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RACE REPORT: Allard Wins Opening Night of Gold Cup

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By Tony Veneziano, World of Outlaws PR Director 

 

Every sprint car driver that hails from California dreams of one day winning the Gold Cup Race of Champions at Silver Dollar Speedway. Jonathan Allard is no different. The native of Chico took a big step in that direction on Thursday night as he won the preliminary feature on the first qualifying night of the famed event and took the lead in the overall event point standings, with the other half of the field to compete on Friday night.

 

 Allard started on the pole after winning the Crane Cams Dash and led all 30 laps of the preliminary feature to earn his first World of Outlaws victory in front of his hometown crowd, with his family and countless friends in attendance.

 

“I can’t believe it,” said Allard, driver of the GT Trends Maxim. “I have been waiting so long for this. It’s an honor to win and a blessing to get to run with these guys. I can’t say enough. The team did a great job and we had a great car tonight.”

 

Allard, the 2002 Silver Dollar Speedway track champion began the night by turning in the seventh fastest lap in time trials, with a very strong field of 47 cars taking part in the first of two qualifying nights for the 54th Annual Gold Cup Race of Champions. He charged from the third starting spot in the third heat to win, to earn a spot in the Crane Cams Dash, which he also won to earn the pole position in the preliminary feature.

 

On the opening start, he won a drag race with fellow California native Brad Sweet down the front straightaway and dove low into the first turn to lead the opening lap.

 

He began to pull away down the back straightaway with Sweet in second and Jason Solwold moving up to third. Allard began to encounter lapped traffic on the sixth circuit, allowing Sweet and Solwold to close in. The caution flag flew just three laps later, giving the reigning Golden State Challenge Series King of California open race track to work with.

 

On the ensuing restart, he again quickly jumped to a sizeable advantage with Sweet in second. Allard again began to pull away when the caution flag flew on the 13th go-around. As the halfway point of the race neared, three-time World of Outlaws champion Sammy Swindell had worked his way into the fifth spot and began to battle two-time Gold Cup winner Jac Haudenschild for the fourth position.

 

Haudenschild got around Solwold for the third spot on the 15th lap, with Swindell right on his bumper. They traded the third position a couple of times the next lap, with Swindell officially being scored in the third position at the line.

 

All the while, Allard continued to maintain a commanding lead with Sweet in second. The caution flew again on the 20th lap just as he was about to enter traffic. He would endure one more caution and used another strong restart to hold the lead and pull away over last four laps of the race, encountering traffic on the last lap.

 

“For all the people that have supported me, this win is for them,” Allard said. “I wish I could be out there with these guys on the road. I miss being on the road. The fans here are great and I can’t thank them enough for always standing by us.”

 

Swindell, sporting the number 64 on his Rob Fauver maintained machine, dove under Sweet with three laps to go and did all he could to try and reel in Allard.

 

“It’s been a while since I have been in a car, so it was nice to come out here and get a good result,” said the three-time World of Outlaws champion. “Rod (Fauver) and the whole crew did a great job with this thing. We worked pretty well together and kept tuning on things. The car kept getting better and better.”

 

While the cautions made it tougher to get into a rhythm, Allard did not mind seeing them because each time they gave him clean race track to operate on. Smooth restarts each and every time helped him to quickly open a lead heading into the first turn on the high-banked ¼-mile.

 

“It was good for us to have the cautions,” noted the winner. “We got the yellows at the exact right times. The car was good in traffic though as well. I just tried to stay focused on all of the restarts and run my race.”

 

Allard, who had another very successful season in California this year, winning a number of races, had been competing with the World of Outlaws for the last two weeks. He has two straight Top-10 finishes, after a strong run on Sunday night at Calistoga Speedway.

 

“There is a lot of respect out here,” explained Allard. “I have been getting some advice from some of the full time-teams, including Danny Lasoski’s team and I can’t thank them enough. We learned a few things tonight that we will be able to work on for Saturday night.”

 

Swindell, who started sixth, in just his fifth event of the season, steadily worked his way to the front of the field in his first Gold Cup appearance in four years. He first got around reigning World of Outlaws champion Donny Schatz on the second lap and then worked his way around Solwold and Haudenschild before setting his sights on the lead pair.

