 410 sprint car series.
Jonathan has never been able to capture the Mini Gold Cup, but has yet to compete at the race for Williams Motorsports, which will realistically be his best shot yet at capturing the $6,000 top prize. JA’s best previous finish at the Mini Gold Cup was seventh in 2001, which was his rookie year with the Golden State Challenge Series.
Last season Jonathan had a fantastic year with GSC putting together some impressive numbers in just 19 events. He won seven main events, scoring 13 top five’s and 15 top 10’s. He also set new GSC records with 10 fast times and 10 heat race wins. To put the teams qualifying strength in perspective, Jonathan was outside of the top four in qualifying only two times and outside the top 10 just once.
The World of Outlaws event in Tulare was a good test session for the teams new J & J Chassis combination coming into the Mini Gold Cup, and if there’s one track Jonathan knows better than any, it’s Silver Dollar Speedway. Jonathan and Williams Motorsports won three times last year at Silver Dollar and set fast time on nine occasions in 14 starts. JA was the 2002 Silver Dollar Speedway track champion and has won the Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial at the track three times.
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