Jonathan Allard Continues Hot Streak at Chico

By: Troy Hennig

(Chico, CA 7-1-2005)…Chico’s Jonathan Allard continued his hot streak by winning the 25-lap sprint car main event at Silver Dollar Speedway on Friday night. With the win Allard now becomes one of the top five successful sprint car drivers in American with nine total main event victories in 2005. Allard held off a charging Andy Forsberg for the exciting win. “I knew he was the there because I could hear him,” said Allard. “This has been the most amazing year of my career and I just need to thank Morrie Williams and the Katie’s Country Kitchen team for all that they do for me.”

Sacramento’s Willie Croft took the lead of the sprint car main event. Croft was in search of his first main event win since last July 4^th. Croft was able to get a pretty good advantage over the rest of the field when caution flags would bunch back up the field. This was also a saving factor for Croft who in three laps had caught up to the back of the 21-car starting field. Yet after lap six, the race continued without cautions and the race was now going to be won or lost in lapped traffic. On lap nine Allard and Forsberg moved under Shain Matthews for second. Matthews fell to fourth but would not lose or gain any more spots the rest of the night. At the half way point Croft was no battling serious lapped traffic and this allowed Allard and Forsberg to lock in on Croft’s bumper. On lap 16, Allard moved around Croft for the lead of the race. Forsberg quickly followed while Croft struggled and fell back to a seventh place finish. For the final nine laps Allard and Forsberg put a show on for the ages. Even though Forsberg never passed Allard for the lead of the race, on numerous occasions the two were side-by-side dealing with slower cars. In the end it was Allard’s night again and he held off Forsberg by less than a car length at the finish. Sean Becker continued his consistent performance by finishing in the third spot.

Chico’s Richard Papenhausen continued to have one of his best year’s to date in the dirt-modified division by leading all 15 laps of their 11-car main event. Papenhausen won his second race of the year at Chico. Dustin Massey capped off a great night of racing to finish in the second spot. Mike Sohnrey charged through the field to finish in the third spot. Tony Massey finished in the fourth position while Chris Compton finished a respectable fifth.

Loren Dreiss runs a limited pure stock schedule but when he shows up he is a force to be reckoned with. This statement was true tonight as the Chico driver led all 20 laps of the pure stock main event. Yet, it wasn’t a walk in the park for Dreiss who had to withstand a forceful charge from Chris Warner. Coming down to the checkered Warner dove to the bottom of the track and gave the crowd a photo finish effort underneath flagman’s Don Dunlap’s flag stand. The crowd appreciated the good close racing with a standing ovation as the two came back by after the race was over. Jim Neher continued his hot streak with a third place finish. Phil Shelby and Phil Marino rounded out the top five.

Results

Sprint Cars

Fast time: Sean Becker: 11.986.

Heat 1: Eddy Lewis, Shain Matthews, John Gray, Tommy Fogarty, Sean Becker

Heat 2: Matt Shelton, Willie Croft, Andy Forsberg, Billy Wallace, Stuart Krum

Heat 3: Jim Richardson, Korey Lovell, Bernie Sloop, Colby Weisz, Jonathan Allard

A Main: Allard, Forsberg, Becker, Matthews, Weisz, Lovell, Croft, Gray, Lewis, Richardson, Michael Hubert III, Sloop, Doug Lippincott, Krujm, Dave James, Kevin Sharrah,

Home