 

“It would have given us a few more opportunities if we had been in traffic, since the track was the way it was where you had to run the bottom,” said the 1981 Gold Cup winner. “In traffic we maybe could have gotten some guys to make mistakes or get crossed up, but it would have cost me too. You never know. I think our car was quicker at the end and I needed one more chance to get up there.”

 

Brad Sweet ran second for a majority of the race and earned his second consecutive Top-10 finish with the series, as he came home third. Even with two former winners of the Gold Cup just behind him, he ran a very consistent race and had one of the fastest cars on the track all night long.

 

“We started the night off pretty good and set ourselves up for a good night,” said Sweet, driver of the GP Development Maxim. “The track was pretty narrow and we were lucky to come from the second row in the heat to finish second and put us in the dash. We had a good draw for the dash and got a good start in the A-Main.”

 

Haudenschild lined up fourth and ran there most of the race, moving up to third for a single lap before staging a very entertaining dual with Swindell for the third spot. Lap after lap he tried to make the high side of the track work while everyone else was glued to the bottom. After several attempts to get around Swindell on the high side, he too moved to the low groove.

 

“The car felt good tonight,” said Haudenschild, driver of the Wright One Construction Maxim. “We started right up there and were able to hang on to it. The track was a little hard to run on the top tonight, so we finished on the bottom.”

 

Craig Dollansky, who has finished third in each of the last three Gold Cups, finished fifth on Thursday night in the Karavan Trailers Maxim after starting ninth. He passed Danny Lasoski on the first lap of the race before patiently working on Jason Sides and then Donny Schatz. He moved into fifth on the 17th lap, getting around Jason Solwold.

 

Solwold finished sixth in the City Wide Insulation Maxim, with Schatz a former winner of the event in the ParkerStore J&J in seventh. Greg DeCaires was eighth in the NMI Industrial Maxim, with fellow California driver Colby Weisz in ninth in the Redline Oil Maxim, earning the KSE Race Products Hard Charger Award after starting 16th. Mike Henry rounded out the Top-10 in the S&S Automotive Maxim.

 

After the first qualifying night, Swindell finds himself third in event points, just two markers behind Allard, thanks for a strong qualifying effort, and solid heat race finish, in addition to his runner-up performance in the preliminary feature.

 

“We have a good place to start on Saturday,” said the native of Germantown, Tennessee. “As long as the track is similar to what it was tonight we can work off of what we have from tonight. If they change the track that could hurt us since we don’t have a lot of time working together compared to the people that have been running all year.”

 

Sweet who was the Rookie of the Year in the Florida DIRTcar Nationals earlier this season with the World of Outlaws at Volusia Speedway Park, would liked to have seen more green flag laps and less cautions on Thursday night. Despite being a regular at Silver Dollar Speedway, he still learns every time he hits the track and found a couple of things that his team will use on Saturday night. He was second in points to Allard after action on Thursday night.

 

“I felt that our car came on a lot better on a longer run and I think traffic would have helped us reel Jonathan (Allard) in a little,” said Sweet. “The yellows hurt a little bit, but all in all we are happy, since we’ll be starting up front on Saturday night.”

 

Haudenschild, who nearly won the Gold Cup last season after making a late race charge on the high side of the track, won the first heat race on Thursday night to put himself in the Crane Cams Dash where he finished fourth. Along with a solid qualifying effort, he finds himself fourth in events points with the other half of the field to compete on Friday night.

 

“It probably would have helped me to have been in traffic a little more,” said the native of Wooster, Ohio. “That’s always an advantage for me. We got to run in it a little, but not too much. We’re glad to run fourth. We’ll probably change the car around a little for Saturday. Hopefully we’ll start in the top three or four rows and have a shot at it.”

 

The second qualifying night of the 54th Annual Gold Cup Race of Champions will take place on Friday night at Silver Dollar Speedway and culminate with another preliminary feature.

 

GOLD CUP RACE OF CHAMPIONS NIGHT #1 NOTEBOOK

 

• FAST QUALIFIER: Jason Sides paced the 47 cars that took time with an AMB i.t. timed lap around the high-banked 1/4-mile oval in 11.774 seconds at 76.440 mph. Because the Gold Cup is a multi-day show with varying championship point totals on each night, no qualifying bonus points are awarded.

