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Allard Continues Hot Streak at Chico By: Troy Hennig (Chico, Ca 6-7-02)…Chico’s Jonathan Allard passed early leader Andy Forsberg on lap six and went on to win the 20 lap sprint car main event Friday night at John Padjen’s Silver Dollar Speedway. It was Allard’s fourth win of the year at his home track in the potent McMillen / Mitchell Tom Rolfe Trucking Special #10. Allard was able to hold off a charging Peter Murphy, who started in the tenth spot but challenged Allard for the lead at the end.
Auburn’s Andy Forsberg took the entail lead of the sprint car main event. Forsberg, who just returned to racing after a month lay off, looked good for the first five laps until a lap six restart saw Allard take the lead. Dave Clarke brought out a red flag on lap seven when he made contact with a spinning Bud Walberg in turn two. The driver on the move was Peter Murphy who seemed to be able to pick off one driver at a time in working his way to the front. Murphy started in the fifth row because of a broken rear end that sidelined him from heat racing action.
On lap eight, four cars came to a stop on all different parts of the track. Walberg spun in turn two, Bernie Sloop stalled in turn four while Bryan Amos and Stephen Allard each stopped on the back straight. Racing resumed with Allard and Forsberg in the top two spots and Murphy coming hard for third. A great performance was being turned in by Troy Hovey from Chico. Hovey, a low buck family operated 360 team, was holding his own in sixth spot. Near the end, Hovey fell back to eighth, but it was his season’s best finish to date. Also having strong runs were Sean Becker who raced with Shain Matthews for the last ten laps. Side by side racing with these two ultimately saw Becker finish fourth and Matthews fifth. Both of these drivers have little experience but are already becoming very competitive and it is only a matter of time until they wind up in victory lane.
On lap 16, Murphy got by Forsberg for second and was catching Allard. Throughout the night a steady wind had slicked the surface off and the bottom was the place to be, however, Murphy was using the middle of the race track to pass. He closed on Allard and tried the outside on consecutive lap’s in turn four, but Allard held the bottom groove to perfection and won his fourth main of the year at Chico. Murphy finished a close second and Forsberg was third.
Rookie driver Sean Becker earned his first fast time award of his career in the sprint car division with a 12.707.
Results Silver Dollar Sprint Cars
Fast Time: Sean Becker: 12.707
Heat 1: Andy Forsberg, Jason York, Shain Matthews, Becker, Ryan Flynn
Heat 2: Bryan Amos, Jonathan Allard, Stephen Allard, Destiny Hays, Kyle Schild
A Main: Allard, Murphy, Forsberg, Becker, Matthews, Flynn, Troy Hovey, Hays, Schild, Amos, Bud Walberg, Chris Scott, Carl Enns, Heath Hall, Dave Clarke,