By Gary Thomas
Chico, Ca - July 30, 2006... Jonathan Allard came into the final two night’s of Golden State Challenge Series competition with a very hefty lead in the season long point standings and after the weekend JA has become the 2006 Golden State Challenge Series King of California. 19 GSC races were officially run this year at nine different tracks. The Golden State Challenge King of California Series championship is arguably the toughest championship to win on the west coast. Not only does the series run on many different tracks it also ventures into different regions which makes for some very fierce and tough local competition. It is a huge honor to be crowned King of California and Jonathan is the ninth driver to win the championship in the 20 year history of the series. Even bigger is the fact that Jonathan is the first Chico driver to ever win the Golden State Challenge King of California Series championship. It’s great for the community of Chico, a town that heavily supports sprint car racing.
JA’s GSC season stats are extremely impressive. He won seven of the 19 races held and finished in the top five a remarkable 13 times and in the top ten 15 times. He set a brand new GSC single season fast time record by recording an amazing 10 quick times and only qualified out of the top four twice all year. He also won 10 heat races and the interesting tidbit about that is the fact that he won most of his heat races from the third row. The final tally shows JA winning the championship by 56 points over former champ Ronnie Day.
Jonathan won the season opener at Petaluma Speedway and never trailed all season in the GSC point standings. Jonathan and Williams Motorsports were strong from start to finish and we can only hope that the strength continues as the year goes on.
Morrie Williams, who believed in Jonathan enough to put him in his car last season after the injury to DMJ was awarded with his second consecutive car owners championship.
The final weekend of Golden State Challenge Series action was kicked off at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico on Friday night. 39 cars showed up and Jonathan came out sixth in the qualifying order. He toured the 1/4 mile in the GT Trends, Katie’s Country Kitchen, K & N Filters 0 in 12.004 seconds which was good enough for third quick.
JA lined up sixth in the third heat race and brought home a fourth place finish to put him in the dash. He was set to start third in the dash but a first lap incident took out the pole sitter allowed JA to move on up to the front row. He grabbed the lead but had to fend off a very determined Ronnie Day who was all over him for most of the race. Jonathan finally shook him and pushed the Weld Racing, Red Line Oil, Sharp Insurance and Bonding, Kistler powered Maxim to his fourth dash win of the year.
The dash win gave Jonathan the pole for the night’s 30 lap $3,000 to win feature event. JA took command at the waving of the green and led the field as they headed through turns one and two. He slipped high off turn four though which allowed Ronnie Day to get by and take the lead. The track was difficult through the early stages of the race and as most drivers Jonathan ran the bottom side of the speedway. He began to kick it up a notch around lap 15 as he began to venture up stairs in the Platinum Powder Coating, Mountain View Mortgage, Graph X Designs 0. JA moved in on Day and battled with him for a couple laps before taking the lead with a slick move off of turn four on lap 20. Day stayed close over the last ten laps but JA did his job and remained calm in traffic to pick up his seventh Golden State Challenge Series win of the season. In total it was Jonathan’s ninth victory of the year.
Jonathan came into the final night of the GSC season on Saturday with a 65 point lead over Day.
For the second year in a row extra money was on the line for qualifying at the final event. Mancamp Motorsports, CarwashMike of Hoserville and JP’s Paint and Body Works showed generosity by putting up money and because of them fast time was worth $800. Jonathan came out 14th in the qualifying order and his 12.193 second lap was good enough to hold on and set quick time to win the extra cash. He has been a qualifying machine this year and Jonathan now has 19 fast times on the season.
JA lined up outside row three in the night’s first heat race. The track was hooked up and Jonathan drove the Matt & Glass, Ultra Shield, Triple X Race Co, Hoosier Tires Maxim to a third place finish.
Jonathan got the number seven pill to line him up in the last row of the dash. He made some nice moves to work his way up to fourth by the finish and put him outside row number two for the final GSC feature event of the season.
The first lap of the main event proved to be a disastrous one as Jonathan got over the edge of three and four trying to dodge a crossed up car in front of him. One lap was scored and Jonathan was charged with a yellow flag and sat at the rear of the field. After numerous yellows early on we finally saw some green flag racing and Jonathan was on the charge. In ten laps JA had made it back to the top ten. Unfortunately another off track excursion lost him a good amount of those spots and he had to work his way forward again. He was stuck in a gaggle of cars midpack and carved his way through them expertly and was on the move once again. On lap 15 he put the GT Trends, Katie’s Country Kitchen, BR Motorsports, K & N Filters Maxim into sixth. Lap 22 saw JA get over the edge of the track and fall back yet again! Even after all that he still crossed the line in ninth.
Williams Motorsports would like to thank all of our sponsors that made it possible to win the 2006 King of California championship.
Jonathan and the team now says goodbye to California as they head back for a month of racing on the road. They will compete next weekend in the $10,000 to win Knoxville 360 Nationals at the world famous Knoxville Raceway.