 

• QUALIFYING WINNERS: Jac Haudenschild, Craig Dollansky, Jonathan Allard and Jason Solwold won heat races…Herman Klein won the C-Main… Andy Gregg won the B-Main… Jonathan Allard won the Crane Cams dash.
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There have been 62 World of Outlaws A-Feature events held in 2007. The win list includes: Donny Schatz (February 9 at Volusia Speedway Park, March 3 at Manzanita Speedway, March 16 at Houston Raceway Park, April 28 at Knoxville Raceway, May 17 at Williams Grove Speedway, May 18 at Williams Grove Speedway, May 25 at The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway, June 25 at Black Hills Speedway, July 3 at Huset’s Speedway, July 14 at Eldora Speedway, July 18 at Lernerville Speedway, July 19 at Williams Grove Speedway, July 21 at Williams Grove Speedway and August 19 at Castrol Raceway), Joey Saldana (February 23 at Thunderbowl Raceway, March 17 at Pike County Speedway, March 24 at Volunteer Speedway, March 31 at Dixie Speedway, April 20 at Attica Raceway Park, June 5 at Kokomo Speedway, June 9 at Eagle Raceway, June 29 at River Cities Speedway, July 7 at I-55 Raceway and August 29 at Cottage Grove Speedway), Steve Kinser (March 2 at USA Race Park, April 21 at Tri-State Speedway, May 15 at Lernerville Speedway, May 20 at New Egypt Speedway, May 28 at Rolling Wheels Raceway Park, June 1 at Sharon Speedway, June 20 at Missouri State Fair Speedway, July 13 at Eldora Speedway and August 17 at Castrol Raceway), Danny Lasoski (April 6 at Paducah International Raceway, May 23 at Grandview Speedway, June 14 at Tri-City Speedway, September 1 at Calistoga Speedway and September 2 at Calistoga Speedway), Jason Meyers (April 13 at Eldora Speedway, May 11 at U.S. 36 Raceway, June 22 at Dodge City Raceway Park and July 22 at Lebanon Valley Speedway), Daryn Pittman (February 11 at Volusia Speedway Park, May 5 at Riverside International Speedway, June 23 at Dodge City Raceway Park and August 14 at Nodak Speedway), Craig Dollansky (May 12 at Lake Ozark Speedway, July 27 at I-96 Speedway and August 25 at Skagit Speedway), Jac Haudenschild (June 30 at Red River Valley Speedway and July 11 at Limaland Motorsports Park), Terry McCarl (June 16 at Knoxville Raceway and July 28 at K-C Raceway), Paul McMahan (June 2 at Eldora Speedway and July 1 at Cedar Lake Speedway), Tim Kaeding (February 24 at Thunderbowl Raceway), Brian Leppo (July 20 at Williams Grove Speedway), Kerry Madsen (February 10 at Volusia Speedway Park), Jason Sides (July 25 at Ohsweken Speedway), Jason Solwold (August 3 at Charter Raceway Park), Shane Stewart (August 27 at Grays Harbor Raceway) and Brooke Tatnell (August 24 at Skagit Speedway).

 

PRELIMINARY FEATURE WINNERS: There has been one World of Outlaws Preliminary Feature event held in 2007. The winner was Jonathan Allard (September 6 at Silver Dollar Speedway).

 

1/4-MILE WINNERS: Silver Dollar Speedway is a high-banked ¼-mile oval. The World of Outlaws have raced seven times this season on a track that size. The winners include: Joey Saldana (Kokomo Speedway and Cottage Grove Speedway), Jonathan Allard (Silver Dollar Speedway), Jac Haudenschild (Limaland Motorsports Park), Steve Kinser (Tri-State Speedway), Daryn Pittman (Riverside International Speedway), and Donny Schatz (Houston Raceway Park).

