Jonathan Allard scores third victory of New Zealand trip at Western Springs Speedway

By Gary Thomas

Aukland, New Zealand – January 7, 2009…Returning to the Western Springs Speedway on Wednesday night Chico, California's Jonathan Allard raced to his third victory in four starts at the track during his down under assault aboard the Kevin McGreal owned Hydraulink, Porter Hire No. 0 sprinter.

Allard's previous start in New Zealand had netted him a third place finish in the feature at Robertson Holder Speedway on January 1, where he closed in on eventual winner Sammy Swindell and second place Ricky Logan late in the going, but ran out of laps to make something happen.

Photo courtesy James Selwyn Photos

http://tvnz.co.nz/motorsport-news/powerbuilt-tools-motorsport-jonathan-allard-5-46-3313048/video

Photo by www.johnsracingphotos.com

Photo from http://www.sprintcarworld.co.nz/default.asp

Jonathan Allard partners with Hydraulink Fluid Connectors and Porter Hire for 2009/10 New Zealand trip

By Gary Thomas

New Zealand, December 10, 2009…Chico, California sprint car driver Jonathan Allard is pleased to join forces with Hydraulink Fluid Connectors and Porter Hire in support of his annual New Zealand/Down Under trip for the 2009 and '10 season.

Allard is very excited to be a part of the Kevin McGreal owned No. 0 sprinter once again in New Zealand and looks forward to representing Hydraulink and Porter Hire. "We are extremely happy to have great companies like Hydraulink and Porter Hire come on board as marketing partners with our team this season," the 33-year-old veteran said. "This is the biggest sponsor I've been a part of and they have a huge racing background so it's pretty awesome to be associated with them. We have a great team down here and had a lot of success last year and I'm definitely expecting the same this season."

Tracing its beginnings back to 1945 Hydraulink has developed into a multi national hose and fittings company operating in Australia, Asia and the South Pacific basin. The prime activities of the company are the rapid repair of hose assemblies to a wide range of both mobile and static plant, in the field 24 hours a day 7 days a week, the supply of new hose assembles to original equipment manufacturers throughout all countries and direct on site sales from containers at large projects. The company undertakes this through a distribution network in New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands. Any application where optimum performance from hydraulic systems and hoses is critical, Hydraulink are there, manufacturing and distributing hydraulic hoses, fittings, couplers, tube assemblies, adaptors and accessories.

Photo from http://www.sprintcarworld.co.nz/default.asp

Noise limit takes Jonathan Allard out of contention in opening NZ race

By Gary Thomas

Chico, CA's Jonathan Allard competed in his first event since making the trip to New Zealand over this past weekend and had a great night of racing going, until officials deemed that he was exceeding the Speedway NZ noise limit in the 30-lap feature.

Allard was in action at the Western Springs Speedway and timed-in third fastest overall, before scoring third in his heat race and fifth in the dash. As the race got underway Allard battled right around the fifth position and then began to make his way around a couple cars to get up into third.

The former two-time King of California then set his sights on the top-two cars, which happened to be World of Outlaw veterans Joey Saldana and Craig Dollansky. As Allard was chasing down the duo, the black flag was waved at him due to what officials said was the 95db limit.

Allard was very upset with the call as it came right around the time he looked to be making his move on the two leaders. "We had a great car and it was getting better as the race went on so we're really dissapointed," he said. "Not very often do you see someone get black flagged for noise in a main event and obviously we don't agree with the call so we'll just come back next time and try to get some redemption."

The next race at Western Springs Speedway will be on December 26 and will be the opening round of the international sprint car series. Joining Allard at the event will be fellow American's Sammy Swindell and Ricky Logan.

Photo by Tim Alywin

Jonathan Allard charges to sixth place finish at 22nd O'Reilly Short Track Nationals in Arkansas

By Gary Thomas

Little Rock, Arkansas – November 10, 2009…Making the most of his first ever visit to the annual Short Track Nationals former two-time King of California Jonathan Allard moved forward in the main event on Saturday night at the I-30 Speedway and brought home a sixth place finish at the helm of the Bobby Sparks Racing No. 91a sprint car.

The result for Allard was also good enough for Short Track Nationals "Rookie of the Year" honors for the event and put a successful cap on the season. "This was a tough field out here and there was a lot of fast cars this weekend so it's pretty cool to get a good finish racing with these guys," Allard said. "I really have to thank Bobby Sparks and the team for giving me the chance to come out and run this car at the Short Track Nationals, as well as the Devil's Bowl Winter Nationals a few weeks ago."

The Lucas Oil ASCS National Sprint Car Series sanctioned event was postponed by one week due to wet weather and although some drivers were unable to compete due to other commitments, a stout 101-car field was still on hand this past weekend to battle it out for part of the $107,000 purse. Allard was part of Friday's preliminary night and got the weekend started off on an exciting note by making a thrilling late charge to go from third to first and pick up victory on the final lap of the fifth heat race. He then started eighth and finished sixth in his qualifying race, before scoring a 14th place finish in the 25-lap feature.

Photo's by http://www.johnsracingphotos.com

Jonathan Allard's Trophy Cup bid ends in treacherous turn two area after charging from 18th to seventh in first 15 laps of main event on Saturday

By Gary Thomas

Tulare, CA – October 27, 2009…Hoping for a good run to put a cap on his Northern California sprint car season Chico, CA's Jonathan Allard looked to be on way to a strong effort Saturday night at the 16th annual Trophy Cup, until getting upside down in the second corner to put an end to his charge this past weekend at the Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway.

Going into the prestigious two-night event Allard was searching for his first career Cup victory, but things got off to a little bit shakier of a start than he would have wanted as issues in qualifying left him 28th fastest in the 68-car field. "It definitely wasn't the way we wanted to start the weekend, but the one good thing is that it was pretty much the only time all of Trophy Cup that this car wasn't a rocket ship because we were locked down really good after that," Allard said. "Even though the weekend didn't end how we would have liked it to either, we were really fast and have to be happy about that at least."