 

 

: The World of Outlaws will be televised 20 times this season on ESPN2 and SPEED while the World of Outlaws Late Model Series is set for six appearances on SPEED. The one-hour broadcasts will air on Sundays from May 13 to Nov. 4, when the series champions will be crowned during the World Finals from The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

The next scheduled broadcast for the World of Outlaws on SPEED will be Sunday, September 9 at 2 p.m. Eastern, 1 p.m. Central, with the second of two events from Skagit Speedway that were taped last weekend.

 

 

The Official World of Outlaws Web site is at http://www.worldofoutlaws.com. Among the features are updated driver biographies with individual statistics and pictures, race-by-race statistics, detailed track information and race coverage, series news and team press releases. Also, links to the Media Guide and 2007 Official Rulebook can be found at the bottom of the home page.

 

• UPCOMING EVENTS: The series inaugural visit to Clay County Speedway in Spencer, Iowa on Wednesday, August 12. The World of Outlaws return to Heartland Park Topeka on Friday, August 14, followed by a return to Charter Raceway Park in Wisconsin on Sunday, September, 16 for an event that was postponed by rain last month.

 

World of Outlaws Statistical Report; Gold Cup Race of Champions Night #1; Chico, CA; Sept. 6, 2007

 

Qualifying

1) 7S-Jason Sides 11.774

2) 6S-Brad Sweet 11.845

3) 64-Sammy Swindell 11.889

4) 8K-Chad Kemenah 11.905

5) 14-Jason Meyers 11.909

6) 6R-Mike Henry 11.910

7) O-Jonathan Allard 11.912

8) 24C-Greg DeCaires 11.936

9) 35-Jac Haudenschild 11.940

10) 7-Craig Dollansky 11.958

11) 1X-Randy Hannagan 11.964

12) R19-Jason Solwold 11.982

13) 3D-Carl Droivold 11.983

14) X1-Colby Wiesz 12.029

15) 15-Donny Schatz 12.038

16) 83-Danny Lasoski 12.049

17) 1M-Stephen Allard 12.089

18) 5C-Chad Hillier 12.101

19) 1A-Dan Menne 12.107

20) 83V-Kyle Larson 12.154

21) 16X-Andy Gregg 12.172

22) 22-Mason Moore 12.179

23) 1XM-Brett Miller 12.204

24) 14W-Zack West 12.219

25) 27-Brett Rollag 12.221

26) 18T-Tony Bruce Jr. 12.259

27) 11D-Jeff Delte 12.259

28) 2M-Zack Mason 12.290

29) 82-Robbie Whitchurch 12.334

30) 33T-Jimmy Trulli 12.371

31) 98-Chris Masters 12.371

32) X-Charlie Louden 12.469

33) 13C-Colton Heath 12.473

34) 38N-Mark Tabor Jr. 12.490

35) 95-Brandon Dozier 12.490

36) 4S-Dan Simpson 12.534

37) 11S-Robert Stice 12.547

38) 1K-Herman Klein 12.641

39) 23-Ken Fredenburg 12.678

40) 50-Jeff Griffin 12.690

41) 11N-Danny Ochs 12.777

42) 8-Jim Richardson 12.858

43) 83M-Mike Stallings 12.887

44) 20F-Jeff Flure 12.968

45) 15X-Pat Harvey Jr. 13.073

46) 10H-Dennis Harvey 13.161

47) 28-Jim Marsh 13.590

 

Heat 1 (10 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)

1) 35-Jac Haudenschild

2) 3D-Carl Droivold

3) 7S-Jason Sides

4) 1M-Stephen Allard

5) 14-Jason Meyers

6) 82-Robbie Whitchurch

7) 27-Brett Rollag

8) 16X-Andy Gregg

9) 11S-Robert Stice

10) 11N-Danny Ochs

11) 13C-Colton Heath

12) 15X-Pat Harvey Jr.

 

Heat 2 (10 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)

1) 7-Craig Dollansky

2) 6S-Brad Sweet

3) X1-Colby Wiesz

4) 6R-Mike Henry

5) 5C-Chad Hillier

6) 18T-Tony Bruce Jr.

7) 33T-Jimmy Trulli

8) 1K-Herman Klein

9) 22-Mason Moore

10) 10H-Dennis Harvey

11) 38N-Mark Tabor Jr.

12) 8-Jim Richardson

 

Heat 3 (10 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)

1) O-Jonathan Allard

2) 15-Donny Schatz

3) 64-Sammy Swindell

4) 1X-Randy Hannagan

5) 1A-Dan Menne

6) 1XM-Brett Miller

7) 95-Brandon Dozier

8) 11D-Jeff Delte

9) 28-Jim Marsh

10) 23-Ken Fredenburg

11) 83M-Mike Stallings

12) 98-Chris Masters

 

Heat 4 (10 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)

1) R19-Jason Solwold

2) 83-Danny Lasoski

3) 24C-Greg DeCaires

4) 83V-Kyle Larson

5) 8K-Chad Kemenah

6) 2M-Zack Mason

7) 14W-Zack West

8) 20F-Jeff Flure

9) 4S-Dan Simpson

10) 50-Jeff Griffin

11) X-Charlie Louden

 

Crane Cams Dash (8 laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of A-feature)

1) O-Jonathan Allard

2) 6S-Brad Sweet

3) R19-Jason Solwold

4) 35-Jac Haudenschild

5) 15-Donny Schatz

6) 64-Sammy Swindell

7) 7S-Jason Sides

8) 83-Danny Lasoski

9) 7-Craig Dollansky

10) 3D-Carl Droivold

 

C-main (10 laps, top 2 finishers transferred to B-main)

1) 1K-Herman Klein

2) 4S-Dan Simpson

3) 11S-Robert Stice [$100]

4) 23-Ken Fredenburg [$80]

5) 15X-Pat Harvey Jr. [$60]

6) 28-Jim Marsh [$59]

7) 50-Jeff Griffin [$40]

8) 10H-Dennis Harvey [$30]

9) 95-Brandon Dozier [$25]

10) 11N-Danny Ochs [$25]

11) 83M-Mike Stallings [$25]

12) 20F-Jeff Flure [$25]

13) 8-Jim Richardson [$25]

 

B-main (12 laps, top 4 finishers transferred to A-feature)

1) 16X-Andy Gregg

2) 22-Mason Moore

3) 18T-Tony Bruce Jr.

4) 1XM-Brett Miller

5) 27-Brett Rollag [$150]

6) 11D-Jeff Delte [$125]

7) 14W-Zack West [$100]

8) 33T-Jimmy Trulli [$75]

9) 2M-Zack Mason [$60]

10) 1K-Herman Klein [$50]

11) 38N-Mark Tabor Jr. [$40]

12) 13C-Colton Heath [$40]

13) 98-Chris Masters [$40]

14) 82-Robbie Whitchurch [$40]

15) 4S-Dan Simpson [$40]

16) X-Charlie Louden [$40]

 

A-main (30 laps) – Starting Position [#]

1) O-Jonathan Allard[1] [$5,000]

2) 64-Sammy Swindell[6] [$3,000]

3) 6S-Brad Sweet[2] [$2,500]

4) 35-Jac Haudenschild[4] [$2,200]

5) 7-Craig Dollansky[9] [$2,100]

6) R19-Jason Solwold[3] [$2,000]

7) 15-Donny Schatz[5] [$1,800]

8) 24C-Greg DeCaires[14] [$1,600]

9) X1-Colby Wiesz[16] [$1,500]

10) 6R-Mike Henry[13] [$1,300]

11) 14-Jason Meyers[12] [$1,200]

12) 1X-Randy Hannagan[15] [$1,100]

13) 1M-Stephen Allard[17] [$1,000]

14) 5C-Chad Hillier[18] [$700]

15) 1A-Dan Menne[19] [$600]

16) 83-Danny Lasoski[8] [$600]

17) 22-Mason Moore[22] [$600]

18) 7S-Jason Sides[7] [$600]

19) 1XM-Brett Miller[23] [$600]

20) 3D-Carl Droivold[10] [$600]

21) 18T-Tony Bruce Jr.[24] [$500]

22) 16X-Andy Gregg[21] [$500]

23) 8K-Chad Kemenah[11] [$500]

24) 83V-Kyle Larson[20] [$500]

 

Lap Leaders: Jonathan Allard 1-30

KSE Hard Charger Award: Colby Weisz

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